Obtaining Coverage Information from Wcirb California

• Publication year: 2020
• Author: Mary Chapman-Corning, Esq.

Obtaining Coverage Information from WCIRB California

Mary Chapman-Corning, Esq.

Oakland, California

Attorneys, claims administrators, medical providers, and other stakeholders needing to determine the identity of an employer's current or prior workers' compensation insurer in relation to a workers' compensation claim can obtain coverage information from the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB). This article provides an overview of this function of the WCIRB, as well as some tips on troubleshooting when you are having difficulty getting coverage information.

Background

The WCIRB (originally the California Inspection Rating Bureau) was formed in 1915 through the association of 16 companies writing workers' compensation insurance policies in California. Since that time, the WCIRB's membership has grown to over 400 licensed California workers' compensation insurers. Every insurance company licensed to transact workers' compensation insurance in California is required to be a WCIRB member. Operating under authority of the California Insurance Code (§11750 et seq.), the WCIRB is an unincorporated, private, nonprofit association that the Insurance Commissioner licenses and is the Commissioner's designated statistical agent.

Insurers have been reporting policy coverage information to the WCIRB since the 1930s, when they transmitted daily reports and endorsements in hard copy that the Bureau retained in permanent files. Coverage information was later kept on various media, mirroring the broader advances in technology over time: index cards, microfilm, microfiche, CD-ROM, and the database the WCIRB has used since 1995 to retain such information.

Insurers are currently required to electronically file policy coverage information with the WCIRB pursuant to the Insurance Commissioner's regulations contained in the California Workers' Compensation Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan - 1995 (Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan), Title 10, California Code of Regulations, section 2318.6. The Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan (USRP) requires insurers to report policy information to the WCIRB no later than 60 days from the inception date of the policy. This time period will be reduced to 30 days effective January 1,2021. (The USRP also requires insurers to electronically submit unit statistical report data for every workers' compensation insurance policy, including payroll, loss, and premium information used to develop pure premium rates and...