180 Day Window – Workers Comp Reserve Timeline
The 180 day window can save your Workers Compensation Program a large amount of $. What is the 180-Day Window?
It is the time that you have to correct your company’s reserves after the close of the policy year. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT and one of the most confusing areas that employers will come across in their Workers Comp administration.
Please see our old posts on the Total Incurred part of your Experience Mod Rating (E-Mod or Ex-Mod). We will cover Total Incurred again later this week.
The 180-Day Window functions similar to this example.
- Policy Period 1/1/07 to 1/1/08
- Your Unit Stat Date is 06/30/08 – this means that no matter what happens (with a few exceptions) after 06/30/08, your reserves and Total Incurred can never be changed again for the 1/1/09 – 01/01/10 policy period.
- The 180 Day Window is from 1/1/08 as that is when the policy period ends until 06/30/08, your Unit Stat date
- During the Window, you can negotiate reserves down, if possible.
- No more claims can be added to your policy, so you know the claims that will be on your 2009 – 2010 Experience Mod.
- To negotiate down the reserves, starting less than 90 days (after 4/1/08) before your Unit Stat date will make the task much more difficult.
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How do you avoid having to be concerned with a short Window of Time to negotiate down your reserves?
- Review all reserves monthly and if something looks awry then contact your Workers Comp claims adjuster. Your insurance carrier should be providing you with a claims listing at least every quarter.
- Use email as the method of contact due to documentation concerns.
- Better yet, if you can obtain online access to your Workers Comp claims, then you can review your claims at your convenience.
- As I have posted previously, do not just call up the Workers Compensation claims staff and tell them your reserves are too high. Make sure you have a basis to question the reserves.
If you feel that you need assistance, please contact a Workers Comp claims expert (such as JandL). You can also look over my previous posts as an aid to negotiating reserves.
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