N.H. Employers Receive Refunds on Workers Comp Policies

Insurance companies in New Hampshire have refunded $666,086 on 13,424 workers’ compensation policyholders for policies written in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny last July ordered insurers to correct for mistakes in employer class codes that were used in setting premium rates for those three years. The order applied to the rate filings prepared by the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

Late in 2004 New Hampshire insurance department staff discovered that payroll information used in calculating rates had been underreported for a number of employer class codes. The problem was uncovered during a review of rate classifications for the logging industry.

Once NCCI advised the department that other classifications were also impacted, Sevigny ordered NCCI to conduct a comprehensive review of all affected rate filings.

The New Hampshire discovery also prompted NCCI to conduct further review and conclude that similar errors occurred in all NCCI jurisdictions including Maine and Vermont.

The New Hampshire Insurance Department was selected to chair the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ NCCI Oversight Working Group, comprised of 15 states working collaboratively to address issues raised by the advent of these statistical data errors.

Source: N.H. Insurance Department