Nothing gets the heart rate up like opening the mail and finding an unexpected audit bill from your workers compensation insurance company! This is about the time we start receiving calls from employers seeking help for a workers compensation audit gone wrong! But what can an employer do? What steps should they take when this happens?
Most insurance companies provide very limited information when they send a policyholder a workers comp audit bill. As a matter of fact I’d venture to say most employers just receive a bill with no supporting documentation. Many may even believe it is some type of mistake the insurance company has made. So usually the first call the policyholder makes will be to their insurance agent asking why they received such a bill.
Here’s a few things to keep in mind:
- When reviewing your audit bill you will more than likely not be able to determine how the bill was produced. You will need to ask for more documentation so don’t be surprised that you will have to do this.
- Ask for a breakdown of payrolls used in the audit by classification code as shown on your policy. This information should be provided to you and is known as the audit statement.
- Ask for a copy of the audit worksheets. These are a compilation of the base information gathered from your audit. They will show where payroll was applied for employees, owners, insured and uninsured subcontractors.
- Once this information is gathered and reviewed be sure to ask your agent for help in working through the audit results.
- If you still don’t understand how the audit results were determined and/or applied to your account or if you still believe there are mistakes or errors in your audit and that you should not owe the additional premium be sure to contact an independent workers compensation consultant for help. Yep, that’s what we do!
Audits can be complicated. All audits should be reviewed by an outside source to verify that your audit was completed correctly. When codes are changed or added at audit, when payrolls are shifted from one classification to another or when the documentation just doesn’t seem to make sense to you, be sure to seek out help!
Hope this helps you out! Thanks!
