(Updated, June 30)
WARWICK – Workers’ compensation rates for 8,000 Rhode Island small businesses served by The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. will drop this fall, the company said Tuesday.
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The Warwick-based insurer said rates would drop an average of 17 percent for policies beginning or renewed as of Oct. 1, which will include about two-thirds of the company’s policyholders. Its remaining 4,000 clients’ rates will stay largely unchanged but about 300 may be increased, spokesman David Cordeiro told Providence Business News.
Beacon Mutual President and CEO James Rosati called the rate decrease an “economic stimulus package for Rhode Island.”
“Because we have taken proactive measures to ensure Beacon’s financial strength, we have been able to fulfill our mission to bring stability to Rhode Island’s workers’ compensation market and can continue to offer our policyholders affordable insurance without jeopardizing the quality of our services,” Rosati said.
Cordeiro said Beacon proposed the new rates to the R.I. Department of Business Regulation after reviewing its policies and rate structure. The department signed off on a plan to expand the number of rate tiers from two to four.
“Rhode Island’s small business community, which accounts for a large part of the state’s economy, will especially benefit from this new pricing structure,” Rosati said. “We are certainly pleased in these difficult economic times to provide a local form of economic stimulus for our policyholders. It rewards companies who invest in the safety of their employees and embrace our loss-prevention best practices.”
Beacon Mutual began as the State Compensation Insurance Fund in 1990 and now serves as the insurer of last resort for businesses unable to obtain state-mandated workers’ compensation insurance.
The insurer said that during the past four years it has reduced its rates for all policyholders by approximately 40 percent thanks in part to efforts to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency and productivity through innovation and automation.
Additional information is available at beaconmutual.com.
