It’s always such a relief to get your company’s workers’ compensation policy squared away. You’ve worked with your PEO or agent to make sure all of your employees’ class codes are accurately reported, and you’ve established a consistent payment schedule that keeps your policy up-to-date. You may have even had this routine down pat for a year or more, and everything’s been running smoothly.
Then, as you get to the end of another policy cycle, you receive a notification from your insurance company: Your policy will expire and will not be renewed.
Work with your provider—or better still, your PEO–Time is of the essence, so the sooner you have your information prepared, the sooner you can get your workers’ comp squared away once again.
You thought you had your workers’ comp coverage all taken care of. What went wrong?
On the bright side, a policy non-renewal is not the same as a cancellation. When a provider cancels your policy, it’s often because you, the policy holder, did something wrong (missed payments, for example, or misrepresented your company’s operations). When you’re at fault, a cancellation can occur at any time during the coverage period, and a cancellation can seriously jeopardize your ability to find coverage in the future. Insurance providers and PEOs will consider you a risk.
But a non-renewal is probably not your company’s fault at all. Non-renewals often occur because the insurer or PEO, for one reason or another, has decided to stop offering the kind of coverage your company is using: The insurer or PEO may have stopped working in your state altogether or may have stopped offering a certain type of coverage in your state; or the provider may have stopped offering certain types of coverage (liability, etc.) due to new regulations or a lack of profitability.
These sorts of wholesale changes in a provider’s operations mean that they will fulfill their current contracts but will then turn down the option to write similar policies in the future, even with their existing policy holders.
In other words, it’s probably not your company’s fault, and you’re likely not the only company affected.
Non-renewal notices have to be sent between 30 and 90 days prior to the coverage expiration, in order to give the affected company a chance to find coverage for the next policy period. The non-renewal should not affect your ability to find new coverage. But there are some things you can do to make the transition to a new policy easier.
What to do when your company receives a non-renewal notice
Ask your agent or PEO if there are any alternative ways to maintain adequate coverage without switching companies (if there’s another carrier within the company network that can provide your plan, for instance).
Regardless of your provider’s situation, contact an agent, PEO Broker or PEO ASAP. A non-renewal notice can affect a lot of customers, so there will be a flood of interest from the market. The earlier you get your company organized and in the game, the better positioned you’ll be.
