Maine Insurance Superintendent Eric Cioppa has announced that next year Maine employers will see rate reductions of 12 percent, the largest rate reduction in over two decades.

The Maine Bureau of Insurance approved a rate recommendation submitted by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), and the MEMIC Group, Maine’s largest workers’ comp insurer, will adopt the 12 percent decrease in average loss-cost. Cioppa said that this could save Maine businesses $27 million if all the insurers adopt the decrease. Each insurer sets its own rate level and may modify the NCCI loss costs.

Michael P. Bourque, president and CEO of the MEMIC Group, said that the decrease is due to employers and employees who have worked to reduce frequency and severity of work-related injuries. He also said that last fall MEMIC distributed $21 million in dividends to policyholders.

NCCI loss costs have represented a cumulative decrease of 59.5 percent since the state’s workers’ compensation reform in 1992.

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