God, one thing you have to say about Workers Comp insurance companies: they got....errr, chutzpah. As illustrated by a current case of mine, where a very well known insurance company whose ads you see all over television sold a Workers Comp policy to a company with an effective rate of $0.48 per hundred dollars of payroll but more than three months after the policy ended, changed things so the effective rate for the audit was $3.39 per hundred dollars of payroll.
And when the insured screamed and cancelled the renewal policy, that same insurance company made the same changes to that policy, plus added in lots of "audit non-compliance charges" (even in California, where that's not really a thing) so that the effective rate for that policy became $6.74 per hundred dollars of payroll.
Christ, sure wish I could run my business like that.
Needless to say, this particular dispute is far, far from over.
Oh, and the title of this little post? That's this insurer's corporate slogan.
WorkComp Watch: News about Workers' Compensation Insurance, audits, classifications, coverage, and recovering overcharges.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
Warren Buffett Strikes Again
Warren Buffett is promoting a new insurance product called THREE, a multi-line insurance product for businesses. THREE includes property, liability, auto, and Workers Comp, using a unique and simplified policy form.
This article explores some of the possible advantages and deficiencies of THREE in some detail.
Me, since my primary beat is Workers Comp insurance, I have to worry about anything that eliminates the element of standardization in Workers Comp insurance. The existing policy form created by NCCI is cumbersome and not always easy to understand but it does have the benefit of being pretty much uniform--which is a useful thing for those who must buy this insurance, as business owners really don't want to have to worry about whether the policy from company A really provides the same vital coverage as the policy from company B.
Of course, when it comes to how premiums for Workers Comp is figured, uniformity has already been substantially eroded--particularly by Mr. Buffett's company Applied Underwriters. That company's policies have often featured a premium mechanism that was essentially incomprehensible and impossible to predict by policyholders, a mechanism that often produced much higher charges than the business owners ever expected.
Buffett has put Applied Underwriters on the auction block, though. But that company illustrates what can go wrong when someone decides to shake up the established Workers Comp format.
When I first entered the wonderful world of Workers Comp insurance, some forty-some years ago, uniformity of policy form and rates was viewed as a bedrock virtue. Then that got eroded over time, at least as far as rates and premiums, with mixed results IMHO. But getting creative with the policy form? Particularly in an insurance program that appears geared towards small business?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say.
This article explores some of the possible advantages and deficiencies of THREE in some detail.
Me, since my primary beat is Workers Comp insurance, I have to worry about anything that eliminates the element of standardization in Workers Comp insurance. The existing policy form created by NCCI is cumbersome and not always easy to understand but it does have the benefit of being pretty much uniform--which is a useful thing for those who must buy this insurance, as business owners really don't want to have to worry about whether the policy from company A really provides the same vital coverage as the policy from company B.
Of course, when it comes to how premiums for Workers Comp is figured, uniformity has already been substantially eroded--particularly by Mr. Buffett's company Applied Underwriters. That company's policies have often featured a premium mechanism that was essentially incomprehensible and impossible to predict by policyholders, a mechanism that often produced much higher charges than the business owners ever expected.
Buffett has put Applied Underwriters on the auction block, though. But that company illustrates what can go wrong when someone decides to shake up the established Workers Comp format.
When I first entered the wonderful world of Workers Comp insurance, some forty-some years ago, uniformity of policy form and rates was viewed as a bedrock virtue. Then that got eroded over time, at least as far as rates and premiums, with mixed results IMHO. But getting creative with the policy form? Particularly in an insurance program that appears geared towards small business?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say.
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