State of California's Rigorous Audit Identifies California Insurance Company as Top Performing Workers’ Compensation Insurer for 2019

Omaha -- December 15, 2020 -- The State of California’s Workers’ Compensation Profile Audit Review (PAR) exam on insurance companies placed the California Insurance Company / Applied Risk Services, Inc. (CIC) as the top option for workers’ compensation insurance in the State for 2019. This marks over a decade with California Insurance Company in the top standing. While raising the bar on insurers for their claims handling performance standards, CIC earned the best score among insurers in this objective measure of value for policyholders, including: prompt and accurate delivery of workers’ compensation benefits, claims payments, and customer relations.

According to Mr. Steve Menzies, Chairman and CEO of CIC, the objectivity of the PAR Audit makes CIC’s achievement all the more satisfying: “Performance and claims related evaluations conducted by the states and by regulators are not always objectively based upon true data, so we are delighted to have earned this distinction, again.” He continued: “It means to us that our policyholders are getting great value for their dollars and that their injured employees will be treated with excellent care.”

The recently released 2020 Report set its standard passing score at 1.36133 for claims administrators reviewed in 2019, the toughest standard ever set by the California Department of Workers' Compensation (DWC). The PAR exam score is essentially a fancy tally of exceptions, so higher scores represents poorer performance while lower scores represents superior performance. To pass in 2019, the score had to be below the 1.36133 standard. Of the 39 organizations audited in 2019, only 27 met or beat the PAR standard. CIC achieved a score of 0.77116.

Looking at the scores of insurance carriers only, here is the ranking in 2019:

Compiled by WorkCompCentral. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.

Compiling the rankings of CIC and other carriers writing workers’ compensation in California for the last 10 years shows CIC in first place as the top performer since 2009.

Compiled by WorkCompCentral. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.

The PAR score is a valuable tool for agents and their clients to understand how insurance providers perform in their workers’ compensation claims handling. It can give an agent a clear understanding of the value proposition offered by the insurer and how well injured workers will be treated.

For further information contact:
Mr. Jeffrey Silver at (402) 393-1984 or at jeffreysilver@silver-law.net.

California Insurance Company holds an A.M. Best Rating of “A”.
Ratings issuer AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of ‘A’ (Excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of ‘A’ of five companies collectively referred to as North American Casualty Group (NAC). The companies with the affirmed ratings are: California Insurance Co. (CIC), Continental Indemnity Co., Illinois Insurance Co., Texas Insurance Co. and Pennsylvania Insurance Co. All companies are domiciled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. NAC’s risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), is assessed at the strongest level, and AM Best expects it to remain at a similar level in prospective years. Balance sheet strength also benefits from the company’s strong liquidity profile, conservative investment strategy, and disciplined reserving. The ratings agency said NAC has a track record of “strong operating earnings, underpinned by its robust underwriting performance” and demonstrated by a five-year average return on equity ratio of 13.1% and a combined ratio averaging 75% (2015-2019).

Applied Underwriters (www.auw.com) and Applied Risk Services, Inc.
Applied Underwriters® is a global risk services firm that helps businesses and people manage uncertainty through its business services, insurance, and reinsurance solutions. As a company, Applied Underwriters has been distinguished by its innovative approaches to client care and by its strong financial strength. Applied Underwriters operates throughout the U.S. Its operational headquarters is located in Omaha, Nebraska.