Thoughts from the Premium Auditors Convention

I've just finished up attending the annual convention of the National Society of Insurance Premium Auditors, and thought I would post some thoughts on the event while they are still fresh in my mind.

One of the presenters included our website in his list of useful resources for auditors. That was very cool and made my day.

Same presenter also had an excellent suggestion for improving work efficiency and productivity: look for 100 things to do 1% better.

In another session, a very interesting point was made by a field auditor, who noted that, due to our current economic tough times, he is seeing an increase in situations where experienced office personnel have been laid off, only to be replaced by someone like the owner's wife, who lacks the experience and familiarity with office records and procedures the auditor needs to perform a quality audit.

Interesting point was made in another session, that reimbursements paid to workers for out-of-pocket medical expenses would be excluded from the payroll used to compute WC premium if the employer has a group medical plan, but payments to workers for individual health insurance costs in lieu of a group plan would not be excluded.

Another good distinction made at one session: stock options granted to workers would be excluded from payroll used to compute WC premium (except in NY, according to one participant) unless those options allowed worker to purchase stock at no cost--then value of stock would be included in payroll.

Stock bonuses generally are included in payroll, valued as of date the bonus is paid (not the presumably later date when it is redeemed).

Also got to sit in on an excellent session where fraud investigators from KEMI, the Kentucky insurer of last resort, presented a case study of a very serious and blatant case of criminal premium fraud.