The Delaware Court of Chancery upheld a decision by the Delaware Department of Insurance to reduce workers’ compensation rates in the state, a move regulators say will save millions of dollars.

Matt Denn

Last year, former Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn found that state employers were being overcharged for workers’ compensation coverage because the rates then in effect failed to properly account for certain cost containment measures in a state Senate bill. (Denn now serves as the state’s lieutenant governor.)

That decision was challenged by the Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau in both the Court of Chancery and Superior Court. The rating bureau disputed 6% of those figures, representing the cost savings in cases arising from occurrences prior to the law’s enactment.

With the court’s affirmation of Denn’s orders, workers compensation rates will be reduced by 6% in 2009 and 2010, and 5% in 2011, according to current Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart.

“Denn’s orders will mean millions of dollars in savings by Delaware’s businesses,” she said in a statement. “This comes on top of my approval of a partially amended rate filing imposing workers compensation rate reductions totaling 20.87% ordered by former Commissioner Denn [last year].”

Weldin Stewart added that she is “pleased that Delaware’s employers will continue to see additional substantial savings of workers’ compensation premiums while their employees will enjoy relief relative to medical fee schedules for workers’ compensation injuries during these challenging economic times.”