The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office was awarded $898,840 from to investigate prosecute workers’ compensation fraud for the fiscal year.
The grant, awarded through the California Department of Insurance, funds the DA’S Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit. The unit includes prosecutors, investigators, an investigative assistant, a forensic accountant and an administrative assistant.
The unit handles a range of insurance fraud cases, including fraudulent claims filed by employees, premium fraud committed by businesses that underreport payroll or misclassify employees to lower insurance premiums, and complex fraud schemes.
The grant also supports enforcement efforts, including sting operations targeting businesses that operate without workers’ comp coverage.
According to an analysis by the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board, the final result reflects claim severity and claim frequency indicates a decrease in claim frequency, and upward trends in both indemnity and medical claim costs. Combined with a projected wage trend, the final selected net future rend factor is -23.2%.
The combined effect of benefit level changes contributed an increase of 2.4% to the overall change.
Although the average manual loss cost level is decreasing, the effect varies by individual class. Increases and decreases from the current loss costs have been calculated for each class.
According to a biennial analysis by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, New York had among the highest workers’ compensation rates in 2024. The study showed Hawaii had the most expensive rates, followed by New Jersey, New York and California. Meanwhile, North Dakota had the least expensive rates.