Oakland, CA — California private self-insured employers reported fewer workers’ compensation claims in 2025, driving private, self-insured claim frequency to a 5-year low, but initial data show signs of rising claim costs according to a new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) analysis of first-report data from the state Office of Self-Insurance Plans (OSIP).

The latest data show private self-insured employers in California covered nearly 2.22 million employees in 2025, down 1.5% from the prior year. Despite the slight reduction in the covered workforce, private self-insured wages and salaries totaled nearly $152.5 billion, up 1.1% from the prior year. At the same time, the number of reported claims in the private self-insured sector fell for the third year in a row, declining 2.7% to 84,996 claims. That total is 18.5% below the 2022 peak, when thousands of COVID-19 cases pushed the private self-insured claim count up to 104,278.

Overall, private self-insured claim frequency edged down from 3.88 claims per 100 employees in 2024 to 3.83 claims per 100 employees last year, the lowest level since 2020. The Institute notes that both indemnity and medical-only claim frequency have fallen since the pandemic-era spike in COVID-related claims, with the decline in indemnity frequency contributing just slightly more to the overall reduction in private self-insured claim frequency.

Despite the declines in private self-insured claim volume and frequency, comparing the initial loss data from all 2024 and 2025 claims (medical-only and indemnity) show total paid losses remained essentially unchanged at $352.4 million. At the same time, total incurred losses (paid benefits plus reserves for future payments) rose 4.8% to $979.2 million, reflecting increases in expected claim costs, as the average incurred loss per claim increased 7.7% last year, driven largely by growth in medical reserves.

The Institute also found that both average paid and average incurred losses on private self-insured claims have been trending up for several years. Comparing first-report loss payments on all private self-insured claims from recent years, the Institute found that the average paid loss rose 2.5% to $4,147 in 2025, marking the third consecutive annual increase. Since bottoming out at $2,983 in 2022, the average paid loss has increased 39.0%. Meanwhile, the average incurred loss climbed to $11,520 last year, up 48.1% since 2022. Higher indemnity and medical losses both contributed to these increases, but rising medical losses have been the key cost driver, as the first report data from 2022 and 2025 show the average paid medical loss per claim increased 48.4% and the average incurred medical loss per claim increased 55.2%; so even with the 18.5% reduction in claim volume, total paid medical losses increased 20.9%; and total incurred medical losses increased 26.5%.

OSIP’s newly released data summary provides the first look at California private self-insured workers’ compensation experience for calendar year 2025 and includes updated experience for claims reported from 2021 through 2024. OSIP has posted its latest summary, along with those from the previous 24 years, here.

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