Workers Compensation Telephone Audit

There are several methods that an insurance company may use in completing the workers comp audit process. They are:

1. The mail or self audit
2. The physical audit
3. The telephone audit

Remember, the audit process is a policy condition, a requirement found within the work comp policy contract. Yes...I said contract!

The typical telephone audit goes something like this...

1. Shortly after the workers comp policy expires, the business owner will receive a letter and some forms in the mail from his insurance company;
2. The forms are included to make every ones job go easier, for the business owner it makes the gathering of the information easier, for the auditor it makes a crib sheet to follow and makes sure they gather all the info they need to complete the audit.
3. The auditor then talks with the business owner by phone and secures the needed information.
4. The auditor completes his worksheets and then sends them into the insurance company's audit department.

Sounds great right? Well maybe it's easy for everyone involved but we find telephone audits are ripe with errors, many times costing the business owner in additional cost for his workers compensation insurance. Why does this happen? A lot of important details are overlooked, changes in the business operation, reclassification of employees, misused and uncorrected class codes, misclassification of owners and uncorrected changes of ownership or entity. All of these can make significant differences in the workers comp premiums a business owner has to pay.

So, when presented with a telephone audit to complete...just be aware! Oh yea...not all telephone audits have errors. Many are found to be right on. But because of the method of gathering and verifying information many are also wrong!

Hope this helps you out! Thanks!