Nevada worker comp rates dropping

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 11:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- There's good news for the more than 45,000 Nevada employers when competition arrives next year in workers compensation insurance policies.

The National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. has recommended rates be reduced an average 10.1 percent for employers with adequate or good safety records starting next July when private insurance companies are permitted to write this business.

The 10.1 percent comes on top of a rate reduction of 22 percent in April by Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, formerly the State Industrial Insurance System.

The national council was hired by State Insurance Commission Alice Molasky-Arman to recommend the base rates that could be charged when 3-way insurance arrives. She will hold televised hearings between Las Vegas and Carson City Oct. 22-23 to allow the public to comment on the suggested rates. And she will make a decision later whether to accept, modify or reject the proposed rates.

Exact rates for many individual business won't be known until May 1999 when more calculations are completed by the national council. But the council says its suggestions, in general, will mean a 12.2 percent average premium reduction for manufacturers; 4.1 percent for contracting, 14.4 percent for office and clerical workers; 12.2 percent for goods and services businesses and 3.6 percent for miscellaneous employers.

A preliminary evaluation by the Employers Insurance Company shows premiums for casinos dropping by 31.9 percent.

Employers Insurance Company of Nevada negotiated lower rates for the services of doctors and hospitals who treat workers injured on the job; there's increased attention to safety in the workplace to cut down injuries and there's been a concentrated effort to stop fraud.