Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara approved without changes the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s regulatory filing for September 1, 2021. The filing updated the expected loss rates for the system’s 500+ classifications and cleared the way for the calculation of new employer X-Mods.
The rating bureau will be making the final computations, and Compline will begin daily distribution as soon as they are available. The experience rating threshold is also changing from $9,900 in expected losses to $9,500.
The Bureau is a private organization with quasi-governmental responsibility. It is financially supported exclusively by insurance carriers in whose interests it operates.
The regulations eliminate six classifications/subclasses in the iron or steel erection classifications and reassign the operations into one of two consolidated classes – one for structural iron or steel operations and the other for non-structural iron or steel operations. There was no opposition expressed during the public comment period, and no one testified on the changes at a public hearing. The new consolidated classes are 5040, covering all structural iron and steel erection operations, and 5102 Iron, Steel, Brass, Bronze, or Aluminum Erection – non-structural. Eliminated are classes 5057 and 5059, as well as subclasses 5102(3), 5040(2), and 5040(3).
The 8110 Stores classification covering welding supplies is also going away. Covered operations are being reassigned to a reworked 8010 Stores classification covering hardware, electrical, or plumbing supplies.
The approved regulations also establish new maximum payroll limits beginning September 1, 2022, for eight additional classes. The maximum payroll will be set at $144,300, and the change will be prorated based on the number of weeks in the policy period when the policy is in force for less than 12 months. The new limited classes will be:
- 8601(1) Engineers
- 8601(2) Oil or Gas Geologists or Scouts
- 8601(4) Forest Engineers
- 8741 Real Estate Agencies
- 8749 Mortgage Bankers
- 8801 Credit Unions
- 8808 Banks
- 8822 Insurance Companies.
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