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Pennsylvania's experience mod changes

The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau (PCRB) made major changes to how the workers' compensation experience modifier is calculated. They took effect April 1, 2024. It was the first substantial update since 2004.

The changes reach the more than 60,000 Pennsylvania businesses with experience mods. Some credit mods became surcharge mods under the new system. In short, the best performers can expect lower mods and poorer performers higher ones. An employee injury now moves the mod, and the premium, more than it used to.

The experience mod uses your past injury data to forecast future risk and adjust your workers' comp premium. Before the change, the calculation counted each injury's cost up to $42,500, and the mod could swing no more than 25% in a year. The PCRB's new plan aims to reflect each business's loss ratio more closely, meaning the balance between injury costs and the premium paid.

What changed

• The premium needed to qualify for a mod dropped from $10,000 to $5,000. That made more than 21,000 additional businesses eligible for experience rating.
• The per-injury cap is no longer a flat $42,500. It now varies with the employer's size (expected losses), from $10,000 up to $300,000, so the mod tracks your actual injury history more closely.
• Effective April 1, 2026, the PCRB revised the swing limits. There is no longer a cap on decreases. Increases are capped at 40%, along with a maximum mod calculated for each business. Your mod can rise 40% or up to its calculated maximum, whichever is lower.

If you have not looked at what these changes did to your own mod, now is the time. A Master WorkComp Advisor can show you where your mod stands and how low it can go.

Download the detailed summary of changes (PDF)

Ask what it means for your mod

Where the Employer Success Program comes in

It starts with a Diagnostic and Plan. We read your loss runs, your mod worksheet and your key contracts, and we talk with the people who run the work. You get the pattern behind your claims and a short list of what's worth fixing first.

From there our claims, HR, safety and fleet people work alongside yours, and you get a Score Card at the start and every year after, measured against your own starting point.

How the program works