Industry Custom Pricing (ICP) lets you take greater control of the premiums you pay. It's a voluntary, flexible option that allows industries to customize various features of their pricing program.
It's an industry-based option that can only be chosen if the majority of the industry agrees to change the base performance pricing program. Employers in the industry are polled, and if greater than 50% of the industry (as measured by assessable earnings) votes in favour, the ICP program will start the next rate year.
If 50% or less vote in favour of joining, the ICP program won't be implemented and the industry will stay in the standard pricing program.
Features from the standard performance pricing model that can be customized with ICP include:
- Experience ratio – This is your accident experience compared to other employers in your industry. This can be changed allowing more of your performance to be recognized.
- Participation – Every employer in the experience rating program is given a participation rate. The larger an employer is (as measured by premiums), the larger their participation factor. This can be changed to allow greater opportunities for bigger discounts or surcharges.
- Maximum discounts and surcharges – These can be increased from the standard 40% to 60%.
- Costs used to measure performance – If an industry chooses to no longer have cost relief (used to pay for claims that involve the prolonged recovery resulting from an aggravation of a pre-existing condition), the levy required to fund these costs is removed. The result? A decrease to your base industry rate and a more accurate assessment of performance within your industry.
Depending on the ICP options your industry selects, you could see a decrease in the industry base rate and larger discounts or surcharges on your account based on your performance. Employers doing well will likely pay less, and those who are doing poorly will pay more. All employers will get a lower base premium rate if the industry chooses to remove the cost relief levy.
For more information, please contact the Underwriting team by email at icp@wcb.ab.ca.
