Jon Coppelman at Workers Comp Insider has written a thoughtful and incisive piece on the new WC market in West Virginia. The state had been (actually, until the middle of this year it still is) a monopolisitic state – employers had to buy their WC insurance from the state.
That’s changing to an open competitive market. The state WC fund, now known as Brickstreet, is going to be the largest carrier in WV for some time, but will inevitably lose market share as competition enters. Jon points out that managing that transition, while adequately serving the needs of existing policyholders, is going to be an incredibly complex and difficult job. Their customer base will shrink, making one of the first tasks of Brickstreet’s execs the management of staff reduction. While building a new agent service infrastructure, upgrading systems, and figuring out how to effectively compete – something they never had to worry about before.
Yikes.
Feb
20
