Fatalities while on the job have also dropped in numbers.
The Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division will likely be announcing the disability insurance rates for businesses for 2013, before the end of this month, and it will be basing the calculation on a number of factors from the previous year.
Administrator John Shilts has stated that there are three categories that make up t
he calculation.
These three disability insurance premiums calculation factors are as follows:
• Pure premiums, which are the amount based on the types of jobs in the businesses being covered and their industrial classifications.
• Premium assessment rates, which are the compensations that are collected from business policyholders by providers, or at is collected by the state directly from self-insured companies. This amount is what covers the division’s operating cost in addition to the Workers’ Compensation Board, the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Division (referred to as the OR-OSHA), as well as the parent Department of Consumer and Business Services. The general fund, which is supported by tax funds, is not drawn into this factor.
• Workers’ benefit fund, which is paid in half by the employees and half by the businesses. At the moment, the rate is 2.8 cents for every hour that is worked, which is then split evenly between the worker and the company. Beyond certain administrative costs, this money also helps to pay for some beneficiaries of employees who are killed while on the job, as well as workers who are injured.
This disability insurance news was released at the same time as the claims numbers from 2011.
Last week, the Workers’ Compensation Division released the numbers regarding the claims costs from last year, as well as other data from the system. Though an official press release was not made, they were shared with the industry.
Although there has been a 30 percent increase in the workforce in Oregon, there has been a significant drop in the number of disability insurance claims and fatalities while on the job over the length of the system’s overhaul. This bodes very well for the maintenance of a program that will involve low annual rates and monthly premiums.
