For decades, the WCIRB has published “Rulings and Interpretations” as a supplement to the Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan and its pre-1995 predecessor, the Unit Statistical Plan. The “R&I’s” were printed on yellow pages – perhaps an unintended comment about their usefulness. (For those who don’t remember the days before internet searches, telephone directory “Yellow Pages” were important!)

One the one hand, the “R&Is” were unofficial. They carried no formal legal weight or authority because, unlike the USRP/USP, they had never been approved/adopted by the Insurance Commissioner. They were intended only to “guide” insurers. Yet, on the other hand, they reflected “standard [virtually invariable] practice” among insurers, reflecting the WCIRB’s view of proper rule interpretation and expected practice in matters the rules didn’t address.  As such, the R&Is have long carried great persuasive weight in policyholder appeals to the Department of Insurance. Because they have remained “unofficial” and unapproved, never subject to public hearing or comment, they have been criticized by some (including this writer) as constituting illegal “underground regulations.”

The WCIRB is finally considering scrapping the R&Is as such. If it decides to proceed, those provisions deemed still useful would be proposed to the Insurance Commissioner as amendments to the regulations. They would then be subject to public hearing, testimony, and other comment.

At a recent WCIRB Classification and Rating Committee meeting, an insurer member expressed concern that a regulatory hearing on the R&Is might delay or impede consideration of the pure premium rates presumably filed at the same time. The Department of Insurance representative responded that the WCIRB could propose the R&I-incorporating rule changes via a separate filing made earlier than the (usually Fall) pure premium rate filing.

Such a stand-alone rule filing would present a wonderful and perhaps unprecedented opportunity for both careful, contextual regulatory consideration and public comment on a wide range of issues that, with the usual focus upon rates, never really receive due attention.