Premium Audit Dispute Delay Costs Company $500,000 – Ouch! Over the last 13 years that I have been writing articles for the J&L website, I have warned very heavily against any type of premium audit dispute delay. Delaying a dispute of or ignoring a bill from your current or prior
Will Today’s Hybrid Audits Ever Return to Physical Premium Audits? First – let us define the three types of audits in this article – Short Definitions Hybrid -the records are usually reviewed offsite -technology has allowed much easier access to employer records without having a “physical presence” at the employers’
Newsletter Reader Asks What Is the Difference Between a Premium Audit Statement, Premium Audit Bill, and Premium Audit Report? A premium audit report, statement, or bill all refer to the premium audit process. Many employers think these mean the same report. Each one is a different report on the same
Workers Comp Premium Savings – Keep Your Website Updated How can workers comp premiums savings come from updating your website? One of our clients from last year had let their website sit for a few years without updating it. What happened caused me to write this article. During a workers
Premium Audit Statement is One Piece of the Puzzle The Premium Audit Statement (PAS) or bill is one of the documents that will show the final numbers for any policy year. What is the other document to match to the Premium Audit Statement to make sure the final numbers are
Top 10 Work Comp Questions From Our Readers The top 10 work comp questions originate from the emails and calls we receive every month. The answers to these are actually in this blog. Answer them – then search for the bolded terms. You never know, you may know the answers
We Are Unable to Pay Work Comp Audit Bill – Help Companies that cannot afford their Work Comp audit bill is one of the main reasons that we are contacted overall. The work comp audit bill is usually mailed to the employer within a few days after receiving the
Workers Comp Audit Question Blog Readers Ask Workers Comp audit questions are emailed or called in to us quite often. I was unable to cover all the questions over the last few months. A few of the questions are listed below with answers. There are links to other
Mail-In and Hybrid Premium Audits Possible With Technology Hybrid Premium audits are becoming more popular every year due to technological advancements. Securely scanning and emailing documents lessened the need for in-person audits by the workers’ comp premium auditor. The two terms that seemed to raise the most questions were mail-in
Upcoming Premium Audit For January 1st Renewals The January 1st renewals for Work Comp policies have a premium audit approaching soon. We receive many inquiries this time of year on preparing for a premium audit. There are numerous articles in this blog on premium audits, including preparation. Please note that
Premium Audit Workpapers Are Golden The premium audit workpapers can be one of the easiest methods to document your yearly WC premium audit. The workpapers are prepared by the premium auditor. They can be either hand-written or computerized, showing how the auditor arrived at the payroll numbers that are used to
Disputed Premium Audit Bill – How Much To Pay? One question that we receive the most often is the sufficient amount to pay when there is a disputed premium audit bill. Premium audits and the associated bills always generate a large number of questions. The answer in the simplest terms is
Canceling Your Policy Right After Renewal Bad Choice Will canceling your policy post-renewal due to a premium audit cost your company $$$? We receive this question at least once per week. This is an almost verbatim question from two weeks ago with editing for length. Question – “We just
WC And Hospitality Industries Are Similar – Service and Employees The WC and Hospitality Industries are very similar in quite a few respects. The idea for this article resulted from seeing the best in the hospitality industry and the worst. We, as consultants, usually are contacted when there is a
Premium Audit Disputes Warning Since the first of the year, a large number of inquiries on premium audit disputes from employers with premium audit disputes. I am not sure if insurance carriers by contract can do this – but a large number of disputed bills are being forwarded to collection
Best Premium Audit Software The best premium audit software may already be right in front of you and costs nothing to use. We receive many calls every week where an employer is very anxious about their workers comp premium audit. One of the main questions is how to properly prepare
Estimated Premium Audits Not Sound Judgement By Employer Estimated Premium Audits for non compliance costs many employers dearly. Premium audit bills and notices generate most of the calls and emails we receive on a consistent basis. The first question that is asked usually concerns allowing the premium auditor to examine
Audit Dispute Question From A Twitter Follower Our Workers Comp Twitter handle received an audit dispute question from a Twitter Tweeter. Can an insurance carrier perform a mid-term audit and then come back in for another audit after the policy expires? That seems to take up a large amount
Payroll Audit vs. Workers Comp Policy Payroll audit vs Workers Comp policy renewal timing has been a controversial subject for many years. We received this question last week from an employer with quite a conundrum that happens to almost all Workers Comp policyholders. The question was: Why does the payroll
Audit Dispute With No Explanation Can Create Bad Vibes A premium audit dispute with no explanation of why it was disputed can wreck your Workers Comp system. We are quite often brought into a dispute that an employer has with their insurance carrier’s audit. One caveat to disputing a
California Physical Premium Audits The rules for California physical premium audits have changed recently. The WCIRB (California’s Rating Bureau) recently released a reminder memo on the upcoming changes for 2014 Workers policies that have payroll developed under what is called a High Wage/Dual Wage Classification. Physical audits will be required for all
Final Workers Comp Policy Bill Comes From The Premium Audit The final Workers Comp Policy bill results directly from premium audit. I received a question late last night on the last article I wrote on Deposit Premium. The question – (paraphrased) was: We paid a very large deposit premium
Workers Comp Audit Materials Needed The materials needed for Workers Comp Audit are communications, data, information and contracts. We receive this question quite often when customers or potential clients inquire about our services. We usually do not disclose this information until a contract is signed as we use a
Payroll Audit Increased Policy Cost Significantly Below are five scenarios why your payroll audit may have increased policy cost. I received this question earlier this week from a California . A related question on policy premium is here. We had switched agents and carriers as our company was offered a
Audit Agreement – Premium Auditor Asked Employer To Sign Off ??? The Audit agreement form has been a rather controversial topic. This question was emailed in earlier this week. We had our yearly Workers Comp premium audit last week. The insurance company’s auditor actually worked for a premium audit company
Seven Premium Audit Resolutions The seven premium audit resolutions to reduce stress are below. As the premium audit season rolls around every year, I usually post quite a few articles on the subject. The reason that this time of the year is called premium audit season is that most
Changing Carriers Due To Premium Audit Bill Can Be Costly Our Workers Comp premium audit bill surprisingly increased our premium by 26%. We do not necessarily agree with the audit and want to change insurance carriers. Due to the timing of the audit, we are already two months into our next
Workers Comp Premium Saving Resolutions Workers Comp Premium saving resolutions are always a great way to start the New Year. There are six easy workers comp premium saving resolutions below. These will work for companies of all sizes. Six Workers Comp Resolutions for Self Insureds will be covered next time.
Workers Comp Premium Audit Season Over The Next 3 Months Workers Comp premium audit season is upon us again. Why do I designate this time of year as premium audit season? The largest number of premium audits for WC are performed January – February of each year. Why would it
Does Your Policy Payroll Match Your Budget Forecast? Your policy payroll should match up with your budget forecast. Payroll and certain benefits – known as remuneration among the Workers Comp premium auditors – should match your budget for your next policy year. Just copying the payroll figures from your
Premium Audits May Go Back Into The Past Workers Comp premium audits can be a harrowing situation. This can be worse when you current or prior carrier decides to re-audit your policy after they already had one shot at it. The very short question in the post title came
Premium Audit Workpapers – No Harm To Ask For Them Premium audit workpapers are one of the audit items that are seldom provided to employers. I have also seen them provided to employers with the audit results or at the time of the premium audit bill. Along those lines, I
Premium Audit Dispute – DIY A Premium Audit Dispute can go awry if a company is not careful. Last week, I received an email with an audit dispute letter and an additional premium bill from a company in West Virginia. We usually receive one or two of these a month.
Our Premium Audit Bill Caused Questions Our premium audit bill just arrived. I have questions on how our final bill was calculated and how our Workers Comp policy was written. How do I know if my gut feeling is correct? I received the above question on Saturday. If you have
Company Growth = Workers Comp Audits Change As your company grows the Work Comp audits will change.Workers compensation audits for very small companies are usually self-audit situations. Each state has a minimum level of premium that requires the insurance carrier to do an on-site audit. One of the most common
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
Reader Question – No XMod On Premium Audit Bill A reader question came in this week concerning the lack of an XMod on the premium audit bill. Xmods or X-Mods are WCIRB’s equivalent of an E-Mod (EMod). The WCIRB is California’s equivalent of the NCCI. The full names of the acronyms
Fully Paid Policy – Premium Recovery May Not Be Fruitful Workers Compensation premium recovery can be very complicated on a prepaid policy. Over the weekend, I received this question – Our company canceled our policy in February. We had six months left before the policy ended. We have not heard from
Five Days Notice Until Proposed Premium Audit Date Less than five days notice cannot be enough time for a employer to prepare for a premium audit. This is a concern that we are hearing from quite a few clients, blog readers, and fellow conference attendees. Recently, premium audit notices are
Urgent Question – Payroll and Premium Audit I received this urgent question on payroll and premium audit at 2 AM. The sender must have been losing sleep over it. We are now with a new carrier. Our Workers Comp Payroll Auditor came into our business four months ago. She went
Premium Audits And The Short Rate Penalty In my last post, I covered the predicament some employers can be in when they want to switch insurance companies due to their premium audit sticker shock. The main consideration is the short rate penalty. The premium audit has just been completed so
Offer Warning – Premium Audit Before Carrier Audits Policy A certain type of premium audit offer warning for our blog readers was required after two phone calls received on this illegal type of offer this week. As I have discussed many types; and as you will see in the heading
The Most Common Premium Audit Bill Mistake A devastating premium audit bill mistake occurs when no payment is made by the insured. The Workers Compensation premium audit bill is one of the most posted subjects in this blog. There are two reasons for the numerous postings. They are: We receive
Revisited – Premium Audits and Bathroom Breaks The question on bathroom breaks and premium audit required a revisit. I have received a large number of responses to the questions that I posed on this post. One of the independent auditors that I have known for quite some time added a comment
Workers Comp Premium Audit Question I received a question this week from one of our blog readers that had this WC Premium Audit question. “I have an employee that walks across a corner of our manufacturing plant to go to the bathroom. On our recent premium audit, the auditor changed the
Premium Audit Nightmare – Change Policy Renewal Date A premium audit nightmare that can happen with January polices can easily be avoided with some planning. Almost 50% of the Workers Comp policies renew at the first of the year. One thing we see very often is our client or potential
Paying The Premium Audit Bill Misunderstanding Last week, I wrote a post concerning paying the premium audit bill. I have heard from a few of our weekly newsletter readers that the title of the newsletter article and the article itself sounded like an employer should just pay the bill. I
Paying The Undisputed Premiums Requirement The undisputed premiums after the audit should be paid to the carrier. We have received a number of questions on how to proceed if there is a Workers Comp premium dispute on how much premiums are owed. For example, I received this question last week. We
Should Premium Audits Be Allowed During Policy Period? I received this question last week on premium audits. I know that an insurance carrier comes in after a Workers Comp policy expires. We just signed on with a new carrier two months ago. They now want to come in and audit
Tax Audits from Premium Audits? Most Tax Audits make every business concerned due to the time required and possible costs. As I had expected, the federal and state taxing authorities and Workers Compensation insurance carriers have decided to share data on premium audits. I am not sure of the
Premium Audit Disputes vs. Collection Agencies Most premium audit disputes may not be documented by a collection agency. I received a great question on Premium Audits this week. We are disputing our premium audit for 2009 – 2010. We are receiving letters from a collection agency and the carrier. Do
Large Deductible Programs I had been asked this question three times over the last two weeks. “We have a large deductible programs for our Workers Comp.” Can those policies be audited for overcharges?” The three main questions that I asked were: Did your company pay some type of premium to your
Hybrid Workers Comp Premium Audits Now More Popular Hybrid workers comp premium audits seem to be rising in popularity very quickly. I noticed this term popping up on websites and premium auditing company booths at conferences. Two years ago, an auditing company at a conference started explaining this new (?)
The Premium Audit Bill Arrives Without Explanation We receive this premium audit bill question quite often. I wanted to reiterate what how an employer should handle the situation. The question is – Our company received a workers compensation premium audit billing from our insurance carrier. We did not receive any audit
Overcharges And Premium Audit Errors Overcharges and premium audit errors are not only for private employers. Premium audit and policy errors can affect any employer, no matter the size of the business. One of the largest premium errors I have seen was pointed out in a few articles last week.
Public Employers Workers Comp Audits Now Due The public employers are due for a premium audit very soon. A large number of our clients are public entities. Most of them are self insured or at least partially self insured. There are still a large number of smaller public employers that
Four Choices For A WC Premium Audit Bill Over the years, we have received the most communications from employers when a premium audit bill has hit their desk and the payment is now due. Often, the bill has been sitting for a few weeks and the insurance carrier is now
The Lesser Known Standard Exception Codes Last week, I posted on the Standard Exception classification codes namely 8742 and 8810. The concern of a few of the blog readers and our clients is there were new classification codes on their premium audits such as Telecommuters. There are some very specialized
A Great Premium Audit Classification Codes Changes Question – Be Careful Here Earlier this morning, I received a great follow up question about great premium audit class codes. Yesterday I posted on how changing classification codes can backfire in certain instances. I received two questions since that asked – Why
Premium Audit Question On Class Code Changes We received a Premium Audit question on classification codes last week. We had worked on our own with our agent and got our classification codes changed which we thought would save us Workers comp premiums. That was not the case. Our Ex-Mod
D-Day – Premium Audit Bill Deadlines Why would I post that this is premium audit D-Day? A majority of our clients renewed on 1/1/11. January 1 is still the date that a majority of companies renew their Workers Comp policies. The premium audit cycle is that an insurance company premium
WC Premium Audit Bills Always Generate Calls and Emails The workers comp premium audit bills cause us to receive calls and emails on a daily basis. We are always glad to hear from former and potential clients for our Workers Comp services. The most popular post and the #1 subject
Hybrid Premium Audits May Become Future of Audits (Almost) Most Hybrid Premium Audits on a Workers Comp policy are when the insurance company auditor asks for the material required to perform the audit without visiting the client’s business. As the Internet has made the flow of information much easier, hybrid
Term of the Day- Expense Constant Charge The Expense Constant charge is a fee charged on every Workers Compensation policy, regardless of the policy size. It is a fixed, flat expense charge that is applied in addition to the premium developed for that policy, usually ranging between $100-$300. This arbitrary
Do We Need To Pay The Premium Audit Bill Immediately? All employers have concerns on whey they should need to pay premium audit bills as soon as they receive them from their insurance carrier. As I have mentioned often, employers call or email us with this question more than any
Audit Workpapers Are Important To Employers In All Cases The Audit Workpapers are important to your Workers Comp premium reduction program. Worksheets prepared by the Workers Comp premium auditor, can be either hand-written or computerized, showing how the auditor arrived at the payroll numbers that are used to determine the
Workers Comp Premium Audit Bill Payments I need to make a correction on workers’ comp premium audit bill payments. I do not go back and change any of my prior posts. I decided to add in a post to lessen any confusion on my last post. One of my colleagues has
For Late Payment Workers Comp Carriers Cancel Policies According to the Workers Comp it can carriers cancel policies for late payment of premium.We recently received a great question about Workers Compensation carriers cancelling policies for late payment of premiums that resulted from a premium audit. Yes, a Workers Comp insurance
Premium Audit Bill – Five Things To Do The five things that you should do with a premium audit bill. I am going to let everyone in on a little secret. Where does most of our employer premium audit business come from overall? We very often receive emails and phone
10 Things To NOT Do Concerning Premium Audits With premium audits, there are 10 things we recommended not doing at all. As most Workers Compensation policies renew on January 1st of each year, I thought I would post on what NOT to do from the time that the premium
Buying Out A Business And Workers Comp Premiums A business owner may experience a Workers Comp Premiums shock when buying out a new business. We have received a few calls on this situation in the last few months. A company or individual decides to buy another company. The deal is cut.
Workers Compensation Changes Of Company Ownership The E-Mod liabilities change for Workers Compensation during changes of company ownership. I received a question last week concerning company ownership liabilities when a company is acquired by another company or individual. There are actually very long and somewhat complicated rules on Experience
Waived Premium Audit May Not Be A Good Idea The Waived Premium Audit allows an insurance to not perform a yearly audit. I have come across situations lately where the insurance carrier has decided to waive a Workers Comp premium audit and not even attempt to audit the payroll and
Can Premium Audits = Manufacturing Rate For An Office Employee? When can premium audits generate manufacturing rates? Two weeks ago, I posted on how two computer programmers could be rated as manufacturing employees at the year-end premium audit. Unfortunately, I did not complete the next posting on the subject.
Premium Or Payroll Audit Process The premium or payroll audit process contains many Myths and Truths. I was going back through some of the post over the last few weeks. In The Five Keys To Saving On Workers Compensation post, I had said I would cover #5 – Understanding Your
Workers Comp Program Can Be Harmed In Different Ways How can you harm your Workers Comp program? Most employers have concerns that decisions about what to pay and when to pay can actually harm their business. When Workers Compensation insurance policies are examined for employers, there is one area where
US Appeals Court Sides With Employer On Premium Audit Dispute An employer disputed the premium audit properly was the US appeals court ruling from last week. I was reading an article earlier this week in The Workers Comp Forum concerning an employer in South Carolina that disputed their Workers Comp
WC Premium Statement and Bill Did your company dispute your WC premium statement and bill? If your company feels the insurance carrier has not billed you correctly – especially at the time of premium audit, then by all means do not wait to send in a premium dispute letter. Your
Workers Comp Insurance Carrier – Two Employers = 23 years of premium audits Two employers are suffering through 23 years of Workers Comp premium audits. These are sad but true cases of where two Workers Comp Insurance carriers are trying to audit their clients a total of 23 years in
Can I Question My Premium Audit Without A Dispute? How can I Question my premium audit without going through a formal dispute process? This is a question that came in from a few of the blog readers over the last two weeks. Most Workers Compensation premium auditors are very reachable if
Workers Comp Audit Workpapers =Premium Auditors Paper Trail The Workers Comp Audit Workpapers are the auditor’s complete calculations that were created during the audit. They are very important to understand what calculations, payroll, and other information were used to produce the final calculations on the policy. If you receive an
Workers Comp Premium Auditor Can Look At All Records We often receive this question in a phone call from an employer who has just been through a Workers Comp audit. The employer is usually frustrated that the insurance company’s premium auditor has asked for so much information. According to your
Workers Comp Insurance Carriers and Premium Audits One of the major trends that we are seeing right now is that quite a few of the Workers Comp insurance carriers are becoming much more assertive on their Workers Comp audits. In this economy, one cannot blame the insurance carriers for trying to
Almost The Time Of Year for Workers Compensation Audits Its that Workers Compensation Premium Audits Time of the year – almost. With the largest number of employers renewing on January 1, the number of audits increase dramatically in January and February. If your Workers Comp policy renewed on 1/1, you
Workers Comp Payroll Audit Notice Very Important My company has received a Payroll Audit notice. This is one of the most popular questions that we receive about the Workers Compensation premium process. A workers comp payroll auditor contacting a company can make for a stressful situation. From what I have
Workers Comp Insurance Company Auditor Financial Records Access Should an insurance company auditor access my financial records? This was a question from one of our blog readers. We have seen this situation a few times when we audit workers comp reserves or premiums for employers. It is never a good
Workers Comp Question About Premium Audit Bills An article reader recently emailed a question on the premium audit bills. When we were named “One of the Top 25 Blogs on Workers Compensation” last week, our blog has increased in popularity dramatically. The #1 Question that we have received from our
Workers Comp Audit Bill – Readers Question The Blog readers question about handling a WC \audit bill. We received a huge bill from our Workers Compensation Yearly Payroll Audit. We cannot afford to pay it. What do we do? We do not want to lose our Workers Comp coverage. I
What To Do (Not) – WC Audit Bill Workers Comp – what not to do with the premium audit bill. I received my Workers’ Comp payroll audit results. The auditor says that I owe $67,587 more than I originally paid for my policy. We are a small company and that
Insurance Carrier Loss Control – Another Premium Audit? Loss Control efforts by insurance carriers sound like such a good idea. We have had two clients recently (one in California and one in Kansas) where the insurance carrier sent out what was really another auditor that was called loss control. According
Insurance Carriers Disturbing Trend We have noticed a very disturbing trend from Workers Comp insurance carriers. Often, after accepting a new policyholder, the insurance carrier will send out what is considered to be a Loss Control Consultant. Often, we have seen the Loss Control Consultant actually fill out Work Comp
Payroll Audit Dispute And NCCI Is a Payroll Audit Dispute worth our time? How long do we have to dispute the premium audit results that we just received? Should we call in NCCI to do an inspection? We have often seen where the insurance carrier tells the employer that they
Workers Comp Audit Bills – Do Not Just File Them Away The Workers Comp audit bills from your insurance carrier require some type of action. The insurance carrier’s Workers Comp payroll auditor has been in for an audit. A few days later you receive a bill. What are your options?
Workers Comp Questions and Comments From Our Readers The Workers Comp questions and comments vary greatly. We received this question recently: A consultant came into our offices and sold us on doing Workers Compensation premium reviews. The services looked similar to what you offer to employers. The consultant said that
Work Comp Premium and Reserve Review Differences The difference between Workers Compensation premium and reserve reviews comes up often during one of our presentations or in speaking with current or potential clients. To keep from boring you to tears, we will cover Premium Reviews today and Reserve Reviews next time.
Main Errors – Auditing Workers Compensation Policies Auditing workers compensation policies involves many steps. We have examined a large number of Workers Compensation policies in our existence. We find errors auditing at least 50% of the time. The most common errors that we have seen are (in order from
