The City continues to work to control losses and limit exposure in the workers compensation self-funded program by working closely with internal departments and meeting monthly with the third party administrator of claims and the managed care organization to manage claims and risk as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. In marketing the City excess insurance policy this year, staff continues to be challenged with high Self Insured Retention levels for Police and Fire, which has been steadily increasing across the board for public entities in Nevada. There is an extremely limited market for companies willing to offer excess insurance for workers’ compensation programs that include Police and Fire in Nevada due to the presumptive benefits (Heart/Lung/Cancer/Hep C) mandated by state law.

A spreadsheet detailing the policies is attached. In summary, premium changes from the previous policy period are as follows: Premium: Slight decrease of $ 4,164 Self-Insured Retention: $2,000,000 per claim or occurrence for Police/Fire; $1,500,000 per claim for all other employees The total estimated premium depicted on the attached spreadsheet may be adjusted upward or downward, depending on variations in actual exposures throughout the course of the policy year.

Coverage Changes Self-Insured Retention: The Self-Insured Retention levels offered for Police Fire has risen in response to the risk exposure from Nevada law that mandates presumptive coverage of heart disease, lung disease, and certain cancers and communicable diseases. There are a number of factors impacting the rising costs of this legislatively mandated coverage. For example, medical inflation, average monthly wage inflation, legal provision for scheduled annual increases in wage compensation, and expanded benefit coverage by legislative changes and supreme court case law all influence the claims liability for the City and the excess insurance carrier. While the Self-Insured Retention increase for Police and Fire is significant, staff believes this is the best policy available in the limited marketplace for excess insurance for the workers’ compensation program.