What Is The One Thing That We Can Do That Would Harm Our Workers Comp Program?

I received this question last week. This is one of the unasked questions that are always a concern of most employers. When we examine Workers Compensation insurance policies for employers, there is one area that I always see where large mistakes occur in the policy process. The mistake is just writing a check for a Workers Compensation bill - especially a Workers Comp audit bill - without even questioning how the insurance carrier or premium auditor calculated the amount. As I have mentioned in many blog postings previously, you must treat your insurance policy billing statements the same as a bank statement.  If your company does not, then you are likely overpaying for Workers Comp coverage. 

We just finished an audit where the employer wrote a check for over $50,000 because the insurance carrier sent them a bill. We found on this one, as we do many, that there were some miscalculations during the audit. The true bill ended up being less than $20,000. We do see this more often in recent times. 

We recommend at least asking for backup documentation on how the Workers Comp policy or audit bill was calculated.  There may be no errors. At least you can feel good about knowing that you at least reviewed the documentation that justifies the billing. 

We usually say "Just Do Not Write A Check" as one of our mottoes we have mentioned in articles and previously in this blog post.  At a time when every penny counts more than ever, make sure you feel 1,000% comfortable with writing the check.  If not, start asking questions.  You may be very surprised at the answers and the results for your company.   

A Great Call From West Virginia

We received a call today from a West Virginia company that was inquiring about our services.  The caller was having trouble calculating their Workers Comp premium on their own and was confused on the E-Mod calculations and the premium calculations.

One interesting thing the caller said that on this blog that I had written "Stop Just Writing Checks." He was about to write a check for thousands of dollars until he came across that quote.     I had forgotten about that post.  

It was good to know that someone had read many months back into the archives.  If you look down the right side of the blog, there are many months that have been archived.  Feel free to access those or use the search box at the top right part of the blog if there is a certain subject you want to search for without having to read all of the blog posts.  If you cannot find what you are wondering about in the blog, please click on the Contact Us button for our contact info.