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Hearing set on workers' comp insurance rates

Florida regulators will hold a public hearing next week on a proposal that could reduce average workers’ compensation insurance rates next year by 4.9 percent.

The state Office of Insurance Regulation has scheduled the hearing at 10 a.m. Oct. 14, according to the agency’s website.

The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which makes workers’ compensation rate filings for insurers, proposed the average reduction in August.

A summary of the filing pointed to “unprecedented results” in the workers’ compensation insurance system.

“These results are due to a combination of underwriting discipline, declining frequency (of claims), moderating severity, and adequate reserves,” the organization known as NCCI said in the summary. “With few annual exceptions, frequency has continued a decades-long downward course driven by technology, safer workplaces, improved risk management and a long-term shift from manufacturing to service sectors.”

The Office of Insurance Regulation has final say about changes in rates.