Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992 TAG: 9203270235
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The increase probably won't be granted by the State Corporation Commission, H. Lane Kneedler, chief deputy attorney general, said Thursday.
The companies last summer asked for a 22.1 percent increase but quickly withdrew the filing. Kneedler said his office has been recommending lower rate increases, and the SCC "has allowed much less than the industry requested."
Employers have two ways to control workers' compensation rates, he said. They can appear before the SCC to keep rates down and they can ask the General Assembly to reduce benefits paid to injured workers.
The higher rate request, filed for insurance companies by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, comes as Gov. Douglas Wilder plans to name a commission to study reforms in workers' compensation benefits, as requested by a Martinsville citizen group seeking an overhaul of state laws governing the payments.
Attorney General Mary Sue Terry on Thursday released a letter in which she asked insurance company executives to work with her office on regulatory problems in the workers' compensation field.
The insurance companies' proposed legislation to deregulate the rates was carried over until the General Assembly's 1993 session.
Terry's letter reminded the insurers they had not provided financial information she had requested to evaluate the deregulation legislation.
by CNB