NCCI Releases New Interactive Report on Workers’ Comp Frequency and Severity

NCCI recently released a new report that provides an overview of countrywide changes in lost-time claim frequency and severity -- analysis includes jurisdictions where NCCI provides ratemaking services.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts have had both direct and indirect effects on the workers compensation industry. There are more remote and short‐tenured workers in the workplace, and there has been a shift in the overall industry mix. These factors, among others, impact the overall frequency and severity of workers compensation (WC) claims.

Key findings included:

Countrywide frequency (including COVID‐19 claims) increased by nearly 3% in Accident Year (AY) 2021 after remaining relatively flat between 2019 and 2020.

AY 2021 results are preliminary and do not reflect a complete year of data.
The frequency of lost‐time COVID‐19 claims decreased in 2021, while non‐COVID‐19 claims saw a resurgence in 2021 following the atypically large drop in frequency that occurred in 2020.
Countrywide frequency (excluding COVID‐19 claims) also increased in AY 2021.

The preliminary 2021 projections from NCCI’s Annual Insights Symposium (AIS), excluding COVID‐19 experience, indicated a slight decline in lost‐time claim frequency between AY 2019 and AY 2021.
The preliminary frequency change observed in this analysis for the two‐year period from AY 2019 to AY 2021 is relatively flat.
NCCI expects that long‐term downward frequency trends will continue.
Countrywide severity (including COVID‐19 claims) increased between AY 2020 and 2021.

The increase in severity was slight (approximately 1%). There were fewer COVID‐19 claims in AY 2021, which tend to be less costly than non‐COVID‐19 claims.
Countrywide severity (excluding COVID‐19 claims) decreased between AY 2020 and 2021, nearly 3%.

The report comes both in PDF and an interactive HTML format.