OAR 436-050-0300: Self-Insured Employer Group, Common Claims Fund

(1) Except for qualified self-insured employer groups approved by the director as exempt from security deposit requirements under OAR 436-050-0185, a self-insured employer group must establish and maintain, under the direction and control of the board of trustees and administrator, a common claims fund for the sole purpose of ensuring the availability of funds to make certain the prompt payment of all compensation and all other payments that may become due from such self-insured employer group under the workers’ compensation law. This requirement does not apply in any year in which the director applies an incurred but not reported (IBNR) factor of greater than zero percent in the determination of the self-insured employer group’s security deposit under OAR 436-050-0180. (2) The common claims fund must be maintained in an account held by an Oregon state chartered or a federally chartered bank. Government subdivisions certified as a self-insured employer group may also maintain the common claims fund in a "Local Government Investment Pool" account held by the Office of the State Treasurer. (3) Except as provided in section (6) of this rule, the balance of the common claims fund must be maintained in an amount at least equal to 30 percent of the average of the group’s paid losses for the previous four years. The full sum of the required common claims fund balance must be maintained at all times. (4) The director may require the self-insured group to increase the amount maintained in the common claims fund. (5) By March 1 of each year, a self-insured employer group must provide the director with adequate documentation to validate the balance in the common claims fund or notice that the amount calculated under section (3) or (6) of this rule must be included in the determination of the self-insured employer group’s security deposit under OAR 436-050-0180. The director may require a self-insured employer group to provide documentation of the common claims fund balance more frequently. (6) For governmental subdivisions certified as a self-insured employer group, the balance of the common claims fund must be maintained in an amount at least equal to 60 percent of the average of the group’s yearly paid losses for the previous four years.