| Injury Data Q/A |  | |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|||||
 |
 |
||||
What is experience rating?
Every eligible employer is experience rated on an annual basis. Experience rating is the capturing of hours (exposure) and claims (losses) that occur during a period that we call the "experience period." This result will affect your business' industrial insurance rate for a calendar year. A claim will affect your experience rating for three years.
When will a claim affect your premium rates?
L&I uses fiscal year dates of July 1 - June 30 for the experience rating period. The experience rating period is a three-year period of time that ends 18 months before the calendar year (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) that your rates are affected.
| Experience period (fiscal year) | Affect your rates for this period |
|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2003 - Jun 30, 2006 | Jan 1, 2008 - Dec 31, 2008 |
| Jul 1, 2002 - Jun 30, 2005 | Jan 1, 2007 - Dec 31, 2007 |
| Jul 1, 2001 - Jun 30, 2004 | Jan 1, 2006 - Dec 31, 2006 |
| Jul 1, 2000 - Jun 30, 2003 | Jan 1, 2005 - Dec 31, 2005 |
| Jul 1, 1999 - Jun 30, 2002 | Jan 1, 2004 - Dec 31, 2004 |
The premium rates become effective January 1 each calendar year. L&I calculates the experience factor by comparing an employer's accident costs to the average costs of other companies having the same classification as that business. A new business will usually start out with a factor of 1.0 until they become experience rated. An experience factor greater than 1.0 indicates the business has had higher-than-average claim costs. A factor lower than 1.0 shows a business has had lower-than-average claim costs.
| Claims with a date of injury between: | Will impact employer's rates for calendar years (Jan 1st - Dec 31st):* |
|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2002 - Jun 30, 2003 | 2005, 2006, 2007 |
| Jul 1, 2001 - Jun 30, 2002 | 2004, 2005, 2006 |
| Jul 1, 2000 - Jun 30, 2001 | 2003, 2004, 2005 |
| Jul 1, 1999 - Jun 30, 2000 | 2002, 2003, 2004 |
| * Claims affect your premium. Rates are based on the status of the claims' OPEN and CLOSED dates as of June 1 prior to the rating year. | |
How do you know what your experience factor is?
The experience factor is printed on your Industrial Insurance Rate Notice that is sent to you when we open your account, and thereafter at the beginning of each year. Your premium rates are then determined by multiplying your experience factor by the sum of the accident fund and medical aid base rates, then adding the supplemental pension assessment.
Look up your experience factor 
.
Claim-Free Firms: What if you only have medical aid (non-compensable) claims or no claims assessed against your policy?
You will receive a claim-free discount on your experience factor if you only have medical aid or non-compensable claims on your policy. This means there were no Accident Fund costs associated with any claims during the experience rating period. If you have no claims assessed against your account, you will receive the same claim-free discount. This discount is determined by the hours at an average loss-per-hour in your reported risk classes for the experience rating period.
How is Claim Frequency calculated?
| Claim Frequency per 100 employees= | NC x 200,000 EH |
NC = Number of claims reported for employer in the fiscal year.
EH = Total exposure hours reported for employer in the fiscal year.
200,000 = hours for 100 employees at 40 hours per week; 50 weeks per year.
What is the SIC Code?
The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a federal classification system for American industry based on an establishment's, or firm's, primary activity.
What is the NAICS Code?
The North American Industry Classification System superseded the SIC. It is a federal classification system for American Industry based on an establishment's primary activity. NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America. NAICS identifies hundreds of new, emerging and advanced technology industries. And NAICS reorganizes industries into more meaningful sectors — especially in the services-producing segments of the economy. It has 6 digits compared to the 4 digits of the SIC.
There are substantial differences between the SIC and NAICS, resulting in breaks in series for industry data. Users are cautioned against making comparisons between NAICS and SIC from prior years.
For more information:
See WAC 296-17-850 - WAC 296-17-895.
