Audits For Public Employers Upcoming
Premium audits for public employers are about to increase dramatically.
Most public employers have a renewal date of July 1. Your auditor should be contacting you, if they have not already done so recently. The highest number of policies for private employers renew on January 1.
The time cycle for audits is usually 30 – 45 days after your policy expiration date. I always recommend, especially with larger employers, that any mail from the carrier be handled by one person. I have seen large public and private employers receive a non-compliance audit because the letters from the carrier had either been destroyed as junk mail or routed to the wrong department.
If there is no premium audit appointment set after a few letters and time passes, the auditor can actually increase the estimated premium audit up to 300% of the estimate. The premium auditor would have called by then, but if the letters advising of an upcoming audit go unanswered, then the auditor’s phone calls are likely not being routed to the right person either. I have seen this happen more than a few times.
There are a few dubious companies that have written books or have a website that will guarantee they can prepare you for a premium audit weeks before the auditor arrives at your workplace. As with the case a few years ago in South Carolina, that is not a good choice. There is nothing wrong with having someone assist your organization at the time of the audit. There are a few reputable companies that may help your company before the audit. It pays to be very careful.
As always, the best advice is to have everything organized. Getting together a ton of paper for the auditor to review is not always the best tact. If you review the premium auditor’s letter, they will usually ask to have certain documents prepared for their visit.
Organizing those documents with a spreadsheet cover will help the premium auditor and your company finish the audit quickly and accurately.
One of the questions I receive – sometimes right in the middle of a premium audit – concerns allowing the auditor to take records offsite. There is nothing in the rules that say you must comply with this request. I do not recommend it.
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