Spotlight: Insurer to Reduce Some Workers’ Comp Rates

Farmers Insurance said it is reducing workers’ compensation insurance rates an average of 6% in California in selected industries and jobs: restaurants, retail stores, doctors’ offices and outpatient clinics and hotel/motel operators. Los Angeles-based Farmers said it is able to cut rates because it has reduced both costs and payouts, in part because of the introduction of its managed-care program for workers’ compensation insurance--one of the first of its type in the industry.