The WCRIB stands for the Worker’s Compensating Rating and Inspection Bureau
Since this week there is an article on the Massachusetts Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council’s Annual Report for 2014, we thought it might be interesting to note that this year, the WCRIBMA or the Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts is celebrating its Centennial Anniversary.
The Massachusetts Rating and Inspection, as it was first called, was established on July 14, 1915, four years after the enactment of the first Workers’ Compensation Law in Massachusetts and at the urging of the then Commissioner of Insurance. A month later, the Commissioner’s Deputy Insurance Commissioner, L.G. Hodgkins, became its first general manager and by September 1915 the Massachusetts Rating and Inspection Bureau, was operational. It has continued to do so ever since.
In view of this achievement, here is what the Bureau, itself, had to say about this important anniversary:
“The WCRIBMA is proud of its 100 years of service to our members and all those who participate in the Massachusetts’ workers’ compensation system, and we look forward to providing quality service for decades to come.”
While we do not know for sure whether or not the WCRIBMA debuted its newly redesigned website this year to coincide with its 100th anniversary, the Bureau’s new and improved website launched at the beginning of this year.
An interesting snippet about the Bureau from 1916
In the Massachusetts Commissioners Report of 1916 that we obtained from the one and only Insurance Library Association of Boston, the following is an interesting insight about the creation of the Bureau:
Problem for the Insurance Commissioner to Work Out
…He finally decided to recommend to the companies the formation of a rate-making bureau along the lines laid down by the commission, and in July, 1915, the Massachusetts Rating and Inspection Bureau was organized by all the workmen’s compensation insurance companies operating in Massachusetts. It was apparent to all familiar with the situation that action of some sort was imperative to remedy the conditions that had been criticized by the commission, and equally clear that the continuation of these bad conditions in a greater or lesser degree was inevitable unless the companies and the Insurance Department should devise a remedy.
This was the conclusion, because the benefits under the act had been considerably increased; also because the old rates, on account of lack of experience under Workmen’s Compensation, were not correctly made in many cases. It was likewise apparent that a method for applying the rates uniformly to all risks should be found, and that some more complete plan for fairly discriminating between risks of the same industry where the chances for injury obviously differed should be adopted.”
