How prepared are you for your audit?
At the end of the year, when your workers compensation insurance policy expires, the insurance company performs an audit to determine your company’s actual workers compensation insurance premium for the policy period (as opposed to the estimated premium that was originally used in your policy). The workers compensation audit (also known as workers comp audit, workmans comp audit, workers compensation premium audit, etc.) may result in a remarkable difference in your premium. Many times, due to errors and incorrect information, there is a significant additional premium owed by the insured after the audit is performed.
Apex Services believes that the best way to get through your audit and minimize overcharges is to understand the process before it begins.
Preparing Before the Auditor Arrives
- Designate one person in your company to interact with the auditor. If the auditor has to deal with multiple people, he can get conflicting or confusing answers, or there can be some kind of miscommunication.
- Make sure that this primary contact person is familiar with and can easily provide the auditor with all the employees’ specific job duties by department, as well as payroll records. This primary contact person should also review any audit paperwork from the previous year’s audit (if available) as this information will help to understand and anticipate issues that may arise during the workers comp audit.
- Make sure that the auditor can easily recognize and distinguish overtime pay and is able to discount it back to normal pay, which will allow you to get significant savings. This deduction is allowed in almost all states.
- If your company deals with independent contractors and subcontractors, obtain their certificates of insurance and present them at the audit. Failing to do so will cause your company to be charged for their workers compensation premium as well.
- An employee in certain industries, such as construction, can have more than one classification code if he has more than one duty. The number of hours spent in each kind of work must be documented to correctly reflect the employee’s actual exposure to injury. Failure to keep payroll records that allocate the employee’s wages among the different classes will result in the employee being placed in the most expensive classification.
- Make sure you have all the necessary paperwork ready to allow the auditor to do his work without excessive effort.
When the Auditor Arrives
- We believe that the workmans comp audit should be performed on-site, so you can readily provide the auditor with any information to possibly qualify for less-expensive classifications. If the audit must be performed off-site, make sure that your primary contact person is either present or available by phone to answer any questions about the audit.
- Be mindful of the auditor’s time constraint. Do not make him wait when he arrives and do not make him wait for you to gather information that should have been prepared before his arrival.
- Request a copy of the auditor’s worksheets before the auditor leaves. This will allow you to review the audit and make sure that no errors were made before the audit is processed and billed.
After the Auditor Leaves
- Review the audit billing statement and compare it to your original policy.
- Make sure the classification codes on the audit are not more expensive than the ones on your original policy unless changes have occurred in your business operations during the policy period.
- Check the audit to make sure that the experience modification on the audit is not higher than the experience modification on the original policy. If it is higher, you should question it.
- Make sure the Schedule Credit or Debit have not changed from the original policy. You may dispute any additional premiums that have occurred due to the change in Schedule Credit or Debit.
The only workers compensation audit Apex provides is one that gives you the possibility of discovering that you actually overpaid and are due a refund. If you feel you need independent, professional help with your workers compensation premium audit, or you feel that there are errors or that you’ve been overcharged, call or email us now!
