TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Workers' compensation insurance rates will jump 14.5 percent starting Dec. 1, after a filing Tuesday that carried out a decision by state regulators.
The National Council on Compensation Insurance, which submits rate requests for workers' compensation insurers, made the filing.
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The organization, commonly known as NCCI, initially requested a 19.6 rate hike, but the state Office of Insurance Regulation last week trimmed the increase to 14.5 percent. NCCI was required to filed revised numbers that matched the regulators' decision.
The rates are going up largely because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling in April that said the state's strict limits on attorneys' fees in workers' compensation cases were unconstitutional.
The increase is expected to prompt a debate during the 2017 legislative session about changes in the workers' compensation system, with business groups arguing that higher rates will hurt employers.