Minnesota Agencies

Oversees administration of the Minnesota Workers Compensation Insurers' Association (Data Services Association).

Please see the MWCIA website for a complete history of the Association. The following three paragraphs are taken from the Association's website on 7/13/11.

In 1921, Minnesota passed legislation establishing its own program [Wisconsin's legislature passed the first constitutionally acceptable workers' compensation law in 1911]. Injured workers were now entitled to a fixed schedule of benefits and a premium development method for employers was established. To collect the data necessary to assure adequate coverage and premium income, the new law specified that a ratemaking bureau be created by the insurers writing workers' compensation. That bureau was the predecessor of what we know today as the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Insurers Association (MWCIA).

Over the next 60 years, the bureau solely fulfilled its obligation under state statute. Regulated by the Insurance Commissioner, it gathered information from its member companies, then analyzed that information to arrive at a schedule of base rates (known in the industry as Pure Premium Rates) onto which all companies writing workers' compensation in Minnesota would add their own administrative costs to arrive at the premiums their companies would charge to employers.

It wasn't until 1981 that significant changes occurred in the system. The Legislature transformed the MWCIA from a rating bureau to a data service organization, thus expanding its role to serve a variety of workers' compensation industry needs. In that same session, the Legislature required the MWCIA to provide statistical data and support to insurance companies who, in turn, filed their own schedule of rates based on the Ratemaking Report developed annually and filed by the MWCIA.

From some time in the 1980's until approximately 1998 the Association was known as the MN Workers Compensation Insurers' Association (Rating Association).

12 members (including 2 employer representatives); appointed by commissioner of commerce; 2-year terms; expense reimbursement.