IDENTIFYING A POTENTIAL CONTROLLED INSURANCE PROGRAM
Check to see if your project meets the criteria in our When is a Wrap-Up a Good Idea? section. While the core activity within our office is the administration of Controlled Insurance Programs (aka CIPs or wrap-ups), the work often begins before the actual wrap-up administration reaches these walls. The following steps to getting started are items for which we often provide assistance.
FEASIBILITY STUDY
To further customize information to a potential client’s needs, CR Solutions conducts a feasibility study using project specific information, including the project type and location to create a pro-forma (a project financial estimate broken down by work trades) and determine if a wrap-up is potentially beneficial to the project participants.
CR Solutions explores potential advantages, answers questions, and forecasts cost savings.
- CR Solutions can assist the broker in creating a marketing submission, a document used to “shop” carriers by providing them with appropriate information to acquire a coverage proposal.
- As carriers reply with coverage proposals, CR Solutions aids the broker in the proposal review to make a purchase recommendation.
BROKER SALES SUPPORT
CR Solutions works with a broker to collaborate on client presentations allowing the broker to handle insurance and coverage information and CRS to acquaint the client with controlled insurance programs. These presentations can start by educating the client on Controlled Insurance Programs, by launching directly into our administrative services, or by fielding wrap-up questions from the potential wrap-up sponsor – all depending upon the participating parties’ wrap knowledge and history, as well as, the level of involvement desired by the broker.
CARRIER SHOPPING
If a wrap-up does prove to be a beneficial option, the appropriate insurance carrier and coverages must be selected.
WRAP-UP IMPLEMENTATION
Prior to enrolling the first contractor, final decisions are made on contract award procedures, program documents are developed, kick off meetings are held, and the project’s reporting website is prepared.
A set of Program Documents are prepared for the new wrap-up that span the life of the project. The most notable of these documents being the Procedures Manual, aka the official guide to your wrap-up.
Answering questions for the sponsor, general contractor and individual subcontractors, this manual covers everything from general questions, such as “what is a wrap-up”, to program specific questions such as “who do I contact if there is an accident”.
A pair of kick-off meetings ensures that everyone is stepping off on the right foot.
- Carrier Meeting, Led by the insurance carrier, this meeting allows for a review of the carrier role in managing the program. They will discuss loss control, claims handling, auditing and other administrative procedures.
- Administration/Procedural Meeting, A gathering of the sponsor, the general contractor, and the broker as well as CR Solutions, this meeting reviews exactly what CR Solutions will do for the project as well as reviews each participants’ role in program.
- A client reporting site is set up allowing 24/7 access to real time data on the controlled insurance program. This allows the sponsor to watch as the enrollments are completed, track insurance credits and claims and see how much actual payroll is being accrued.
WRAP-UP ADMINISTRATION
Assigning Wrap-Up Coverage. CRS Administration Service Teams resides in our Central Service Center in Atlanta, GA under the direction of our COO, Jennifer Phillippi. This office is composed of personnel (Account Managers, Account Associates, Account Executives and Technology support), who manage wrap-up programs 100% of the time. They provide the necessary experience and dedication needed to make these programs successful.
ENROLLMENT PROCESSING
Once notified of a new contractor, CR Solutions contacts each one individually to walk them through the enrollment process. The information gathering process includes:
- Obtaining and then processing OCIP/CCIP Enrollment Forms
- Collecting off-site Certificates of Insurance for the purpose of verifying non-wrap up coverages such as Auto Liability
- Gathering each contractor’s individual Insurance Ratings Pages for the purpose of allowing CR Solutions to accurately calculate each individual contractor’s insurance credit.
INSURANCE CREDIT CALCULATIONS
Tracking the individual insurance calculations of a project is an integral part of the wrap-up administration process. CR Solutions requests insurance credit calculations from each contractor, confirms their accuracy, negotiates with the individual contractor over final numbers when necessary, and confirms the credit with an endorsed calculation.
The calculation for this endorsed credit is stored in CR-Insight (our internally designed wrap-up software) and later used to generate an actual earned insurance as the reported payroll numbers are tallied. Both the original “endorsed” credit and the actual “earned” credit can be viewed on live reports found at our client reporting website.
ENROLLMENT/COVERAGE NOTIFICTATION
Once basic contractor and contract information is in the system, a WC Policy number is assigned and a Certificate of Insurance is generated. The certificate is then sent to the contractor along with a procedures manual. The manual will outline coverages and describe how the program, loss control services, claims management services, and information management services will be administered. You will also find directions on how to fill out and forward any documents that may be asked of you.
MONTHLY COMPLIANCE TRACKING
Subcontractor Offsite Certificate Compliance
After receiving the initial offsite certificates of insurance during the enrollment process, CR Solutions continues to ensure that a compliant certificate is on hand meeting the requirements of the project. This includes tracking:
- Individual policy expiration dates
- Additional Insured Language
- Waivers of Subrogation
- Primary Language
- Etc – any other requirements set forth in the contract
PAYROLL COMPLIANCE
All enrolled subcontractors are required to report their on-site payroll on a monthly basis allowing for accurate actual insurance credits to be calculated for individual contracts and for timely reporting to carrier auditors.
- CR Solutions not only collects but also monitors this payroll for accuracy by tracking down payroll that has not been reported, identifying payroll types not indicated in the contractor’s original estimate and noting if reported payroll begins to exceed the payroll originally estimated.
- Our expansive geographical reach also provides us with experience in handling regional idiosyncrasies such as tracking both Unlimited and Limited payroll (aka called Capped and Uncapped) for states such as New York.
HANDLING THE FINER POINTS
It is difficult to breakdown everything that we do into just a few pages. What it comes down to is that we track it all – we don’t let things slide. A sampling of information we consider our responsibility:
Change Orders, along with their related payroll insurance costs.
Claims Tracking, CR Solutions tracks first reports of injury and compares them to the monthly loss runs to help ensure proper reporting.
Loss Control, we review loss control reports in search of contractors that we have not been notified of working on-site.
Carrier Payroll Audits, CR Solutions provides payroll reports to the carrier so that they can easily complete their state filing. We will also review all audit results from the carrier to ensure their accuracy.
CR Solutions processes Annual Renewals by generating and distributing the new certificates to each subcontractor, notifying the insurance carrier and sending Renewal Workers’ Compensation Policies.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED
Information Management, Analysis and Reporting
Information on the performance of your wrap up is available at varying levels of detail depending upon your needs. At various stages of the Wrap Up, CR Solutions delivers:
Newsletters, these aesthetically pleasing reports do more than just look good. Sent monthly, these reports use easy to read charts and graphs to provide an update on all aspects of the wrap-up.
Compliance Reports paired with Deficiency Notices are generated on a regular basis to keep an eye on a variety of compliance issues most notably payroll submissions and offsite certificate fulfillment. Deficiency Notices are automatically generated and sent directly to the noncompliant subcontractor. The GC and/or owner are then notified of these noncompliant contractors via the compliance reports.
Status Reports provide a more detailed view of the program including values for individual contracts, payroll, and insurance credits supporting the numbers supplied in the Newsletter.
Executive Summaries provide a big picture view of the program’s financial performance. This report compares the total costs incurred by the sponsor in providing the wrap-up to the cost avoidance achieved by eliminating the subcontractors’ costs for this coverage.
In addition to regularly scheduled reports, CR Solutions provides Updates and Timely Communications to all appropriate parties including, but not limited to, updates on the status of new (sub) contractor enrollments, notification of (sub) contractor issues and correspondence, and response to requests.
Additionally, CR-Insight’s Client Reporting Website is available 24/7 to review the performance of the wrap up.
Meetings and Integrated Management
While reports are helpful, there is no substitute for being able to discuss your wrap up directly with the individuals administering it. Consequently, CRS schedules periodic meetings based on your project’s needs.
Site Visits, typically scheduled every 4-6 weeks, allow us the chance to get together with the project management team to review administrative procedures, discuss which subs have been enrolled and which trades are coming up for award, address delinquent subs and plan for closeouts.
Stewardship Meetings, ideally meeting quarterly in conjunction with the Claims Review, are conducted by the broker and carrier. The program sponsor is the primary audience for this meeting where the goal is to present the financial performance of the program to date.
Conference Calls & Web Conferencing are used to address any issues that may arise between site visits. Conference calls and/or web conferences can be set up at anytime by the project as necessary.
ENROLLED CONTRACTORS CLOSE OUT
Upon notification of work completion CRS will perform a final review of the contractor’s file to ensure that all payroll has been reported completely and accurately and that the sub is in compliance with all other program requirements.
Depending upon how the program was set up, this review may also include a revised calculation of the sub’s insurance credit based on actual reported payroll.
Final Notification, the carrier is sent notification to cancel coverage and a termination letter is sent to the contractor.
WRAP-UP CONCLUSION
The wrap-up needs to be wrapped up. This includes a final insurance carrier audit as well as a final review of the wrap up to sum up how the project performed.
To proceed with carrier audits, CR Solutions will provide the carrier with all payroll tracked throughout the project. Upon completion, the carrier’s audits will then be made available to CR Solutions for review.
A final Program Performance/Summary Meeting will be held with the program sponsor to review the overall performance of the project’s consolidated insurance program.
When the project is entirely wrapped up and all final audits have been reviewed CR Solutions will compile a report of all activity from the program’s inception including:
- Estimated vs. actual payroll
- Record of all claims incurred under the program
- Estimated vs. actual insurance credits
- Enrolled contract value
- Change orders
- Program costs including all premiums and fees
All documents related to your wrap-up will be presented to you in a Program Summary Binder.
