Workers' compensation insurance premiums in New Hampshire are excessive due to price disparity, employers and business advocacy groups involved in a commission examining workers' compensation told the Concord Monitor.
Commission members wanted to make recommendations to the Legislature, including a fee schedule, but the commission is instead asking New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan to give them another year to grow a database of workers’ compensation claims and payments, according to the report.
"There's no more need to study this. There's a massive difference between general medical and workers' compensation costs," Peter McNamara, president of the Auto Dealers Association and a member of the commission, said last week, according to the report.
"It could take years to develop the database, and then further years to act on it. I don’t know how many more years the employers can handle these costs," he said.
According to the report, in 2012, New Hampshire's workers' compensation insurance costs came in at No. 9 nationwide, and that year in fact, more than $247 million was spent on workers' compensation premiums by state businesses, according to the report.
The state Insurance Department attributes these high costs to "the lack of limits on what medical providers can charge," according to the report.
Commission members, if granted an extension, told the Concord Monitor they'd like to review efforts in other states in regard to containing costs, according to the report.
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