Many Australian employers are overpaying their workers compensation premium without knowing it. Expert premium management ensures you are billed the correct amount based on accurate data.
What is Premium Management cover?
Premium Management is the process that ensures that an employer is billed the correct premium by virtue of the fact that all the factors that feature in the calculation of the premium are reviewed regularly and adjusted as required. These factors include the accuracy in remuneration estimated and certified, workplace registrations, workplace industry classification, workplace succession, employer grouping, head office classifications and claims and their costs. Effective Premium Management also involves understanding how claims cost impact premiums and being able to forecast and regularly monitor the premium that is likely to be billed in future policy periods.
How Workers Compensation Premiums Are Calculated
In Australia, workers compensation premiums are calculated differently in each state and territory. The key inputs that affect what you pay are:
- Total remuneration: wages paid to all workers, including contractors in some states
- Industry classification: your risk category compared to others in your industry
- Claims performance: your claims history compared to the industry average
- Employer grouping: how related business entities are grouped for premium purposes
- Head office classifications: how your registered head office location affects your premium calculation
Errors in any of these factors can result in overcharging. A premium management review identifies and corrects discrepancies before they compound across policy periods.
Who’s at risk?
Every employer needs to exercise adequate premium Management to ensure that they are paying the correct level of workers compensation premium. At the same time, every employer must also have a good understanding of how to exercise good injury and claims management as the risk of a workplace accident causing injury is always present.
Small and medium-sized employers are particularly vulnerable. Without a dedicated team reviewing the premium calculation, incorrect classifications or unfair claims loadings can go undetected for years.
Why you should protect yourself?
For most employers workers compensation premiums make up a significant portion of an employers’ total insurance spend. Many employers believe that workers compensation premiums cannot be minimised and that Agents / Insurers will manage claims on the employer’s’ behalf. This is not true. Premiums can be actively minimised via effective injury, claims and premium management. Agents / Insurers are not working in the employer’s or injured worker’s best interests. They exist to ensure that injured workers receive the compensation that they are legally obliged to receive. Just as injured workers can call upon lawyers to try and maximise the compensation that they receive, so can an employer call upon experts such as ReWork to minimise the cost of workplace injuries, claims and their premium.
How can you protect yourself?
Many employers that are primarily SME do not have the need or financial ability to employ a workers compensation injury, claims and premium management expert so they call upon ReWork to provide this expertise in readiness for the next workplace injury and/or to manage existing workplace injuries and claims that have become complex and expensive. Call ReWork today to ensure that your next workplace injury or current workers compensation claims are managed by an industry expert that will take good care of your workers whilst protecting your interests through effective injury, claims and premium management.
The goal is to ensure you only pay what you are lawfully required to pay. Proactive workers compensation premium management is one of the most cost-effective steps an Australian employer can take.