Businesses that pay for workers compensation insurance in Montana will likely be paying less after, July 1. Montana State Fund provides Worker's Compensation Insurance to around 25,000 Montana businesses and President Lanny Hubbard says the board will be meeting tomorrow, March 10, to discuss rates.

"Our board will consider a potential rate reduction for Montana businesses that insure their workers compensation insurance with us," Hubbard said. "Obviously I can't say what the board will end up doing in terms of the rate decrease, but I feel very confident that Montana businesses will see another rate decrease."

The reduction is a sign that less Montanans are being injured or killed at work. Insurance providers follow the lead of the National Council on Compensation Insurance or NCCI and they recently reported a big drop in costs related to workers compensation to the Montana Insurance Commissioner.

"Insurance companies, Montana State Fund and private carriers use the NCCI loss cost as a benchmark," Hubbard said. "So, our data, that we're looking at is showing us that we are seeing some pretty positive trends in terms of reduced accident frequency, stability in the cost of claims. The NCCI actually filed a 10.7 percent decrease in their loss cost."

The rate reduction will likely not be over 10 percent because costs like overhead and taxes have to be considered. The rate has stayed flat or dropped every year since 2007. Last year, the reduction was around five percent.

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