Miller announces 22 percent SIIS rate reduction

Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nearly 47,000 employers enrolled in the State Industrial Insurance System will see their rates drop an average of 22 percent next April, Gov. Bob Miller announced today.

"It's a great day for SIIS and for employers," Miller told reporters, noting the system was insolvent in 1992 with a $2.2 billion debt.

The decrease to each business will vary, depending on their safety record. Douglas Dirks, general manager of SIIS, said the rate change information will be available to the employers Jan. 5 when the official rate decrease application is made.

Dirks said these will be the lowest rates seen by employers since the late 1980s. The system's debt is now about $850 million but there are enough assets to cover that, he said.

A major contributor to the good financial standing of SIIS was that 78 percent of the employers did not file any claims for injured workers last year, Miller said.

He also said there has been a major increase in the return on investments of the system, which realized about $110 million last year from its portfolio.

The 1993 and 1995 legislatures made major changes to save the system, including cutting benefits of injured workers, bringing in managed care instead of allowing employees to choose their physicians and concentrating on reducing fraud.

In July 1999, private insurance companies will be allowed to write industrial insurance policies to compete with SIIS. But Miller said SIIS "will be very competitive" with the competition.