How Group Rating Works
(Information courtesy of the BWC)

A group rating plan allows employers who operate similar businesses to group together to potentially achieve lower premium rates than they could individually through the state fund. While every employer’s situation is unique, group rating could save an employer as much as 77% on premiums (beginning July 1, 2009).

Each group is sponsored by an organization, such as the OMA. Each sponsoring organization requires members to pay a membership fee.

The sponsoring organization must submit a safety plan to BWC each year. The group must demonstrate common purpose and possess results from safety and loss-control practices.

The sponsoring organization forms the group and has control over which members will participate. BWC adjusts rates for group members taken as a whole, as if the group was one big company. Each year, BWC reviews each group rating application to ensure that each group meets the criteria for group rating.

Participation in group rating

To participate in a group rating plan, companies must meet the following criteria:

• Be current on all undisputed premiums, administrative costs, assessments, fines or monies otherwise due to BWC;
  • More specifically, you must be current, not more than 45 days past the due date on any and all amounts due BWC, by the group rating application deadline. The only exception is if you submit in writing a dispute of the obligation to BWC's Adjudicating Committee detailing the reason for objection and supporting documentation.
• Be current on the payment schedule for any scheduled part-pay agreement you've entered into to pay premiums or assessments otherwise due BWC as of the application deadline;
• Not have cumulative lapses in workers' compensation coverage of 59 days in the past 18 months preceding the application deadline;
• Be in an active status as of the application deadline. Employers who become active and obtain coverage or who lapse and do not reinstate their coverage by April 1 after the application deadline cannot participate in group rating;
• Not be a member of more than one group. If you apply for more than one group on a valid group rating application, BWC may reject you for all groups.

Once you meet that criteria, apply for group rating through a trade association or other organization of which you are member.

For the groups, they must demonstrate a common purpose and possess proven results from safety and loss-control practices. This helps confirm that the group's loss experience will differ from an individual employer's experience.

BWC adjusts rates for groups that use experience-rating credibility tables appropriate to the employers taken as if the group was one big company. The group rating plan is an annual plan for the rating of a policy year.

The largest possible discount for a group rating program is 77% (beginning July 1, 2009).

Program deadlines for private and public employers differ.  For private employers, BWC must receive applications from the group sponsors by the last business day of February of the rating year for which they are applying.