Preferred Employers Joins CWCI

Preferred Employers Insurance Company, a San Diego-based carrier that recently received its license to write workers' compensation insurance in California, has joined the California Workers' Compensation Institute. Membership in the Oakland-based Institute will allow Preferred Employers to participate in workers' compensation research, generate claims data, benchmark their performance against industry averages, and to keep abreast of and help direct changes to California's $9 billion a year workers' compensation program.

CWCI President Edward Woodward said Preferred Employers' decision to join the Institute is particularly timely, noting that the company will join with other carriers and self-insured employers in several new studies to assess the effect of recent, systemwide changes.

As a new carrier in the California market, the Institute will provide the company with both the opportunity and the means to track their performance so they can identify ways to improve their operations and effect positive systemwide change. Woodward cited several examples of current and upcoming Institute research, including CWCI's Industry Claims Information System (ICIS), which incorporates data from claim frequency and fraud surveys, a comprehensive study of medical, indemnity, rehabilitation and litigation (MIRL) data from individual claims; and the Claims Monitoring survey (CMoS), a multi-year analysis designed to gauge the impact of 1993 reforms and other changes in claim cost drivers over time.

The addition of Preferred Employers brings CWCI membership to 56 insurers, representing 95 percent of statewide premium, as well as 12 major self-insured employers.