In my last blog post, I noted that Oklahoma enacted comprehensive workers’ compensation reform in 2013 but that the Oklahoma Supreme Court has been rolling it back.

According to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which bills itself as “the nation’s most comprehensive source for workers compensation data, insights, and solutions,” beginning Jan. 1, 2014, Oklahoma saw a 14.6 percent decrease in loss costs—the average cost of lost wages and medical payments of workers injured during their employment.

The NCCI gave much of the credit to the passage of landmark workers’ compensation reform during Oklahoma’s 2013 legislative session. 

Over the next five years (2014-2018), the average decline in loss costs was 12.7 percent, showing that Oklahoma’s work-comp reforms were having their intended results: lower premiums and less time missed by employees.

However, from 2019 to 2023 the average decline in loss costs was only 6.9 percent.

Sources: Oklahoma Insurance Department; multiple news reports