ALBANY — New York’s workers-compensation premium rates were fifth-highest in the nation this year, up from 13th-highest two years ago and 50 percent above the national average, a study by Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services found.
Spokesmen for Gov. Cuomo noted he ordered a 1.2 percent reduction in rates over the summer.
Workers Compensation Policy Institute director Paul Jahn said rates are only part of costs and the state’s premium tax, which helps fund the system, remains more than four times the national average.
Ken Pokalsky of The Business Council of New York State said the state took too long to implement the cost-cutting elements of workers-comp reforms approved by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007.
The state didn’t issue guidelines for medical treatment for nearly three years and for limiting the duration of partial disability payments until last year, Cuomo’s first, he said.
While injured-worker insurance costs for New York businesses jumped by more than 20 percent since 2010, the average state’s dropped by 8 percent.