Search Our Site

A filing up for review this month by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation could reduce workers' compensation premiums by just over 9 percent for businesses. Workers' compensation premiums totaled about $3.8 billion in 2016, according to the NCCI. Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner David Altmaier is expected to consider the filing by the end of the month. Click here to read more:

Fewer workers are filing workers’ compensation claims, helping lower the costs Florida employers will pay for insurance next year. How big of a reduction in rates will be decided by Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, who held a rate hearing Wednesday in Tallahassee. The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which proposes rates on behalf of all workers’ compensation carriers, has proposed an overall average 9.6 percent reduction in premiums for 2018. Click here to read more:

State Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier has ordered a 9.8 percent decrease in the premiums businesses pay for workers' compensation insurance beginning next year. He also ordered the National Council on Compensation Insurance to include in all future recommended rate filings a “quantitative analysis” of the impact that eliminating attorney-fee caps have had on the workers' compensation system. NCCI is an organization that files recommended rates on behalf of insurance companies. Click here to read more:

Medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in Florida remained stable in 2015 following moderate growth from 2010 through 2014, according to a recent study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The study, CompScope™ Medical Benchmarks for Florida, 18th Edition, examined medical payments, prices, and utilization in Florida and compared them with 17 other states over a period from 2010 through 2015. Click here to read more:

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis today announced the recent arrest of Jeovane Felizardo, owner of JJF Construction Services, LLC, after a workers' compensation fraud investigation revealed that Felizardo allegedly used various local money service businesses to cash checks in an alleged attempt to illegally conceal his total payroll from his workers’ compensation insurance provider to avoid higher premium costs. Click to read more:

After Abednego de la Cruz sliced his finger to the bone cutting concrete blocks while building a fire station in Tallahassee, his boss fired him and refused continued medical care for his injury. De la Cruz, a 37-year-old father whose dominant hand remains damaged, thought he could rely on the workers’ compensation system, which requires employers to cover medical care and lost wages for injured employees. Instead, his employer called the police and had him arrested. The undocumented immigrant now faces almost certain deportation and fears he won’t be able to raise his 1-year-old, U.S.-born daughter. Click to Read More:

A Tallahassee business owner was arrested for failing to provide the state-mandated workers' compensation benefits to his employees. Michele Andrea Bertoldi, 48, was released from the Leon County Detention Center on Sunday on a $5,000 bond. Click to read more:

A Florida construction company owner has been arrested after allegedly providing fictitious information when applying for workers’ compensation insurance coverage to obtain a lower premium, according to a statement from Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Maria Cristina Romero Zelaya, owner of Miochosis Construction, Inc. is accused of illegally avoiding paying more than $700,000 in premium payments and leaving her employees uninsured and vulnerable to workplace injuries, the statement says. Click to read more:

For the longest time, injured workers in Florida were basically at the mercy of the whims of employers to treat them fairly. A 2003 law aimed at reducing the cost of workers’ compensation coverage for businesses had the desired impact, but it also discouraged attorneys from getting involved in workers’ comp cases and resulted in a drop in the number of claims. Then the Florida Supreme Court ruled in two 2016 cases on behalf of workers’ rights, causing the pendulum to swing back in the direction of employees and resulting in significant rate increases for employers. The Florida Legislature is again proposing reforms, but it needs a more prudent and equitable approach. Click to read more:

Florida employees who use fake IDs and identities no longer would face a felony workers' comp fraud charge and would receive benefits under a proposal lawmakers are considering that would benefit unauthorized immigrants. The current workers' compensation law in Florida, passed in 2003, makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for a job or benefits using false identifying information such as Social Security numbers. Click to read more:

An investigation by NPR and ProPublica found out that over 560 undocumented workers in Florida who had not even filed for workers' compensation claims were charged with fraud. Lawmakers in the U.S. are pushing for a new bill aimed at curbing undocumented workers' exploitation by employers and insurance companies. Click to read more:

One of the biggest impacts on the cost of your workers’ compensation program is your experience modification factor. This item is calculated each year by the National Council on Compensation insurance for all insureds within the State of Florida. To offer out a very simplistic explanation, it is calculated based on your premium history along with your expected and actual (total incurred) losses. It is important for you to understand that your total incurred losses include paid claims and reserves, as of the time of the data transmission, which is approximately six months prior to your renewal date. If your claims are over-reserved at that time, this can lead to a higher than necessary experience rating factor. Since your final premium is determined by multiplying the base premium by the experience rating factor, this can result in an unnecessary increased cost to you next year. WCA will contact you when a claim first occurs to find out in your words exactly what happened. We will also listen to any concerns you have and answer any questions. We will relay this information to the adjuster and then stay in regular contact with the adjuster to make sure the claim is running smoothly. We will also contact you when issues become present or have questions or concerns. We encourage you to stay in touch with our office as well. We will work closely with the adjuster to make sure that claims are closed as quickly as possible and reserves are kept at a minimum at all times. This way, when the NCCI inserts your payroll, premium, classifications, and claim information into the formula to compare your company to your industry in Florida, your experience rating is an accurate recollection of your firms history and claims. NCCI will mail you a letter usually a couple months before your renewal date. Do not throw it out. The letter contains your unique Risk ID and a PIN. With these two numbers, you can download your upcoming experience rating worksheet and review it. While the worksheets can be very confusing, we are more than happy to review it for accuracy and discuss it with you. Here is a link to their Worksheets on Demand Service: Click Here: So much goes into the experience rating. It is difficult to explain it in a short article. Here is the link to the different articles and video's on experience rating: Click here If you have questions, please call us at (561) 500-FLWC (3592). This is one of the many services provided by Work Comp Associates, Inc.