California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

NU Online News Service, Sept. 26, 1:38 p.m. EDT

Workers’ compensation lost-time claims increased 3 percent last year, the first increase in such claims since 1997, the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. reports today.

The Boca Raton, Fla.-based association released its 2011 Workers Compensation Claim Frequency report saying the Great Recession of 2007-2009 may have had an impact on workers’ compensation claims frequency.

NCCI says the 3 percent increase, which was adjusted to reflect economic factors, marks the only the third time in 20 years that frequency has increased.

Prior to this year’s increase, the report says, claim-frequency rates had fallen more than 56 percent, at an average decrease of over 4 percent a year.

The report says that “a number of recession-related factors may have put upward pressure on the [Accident Year] AY 2010 frequency measure, including an increase in new hires as the recovery began to take hold and a possible influx of small lost-time claims that may have been medical-only claims in previous years.”

There was no change in indemnity and medical average costs per lost-time claim for the year, the report says.

Among some of the economic reasons given for the increase:

• A modest increase in the job market of new hires can translate into increased frequency as new hires tend to have higher claim frequency over long-term workers.
• Workers who put off filing workers’ comp claims may now be filing those claims as the economy improves as fears that they could lose their jobs diminish.
• There is evidence that small lost-time claims rose because there were less available light-duty jobs available. In the past, those claims would have been classified medical-only claims. NCCI says it is researching the issue further.