Close Claims Before Your Mod's Valuation Date

Updated September 29, 2026

If your workers’ comp policy renews January 1, the claims behind your next experience mod are priced as of July 1, about six months earlier. If you renew July 1, the mirror applies: your claims are priced as of January 1. If you renew January 1 and you’re reading this in the fall, the July 1 date for your coming mod has passed. Next July 1 is the date that feeds the mod after it. Work toward whichever date comes next: close claims before the valuation date (the day each claim’s value is read) when they are truly finished. The other move is a second look at any open claim whose reserve, the carrier’s estimate of what it will still cost, no longer fits what’s happening on it.

How the valuation date is set

Your workers’ comp EMR (experience modification rate) is built from claims and payroll your carrier reports to NCCI in its unit statistical report, the filing that sends your policy data to the rating bureau. NCCI’s reporting rules set when each report is valued. The first report on a policy is valued 18 months after the policy starts. Each later report is valued 12 months after the one before it.

Now put that next to the rating window. NCCI’s primer uses a January 1, 2026 mod as its example: it draws on policies that started between April 1, 2021 and April 1, 2024. For a contractor who renews every January 1, that’s the policies starting January 1 of 2022, 2023 and 2024. Their reports are valued at 42, 30 and 18 months, and all three of those dates land on July 1, 2025. Six months before the mod takes effect.

Run the same math for a July 1 renewal and the reports land on January 1.

Two caveats. This follows NCCI’s plan. California, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the other states with their own rating bureau may follow different reporting rules, so check with your state bureau or your agent. And if your policy dates have shifted, from a carrier switch or a short policy term, your reports can land on different dates. Ask your agent to confirm the valuation date for your own policies rather than assuming.

What counts on that date

On the valuation date, a claim counts at its incurred value: what’s been paid plus what’s still reserved. So an open claim with a reserve that was set high early and never revisited goes into your mod at that full number, whatever you’ve actually paid.

Here’s the part that matters most for timing. If that claim settles for less the week after the valuation date, the mod built from that report doesn’t change. NCCI’s primer names reasons an issued mod gets revised, among them the state’s final rating values arriving, audited payroll or loss data the bureau was still waiting on, and ownership or combination changes. A reporting error the carrier corrects also produces a revised mod. A claim closing for less than its reserve is neither: the reserve was the carrier’s figure on the date it was read, and a later change to it isn’t an error in what was reported. The lower figure shows up in the next report, a year later, and in the mods that report feeds if that policy is still inside the rating window.

That’s why an old claim can keep hurting you for longer than it should. A claim sits in three ratings. If it sits in the first one at a stale reserve, you can’t get that year back.

Closing matters in the other direction too. Under NCCI’s reporting rules, later reports only cover claims that are open, reopened or newly arising. Once every claim on a policy is closed, later reports have nothing to update on it, and the last reported figure carries forward, unless a claim reopens or a new claim on that policy is reported.

Close claims before the valuation date when the work is done

This is a review with your carrier’s adjuster and your agent. Start it two or three months before the date so there’s time for the file to catch up.

Pull currently valued loss runs, the carrier’s list of your claims with each one’s status, paid amount and reserve. Then go claim by claim.

Claims that are finished but still open. The worker is back at full duty, treatment has ended, and nothing has been paid in months. Ask the adjuster whether anything is still pending on the file and, if not, whether it can be closed. A file can sit open when nobody asks.

Reserves that no longer fit. A reserve set in the first weeks of a claim is an estimate made with little information. If the claim has turned out simpler than it first looked, ask for a reserve review: “Can you review the reserve on this claim against its current status and expected remaining cost, before the next unit stat valuation?” The adjuster decides. Your job is to make sure someone looks. A reserve can also be too low, and a fair review can move it either way.

Subrogation. Subrogation is the carrier recovering what it paid from a third party who caused the injury, such as another company’s driver, or the maker of faulty equipment. NCCI’s rules report the loss net of what the carrier has actually recovered, less what it spent recovering it. A recovery is applied to the claim in every rating the claim is on, and NCCI allows the current rating and the two before it to be revised to reflect it. Ask whether any recovery has come in, and whether the figure the carrier reports is net of it.

Duplicates and strays. Look for two entries that describe the same injury under different claim numbers, which happens most after a carrier switch. Look for claims that belong to another entity or policy. These are errors to correct whatever the calendar says, and the ten most common worksheet errors each come with a one-line request you can send.

What not to do

Don’t push an injured worker back early, and don’t press the carrier to settle a claim cheaply just to move your mod. The goal is a file that shows where each claim actually stands on the valuation date, nothing more. A claim that is still active should stay open at an honest reserve. Your mod is the wrong reason to decide anything about someone’s injury.

Don’t sit on a reporting error waiting for the calendar, either. If the carrier reports a correction for a duplicate, a claim that isn’t yours or a claim on the wrong policy, NCCI produces a revised mod. The unit stat calendar covers the other points in your policy year worth watching.

A short list to send your agent

Two or three months before your valuation date, send one email:

• Please confirm the valuation date for the unit stat reports that will feed my next mod.
• For each open claim, can the adjuster confirm its status and review whether the reserve fits its current condition?
• Are any claims ready to close?
• Has any subrogation recovery come in, and is the reported figure net of it in each rating that claim is on?
• Do any claims appear twice, or belong to another policy or entity?

Your agent may not have every answer in one pass. The point is that the questions reach the adjuster while there’s still time for the file to change.

Checking the rest of your worksheet

The free EMR Cost & Bid Check calculator asks whether you have open claims and shows what your current mod is costing you against common bid thresholds. A full verification checks every claim, reserve and payroll line on your worksheet against your loss runs, and tells you what to send your agent and when. It’s a flat fee with no contingency, and the savings are yours. Get on the waitlist to be first in line.