A report from the New York Worker’s Compensation Alliance shows that workers compensation costs in the state have dropped in the last twenty years. The report also shows that workers compensation is shrinking as an overall expense for employers.
The NYWCA is a coalition of injured workers and other stakeholders that work towards the goal of protecting injured worker’s rights. With the intense focus on the cost of worker’s compensation costs in the State the report highlights the actual decrease in costs by 30% in the last two decades.
The report states that worker’s compensation costs for New York businesses could be made lower if insurance companies were required to provide justified and verified costs of insurance rate premiums but the State’s costs are still comparable to other states including Connecticut, New Jersey, and California.
New York businesses as well as the insurance providers have long been claiming compensation costs are too high and that injured workers are at fault. However the chairman of the NYWCA stated that worker’s compensation in the State is ‘cost-efficient and any increased costs in the system have come from excess insurer profit’.
Chairman Robert Grey also said that there is a lack of accountability concerning the insurance carriers. The unnecessary costs to employers in the state are directly related to the insurance providers desire for increased profit.