What is the WCRB and What Do They Do?

Manually Calculated Rate

The classifier's accumulated experience determines the "manual rate" for each classification. The manual rate, or premium per payroll unit, is just the "usual" cost of presenting the group's "average" circumstances.

Typical Cost

The "normal" cost is determined by the group's experience with both more and less "risky" services and does not take into account a company's success in avoiding workplace hazards.

Rate on an Average

The "average" rate is modified to reflect the degree of safety inherent in each employer's business processes, as determined by their experience. The average rate is adjusted in percentage terms by crediting or debiting the experience ranking adjustment depending on how much better or worse a company's experience is compared to the group average.

When a risk produces a qualifying premium based on payrolls or other exposures recorded in accordance with the Wisconsin Worker's Compensation Statistical Plan Manual, the risk qualifies for intrastate experience ranking (WI Statistical Plan Manual). A certifying premium is earned when payrolls or other direct exposures developed during the last year or last two years of the experience period generate a premium equal to at least twice the Experience Rating Eligibility amount displayed in the WCRB's Miscellaneous Values Table; or when exposures from more than the last two years of the experience period generate, at the time of certification, a pre-certified premium.

The Insurance Commissioner's Office, in collaboration with the Department of Workforce Advancement's Worker's Compensation Division and the Wisconsin Compensation Score Bureau, maintains that employers are prohibited from encouraging or excusing experts, representatives, or insurance companies from paying any portion of medical and/or indemnity expenses resulting from work-related injuries. The insurance industry must be notified of any worker's compensation injury claims.