professional employer organizations (i.e., employee leasing companies or so-called “PEOs”), health care, temp workers, etc.) to be sold through licensed insurance brokers, (ii) outsourcing claims and safety management to nationally qualified third-party administrators to focus on fairly processing claims while mitigating fraud, (iii) engaging safety consultants to provide written and on-site training and management to clients to minimize injuries while reducing premium costs to its policy holders. Workers’ compensation insurance premiums in California alone were $7.1 billion in 2010, an increase of 3% over the previous year. According to the National Association of Insurance Carriers' (NAIC) data, the top workers compensation insurer in the state last year was the California State Compensation Insurance Fund with $1.14 billion in written premiums and a market share of 16%, followed by Zurich Financial Services Group (No. 2), Travelers Insurance Group (No. 3), American International Group Inc. (No. 4), and Hartford Fire & Casualty Group (No. 5).1

Workers compensation insurers’ written premiums in California increased to $11.3 billion during 2011, according to a Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California report released in February, 2012. California’s average insurer rate, meanwhile, rose to $2.37 per $100 of payroll for policies written during the first nine months of the year.2 This projects to premiums of $12 billion for the year 2012, an increase of 69% over 2010.