Agency tackles workers' comp costs.(Workers' compensation)(Brief Article)

In the face of rising workers' compensation rates, one Alaska insurance agency says it has created an innovative solution for hundreds of Alaskan business owners.

CHI of Alaska, an Anchorage-based agency, teamed up with the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association (CHARR) in 1997 to create a workers' comp insurance plan that would return cash dividends to members who buy the insurance. The program is modeled after similar programs in other states, but it is the first such program to work in Alaska.

"Everybody else said it couldn't be done because the (Alaska) market was too small," said Mike Dennis, vice president of CHI of Alaska. Dennis worked closely with the former owner of Humpy's in Anchorage, a CHARR member, in 1997 to create the dividend program. Rates have soared since the mid-1990s and Alaska now has the highest workers' compensation rates in the nation.

Dale Fox, CHARR executive director, said members who buy their workers' comp insurance through CHI of Alaska pay premiums as they would with any other policy. In the CHI of Alaska program, however, premiums paid by all participants are pooled together. If claims against the policy don't outweigh premiums, the difference is returned to business owners as a dividend.

Fox said the CHARR program has returned dividends worth several thousand dollars to some members for the past two years. The number of businesses in the program continues to grow; since last year, the pool grew nearly 300 percent bringing in more than $1.5 million in revenue to the insurer.

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