Unlike other states, Virginia is a gross reporting state when it comes to workers compensation claims. What that means is that the gross amount of your workers compensation claim will be reported to NCCI when they promulgate your Experience Mod instead of the net amount. For example, if you have a $5,000 deductible and the total of the claim was $4,000 so you paid that entire amount out of pocket, the entire $4,000 gets reported to NCCI when they promulgate your Experience Mod since Virginia is a gross reporting state. If Virginia was a net reporting state, $0 would be reported to NCCI. So having a deductible on your Workers Compensation policy from that perspective doesn’t make any sense because it will not have any effect on lowering your Experience Mod. However, having a deductible can save you money upfront on your Workers Compensation policy through that individual carrier and when your policy renews, that individual carrier may take into account the net paid amount of claims when determining any discretionary pricing. So from that perspective it may be beneficial for you to carry a deductible. Ultimately, the decision is up to you but I’ve found that for Workers Compensation policies in Virginia, unless the carrier is willing to make a major reduction in premium, that in the majority of cases it isn’t cost effective to have a deductible.