Insurance Class Codes for NEMT: Workers' Comp and General Liability

Every workers’ comp policy sorts your payroll into class codes, one for each kind of work. The code decides the rate, and the rate for a van driver runs many times the rate for someone who only answers phones. Put a worker in the wrong class and you pay for it at renewal or at the year-end audit.

What a workers’ comp class code is

A class code is a four-digit number with a short description of a business or a job. In most states a rating bureau writes the descriptions, and your insurer assigns the code that fits each group of your workers. In California, the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) explains that premium starts with your insurer’s rate for each class times the payroll in that class, and that rates are applied per $100 of payroll.

The bureau also publishes a starting figure for each class: a pure premium rate in California, a loss cost in Pennsylvania and in NCCI states such as West Virginia. That figure covers expected claim costs, not the insurer’s overhead, so the rate on your quote is usually higher. West Virginia’s insurance department puts it plainly: the final rate is the class loss cost times the insurer’s loss cost multiplier.

NEMT class codes by state

Drivers and office-only staff land in different classes in every state below, and the driver class costs far more. Figures are per $100 of payroll and leave out your insurer’s expenses. Washington’s are the state fund’s own base rates per hour worked.

State and bureau	Driver class	Office-only class
California (WCIRB)	7382, $8.309 (September 1, 2026)	8810, $0.214
Pennsylvania (PCRB)	0828, $2.593 (April 1, 2026)	0953, $0.050
New York (NYCIRB)	No NEMT class. 8394 covers bus and ambulance companies.	8810
West Virginia (NCCI)	7370, $1.268, or 7382, $1.055 (January 1, 2026)	8810, $0.045
Washington (L&I)	1404, $2.0322 an hour (2026)	4904, $0.2223 an hour

California

Class 7382, Bus, Shuttle Van or Limousine Operations, covers paratransit for elderly or disabled riders who do not require medical supervision in transit. Rides with medical supervision go in 7332, Ambulance Services, at $3.658 as of September 1, 2026. The 7382 figure rose from $7.930 to $8.309 on that date.

Your premium is built on your insurer’s own filed rate, not the pure premium rate. In the Department of Insurance’s March 2026 list of base rates filed by the top 50 insurers, 7382 ran from $3.47 to $45.14 per $100 of payroll, with the middle of the list at $15.86. Class 8810 ran from $0.16 to $1.30, with the middle at $0.43.

Pennsylvania

Code 0828, Paratransit Service, lists transportation services for the elderly and for the handicapped in its underwriting guide (version of September 25, 2026). An ambulance service staffed by salaried employees is 0807, and the bus code, 0817, sends paratransit companies to 0828. Insurers file their own loss cost multiplier with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

New York

The NYCIRB Classification Digest has no class that names medical transportation. It puts ambulance companies that are not volunteer in 8394, Bus Company, all other employees and drivers, and their garage workers in 8385. Taxicab and public livery companies, including livery cars that may take only prearranged rides, are 7368. Ask your insurer which class it uses for your vans and why.

NCCI states

NCCI’s item B-1397, effective July 1, 2007, created code 7705 for ambulance and EMS providers. It includes “door-through-door” nonemergency transport of patients between medical facilities, where the patient is taken inside the facility, not dropped off out front. All other noncertified, nonemergency transports were to be rated as 7370, Taxicab, or 7382, Bus. North Carolina’s rate bureau, which uses the same codes, kept that wording in its Basic Manual pages filed for January 1, 2026. In West Virginia’s January 1, 2026 list, 7705 carries a loss cost of 1.485, above both.

Washington runs its own state fund, and its rules and rates are covered in NEMT insurance cost.

How the class code sets your premium

Each class’s payroll is divided by 100 and multiplied by its rate. The classes are added together. If you qualify for experience rating, the total is then multiplied by your experience modification rate. NCCI’s own example: $100,000 of premium becomes $75,000 at a 0.75 mod and $125,000 at a 1.25 mod.

The office class only fits people who never leave the office. California’s 8810 applies to workers who do clerical work 100 percent of the time, in a separate area, and their pay cannot be split with another class. Pennsylvania puts the entire pay of an office worker with any other regular duty in the business’s class. New York sends it to the highest-rated class the worker is exposed to.

Here is a hypothetical California company at the middle insurer rates from the March 2026 list:

Worker	Payroll	Class	Premium
Six drivers	$240,000	7382 at $15.86	$38,064
Office manager, office only	$45,000	8810 at $0.43	$193.50
Dispatcher, office only	$40,000	8810 at $0.43	$172
Same dispatcher, covers a route each week	$40,000	7382 at $15.86	$6,344

That one weekly route moves $6,172 of premium. If it is not on your quote, the year-end audit adds it. See workers’ comp audit for NEMT for what the auditor checks and how to dispute a class.

How to check your class code for free

1. Find your codes. The standard workers’ comp application, ACORD 130 (2026/01 edition), has a rating worksheet line for each class code, with its duties, payroll, and rate. Your quote and policy list the same codes.
2. Read each code’s wording. Use WCIRB’s Classification Search in California, PCRB’s classification pages in Pennsylvania, the NYCIRB Classification Digest in New York, and L&I’s risk class lookup in Washington. In NCCI states, check whether your insurance department posts the loss cost list, as West Virginia does.
3. Check each person against the office rule. Anyone who drives, rides along, or helps load riders as part of the job is usually not office-only.
4. Get your mod worksheet. California employers that qualify for experience rating can request a free ratesheet from WCIRB, showing payroll, claims, and the mod by class (as of June 2025). In Pennsylvania, PCRB Special Services charges $15 per worksheet at (215) 320-4442, as of October 2026. NYCIRB’s employer mod lookup, NYMODS, is a paid subscription.
5. Compare insurer rates. In California, the Department of Insurance posts filed base rates by class code for the top 50 insurers.

For which workers your state counts and when coverage is required, see workers’ comp for NEMT drivers.

General liability and auto classes

For general liability, the class is your insurer’s call. Wisconsin’s insurance office says every insurer uses its own underwriting standards and places you in a classification for your type of business, with the premium based on that class’s rate (guide revised August 2026). Virginia’s Bureau of Insurance adds that an insurer may build an individual rate for an unusual operation.

The premium base depends on the class. California’s guide (revised June 14, 2024) says general liability can be rated on square footage, payroll, or gross sales, depending on the class code used, and that commercial autos are classed by weight and type of use. When you compare quotes, compare the class and the premium base on each one, not only the price. The limits brokers require are in NEMT insurance requirements.

Your NAICS code is not an insurance class code

The Census Bureau’s 2022 index lists nonemergency medical transportation services, except ambulance services, under NAICS 485991, Special Needs Transportation. OMB’s July 13, 2026 notice says NAICS is designed and maintained solely for statistical purposes, and the needs of anyone using it for other purposes play no role in it. The ACORD 130 asks for your class code, SIC code, and NAICS code in separate boxes, and the premium comes from the class code. See NAICS code for NEMT for where that code does matter.