In an effort to curb skyrocketing workers’ compensation costs, Oklahoma lawmakers passed comprehensive work comp reform that went into effect in 2014. Early on, the returns were positive: the per-employee cost to purchase workers’ compensation insurance fell by 33 percent over the next three years. 

Then the Oklahoma Supreme Court stepped in and began unwinding those reforms starting in 2016. 

As the graph below shows, starting in 2016 the speed at which the cost of workers' compensation premiums fell began to slow.

Source: https://www.wcc.ok.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/2088/638549257138200000; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OKNA

OCPA’s judicial scorecard highlights five instances since 2016 in which the Oklahoma Supreme Court chipped away at the reforms. Over the next eight years, workers’ compensation costs fell by only 28 percent, which is 5 percentage points less than in the first three years after the reforms were enacted.