Cathy Osten

Senator Osten Welcomes Ninth-Straight Drop In Workers’ Comp Costs For Ct Businesses Thanks To 2014 Legislation

HARTFORD – State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) today welcomed the news that workers’ compensation costs for Connecticut businesses will drop for the ninth-straight year in a row, reflecting a business-friendly change in the law that Sen. Osten proposed and led the successful passage of in 2014.

Governor Ned Lamont announced today that the Connecticut Insurance Department has approved an annual filing effective January 1, 2023 with decreases of 3% to workers’ compensation pure premium loss costs, with no change in rates for assigned risk.

Since the Democrat-led changes to the workers’ compensation law took effect in 2015, Connecticut businesses have saved about a third of a billion dollars in wage replacement and medical treatment for employees who are injured, disabled, or killed in the workplace.

“Senate Bill 61 in 2014 forever changed the way Connecticut businesses pay for workers’ compensation insurance, without affecting the quality of care that employees receive. This is one of the great, unsung business cost-savings stories in recent Connecticut history, and it all began with Democrats on the Labor Committee,” Sen. Osten said

Senate Bill 61 – which at its public hearing was praised by business groups and opposed by hospitals – requires hospitals to negotiate with and charge businesses medical fees that are based on a cheaper Medicare-based formula, instead of a hospital’s outrageously expensive published, billable cost for various medical procedures.

For instance, the change in the law meant that business owners would now pay insurance premiums based on the $14,000 ‘Medicare’ price of a shoulder surgery, instead of a private hospital’s $44,000 ‘list’ price – a 300% cost savings.