I’d written previously about knowing your carriers LCM and why that’s important to you. If you don’t know what it is, start HERE.
If you’re ready for step two, I’m sharing links to the various states LCM’s. These aren’t always easy to find and some states deliberately don’t publish them. In some instances, the link will go directly to a list, others will involve another step or two to complete the search.
Check out this quick chart for answers on what the waiting period is in your state or province before lost wages kick in from workers’ compensation.
What is the retroactive period when an employee is able to recoup those first unpaid days?
How about who gets to direct care?
It varies by state. The answers are here!
Continue reading Start the clock… 3, 5, or 7 days before lost wage payments?
Reservations Required
New Dates and Locations Updated Regularly
A common topic of discussion is the workers’ comp audit. Either through the horror stories of friends or self experience, you’ve heard the terrible tale of the large comp audit. You’re now keenly tuned in to the payrolls and exposures on your work comp policy vowing never to let this happen to your organization again (or ever)!
Perhaps you’ve even transitioned to a “pay as you go” program to virtually eliminate the chance of an audit bill.
But… and there always seems to be a but. What about your liability policy? While you find yourself plugging the holes in one area, don’t forget the GL policy is often an auditable policy like the WC. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that since you’ve notified your carrier or broker of accurate payrolls for the workers’ compensation policy, those same updates translated to your liability policy! You might be surprised to learn otherwise and we already know, that’s rarely a good thing.
Keep track of your liability policy exposures just as you do on the WC!
OK, some good news likely headed your way! Many policy holders can expect some WC rate reduction again this year.
Here’s a notice just sent to Maryland brokers from Builders Mutual Insurance.
2018-01: Maryland Workers’ Compensation Rate Changes
Effective March 1, 2018 and applicable to all new and renewal Workers’ Compensation policies, Builders Mutual Insurance Company is implementing NCCI’s January 1, 2018 revised loss costs for Maryland and revising the Company developed Loss Cost Multipliers. This change represents an overall rate decrease of 9.4% to our Builders Mutual book of business and a decrease of 9.5% to our Builders Premier book of business, however changes may vary by individual class.
In addition, maximum and minimum payroll amounts are:
Included officers minimum payroll – $54,600 per year (was $49,400)
Included officers maximum payroll – $218,400 per year (was $197,600)
Sole proprietor or partner (if elected coverage) – $54,700 per year (was $48,900)
Have you ever noticed a scheduled credit on your policy? Ever wonder why it’s there?
Often times brokers are able to negotiate these on your behalf, but sometimes the scheduled credits are adjusted based on the experience MOD changes.
Picture this…
It’s 2017 and you’re at the last year of your debit experience MOD of a 1.25. Your current WC policy for that year has a scheduled credit of .80, easing some of the pain of your current debit MOD rating. Your renewal policy comes in for 2018 with a new MOD of .78 and low and behold your scheduled credit is now a scheduled debit of 1.10. What gives? Virtually all of the premium savings you were expecting is gone!
I sound like a broken record on this, but you can’t manage what you don’t understand! Insurance terms and policies are far from commonplace for most of us.
For those of you that don’t live and breath insurance, here’s an in depth list of insurance terms and what they mean to you.
I often get the question on what’s not chargeable by an auditor, but what about a simple list of what they can charge for?
Here is a list of what IS chargeable under a workers’ comp audit. There are variations but this is a good starting point of what is included in an insurance audit!
Ever thought of not complying with your work comp insurance audit? In years past failure to comply with an audit might have caused an estimated audit with exposures inflated by 50% and some carriers were forgiving enough to process non compliant audits with no additional payroll increases. With the new changes you may want to reconsider unless you’re ready for a potential 200% increase in exposures!
Does your policy have the endorsement WC 00 04 24?
2016-14: Audit Noncompliance Charge for WC Policies
NCCI has established an Audit Noncompliance Charge Endorsement (WC 00 04 24) that will be included on all new and renewal workers’ compensation policies effective January 1, 2017. The endorsement enables an insurance carrier to apply an Audit Noncompliance Charge to a workers’ compensation policy if the policyholder does not comply with the annual premium audit of their records. When attached to policies, the endorsement will include the estimated annual payroll (in the Basis of Audit Noncompliance Charge section) and the annual premium multiplier that may be applied for noncompliance (in the Maximum Audit Noncompliance Charge Multiplier section).
When reviewing your loss runs or mod worksheet you’ll run into the codes or following descriptions. A quick overview of the common injury types are outlined below.
