Dupage Policy Journal

Glendale Heights is changing insurance carriers for workers’ compensation cases after the previous company sought a significant increase in premiums.

After the Village saw an increase in such cases over the past year, Safety National—the Village’s previous policy underwriter—was looking to increase its premium rate by $150,000.

The new carrier’s policy comes with a price tag of $136,227.

“And just to remind the board, we’ve had two significant employee injuries this year, and that’s the cause of the increase in our premium,” Village Manager Douglas Flint said at the Nov. 17 board meeting. “So as injuries reduce hopefully next year, premium should go down along with that.”

The Village Board heard a presentation about renewing the policy, which has a renewal date of Dec. 1. The Village recently joined the Illinois Risk Management Trust, and all municipal policies under that trust have the same Dec. 1 renewal date.

The Village changed from Safety National because the increased premium was beyond what the Village deemed reasonable. The new contract’s cost of $136,227 is still higher than the previous year’s rate, but not so significantly. Premium rates are driven, in part, by how much the insurance company has to pay out over the course of the term.

Besides limiting the premium increase, the Village will also see lower deductibles. Under the former provider, the Village’s deductible for each case was $600,000. Under the Illinois Risk Management Trust, the new deductible is $300,000.

In conjunction with being part of the trust group, the Village will be taking some risk-reduction steps. Although the Village saw more claims in the past year, most still ended up coming in under $300,000.