California’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) released their report on workers’ compensation losses and expenses in 2018. Medical payments and losses declined slightly from last year’s report.

In 2018, $4.6 billion, or 55 percent of total loss payments, were for medical services. This includes an estimated proportion of loss payments made by CIGA for medical benefits during 2018. In 2017 that figure was $4.7 billion. The ratio of earned premiums fell 10 percent to 82 percent of earned premium in 2018, down from 92 percent in 2017.

Of the medical payments made in 2018, $1.2 billion went to physician services, $1.5 billion went directly to injured workers, $0.6 billion went to inpatient/outpatient services, $0.1 billion went to pharmaceuticals and $0.3 billion went to medical-legal evaluations.

In 2018 the total paid cost of medical cost containment programs was $426 million, down from $443 million in 2017. Indemnity benefits made up 45 percent of total loss payments, or $3.8 billion.

Total insurer combined losses and expenses in 2018 were $14.3 billion (82 percent of calendar year premium) compared to 2017’s $16.2 billion (92 percent of calendar year premium).

Read the full report from WCIRB.