Review of Audit Finds
Mistakes: Incorrect Change in Classification Nets $41K
Insured
The business is a local hauler in the South that handles towing risk. It
has 25 employees and does approximately $1.5 million per year in business.
Situation
Following an audit of the insured’s Workers’ Comp policy, the
company was charged an additional premium of $46,000. The company paid the
first installment of the additional premium – $26,000 – and
was now being called upon to make the second installment of $20,000.
Assessment
A Certified WorkComp Advisor (CWCA) who had been working with the insured
for a number of years reviewed his client’s coverage and performed
his own audit of the policy. He found the insurer had incorrectly changed
a classification on the audit that had resulted in the additional premium.
Besides being the wrong classification for the position in question, the
rules governing classification codes in the company’s home state prevent
them from being changed in the last 90 days of a policy, as was the case
with this change. Initial contact with the insurer was not met with action,
but rather with threats for non-payment of the second premium installment.
The Advisor continued for several months to work out the situation with
the carrier and to get them to admit to the mistake in the classification
change.
Solution
After several months with no result, the CWCA finally got NCCI involved.
He had previously worked with NCCI to develop a program for towing risk
classification codes – the very same program he had used for his version
of the audit that had showed the incorrect change. He sent the results of
the audit he performed that indicated the code to have been incorrect and
also pointed out that the carrier should not have been allowed to make the
change under the rules for classification code changes. After several more
months, NCCI accepted the data he had sent and supported his claim that
the classification change had been incorrect.
Result
After more than 10 months of fighting the change to the insured’s
classification code, the CWCA’s data finally led to NCCI ruling that
the additional premium should only have been $5,000, not $46,000. The insured
was instructed not to make the second payment of $20,000 and is now awaiting
a return of premium check for $21,000. Although the carrier is currently
disputing NCCI’s decision, the CWCA says, “If I hadn’t
gone to the Institute and learned the things I learned, I would have given
up on this after a couple months. But relying upon what I learned I knew
I was right, so I stuck with it, got the classification fixed and got my
client’s premium reduced.” |