Upcoming Workers Comp Audits
Most of the Workers Comp Audits are performed in February and March. Why? Most policies expire January 1 of each year. The insurance carriers will finish most of the premium audits for these expired policies by the end of March. We receive most of our inquiries and phone calls in February, March, and April each year. They usually occur when the premium bill arrives with a 10 day notice to pay.
I will cover some of the ways to help your company with the audits over the next few days and weeks. The main piece of advice that I can give is to not let a premium audit bill sit or ignore it. If you have any questions on the audit or bill, write the carrier a letter and fax it immediately. Telephone calls may not preserve your dispute rights.
Make sure that you have a legitimate concern when you dispute a premium audit or bill. The one quick and sure way to ruin the relationship that you have with your Workers Comp carrier is to dispute the bill or audit as being too high without justification.
Some of the carriers will allow payment plans if you ask within the time limit on the bill. You may have a longer period than the 10 days to dispute the bill, but not to ask for a payment plan. I had just talked with a collection agent with ACE USA today. We were informed that one of our clients had been offered a payment plan, but no payments were ever made on the premium bill.
As I have mentioned often in the past, please do not use the dispute process as a way to delay paying a bill. This is a great recipe to having your current Workers Comp policy canceled. If you have any questions or premium audits or billings, please feel free to ask me. I may post them to the blog which will help everyone.
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