Experience rating programs

Your 2020 premium rates were set using your paid claims experience for injuries or illnesses from 2013 to 2018. If you were a part of an experience rating program, your 2016, 2017 and 2018 experience rating assessments were considered for your 2020 premium rates.

Experience rating assessment issued in 2019 and 2020 were not included in your 2020 rates calculation.

Also important to note:

• If a business is eligible for NEER in 2018, then your first NEER statement, a system generated statement issued quarterly to all NEER businesses that includes claims information for monitoring purposes, was issued in 2019, and was not included in your 2020 premium rate calculation.
• Our new premium rate-setting model came into effect on January 1, 2020, and businesses will receive their final NEER and CAD- 7 statements in the fall of 2020.  NEER statement will include any adjustments based on the first assessment of their 2019 claims, second assessment of their 2018 claims, third assessment of their 2017 claims and fourth assessment of their 2016 claims. CAD7 statement will include any adjustment based on the first assessment of 2019 and second assessment of 2018. These would be the final assessments for each of these accident years.
• 2020 is the final review year for businesses in the NEER and CAD -7 programs. All businesses that transitioning out of MAP into NEER or CAD7 will not be included in the assessment. 
   

Any rate adjustment under the existing experience rating programs is applicable only to years preceding implementation of the new model. We use claims experience from these years to set future premium rates. This means that the experience for these years is not being double-counted. We simply use it as a guide to future rate-setting. This rate-setting approach is the same approach used under the current system for setting rate group rates.

No, since we are moving to a prospective rate setting approach, there will be no rebates or surcharges under our new model. The rates you pay under the new model will better reflect your individual claims experience, making experience rating programs unnecessary.

Yes, we considered your 2016 to 2018 premium rate adjustments under the NEER, CAD-7 and MAP programs and your claims experience from 2013 to 2018, to determine 2020 premium rate. The 2019 and 2020 experience rating assessments will have no impact on your future rate.

All allowed claims will be considered when calculating your rate under the new model, including claims with “zero costs.” It is important to note that certain claims will be excluded at the employer level. For example, specific long-latency occupational disease claims will be excluded. As well, certain high cost claims will be capped based on an employer’s per claim cost limit. These concepts exist as well in the current experience rating programs.

Both lost-time and no lost-time claims lead to benefit payments under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. As a result, we use both types of claims for the determination of an employer’s predictability and actual claims cost.

Note: The impact of a single claim will vary by business depending on the class a business belongs to, their individual risk and other parameters as defined by the new model.

Only claims costs paid are included in the calculation of your rate. Concepts such as reserve factors and loading factors will not be used under our new rate-setting model. You can request an extended statement that will provide you with details on how your individual premium rate was calculated, the adjustments made based on your claims experience and a breakdown of your claims costs.

To request an extended statement:

• Email experiencerating@wsib.on.ca or employeraccounts@wsib.on.ca
• Call 1-800-663-6639
• Contact experiencerating@wsib.on.ca if you have questions about your final NEER or CAD7 statement.

If your experience rating assessment (CAD7 or NEER) results in a surcharge, the debit will still be applied to your account. Under WSIB’s financial relief package, you can defer the payment of your surcharge amount until 2021. 

All businesses that chose to participate in the financial relief package will have until June 30, 2021 to repay deferred amounts, interest-free. Deferred amount payments can be made by June 30, 2021.

We recognize that some businesses may require longer repayment terms due to the ongoing pandemic. If you require additional support once the repayment period has started, please contact us and we will be happy to work with you.

Using March 31, 2020 as the cutoff date ensures that businesses receive potential rebates and surcharges that best reflect the approximate adjustments they likely would have received in future years had the NEER program continued.

Treating claims for injury years 2017, 2018 and 2019 on the September 2020 statement as inactive if no benefits were paid after March 31, 2020, provides a balance between the amount of expected refunds and financial prudence to ensure against overpayment of refunds. 
 

Under the NEER plan a claim is considered active once non-health care benefits have been paid after January 1 of the review year. If non-heath care benefits have been paid prior to March 31, and the claim in question continues to receive health care benefits after March 31, the claim remains active.