Recovery from workers' comp.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Money Matters - WorkComp Premium Recovery Group - Brief Article

IF YOU RUN A COMPANY WITH MORE THAN A handful of employees, there's a good chance you're paying too much for workers' compensation insurance.

That's what Gregg Schiff will tell you. Schiff considers his company a watchdog for workers' compensation. He estimates that nine out of 10 Colorado businesses have been or are being overcharged for workers' compensation insurance premiums.

Schiff's Denver firm, WorkComp Premium Recovery Group, specializes in recovering workers' comp overcharges and providing cost-saving recommendations for reducing current and future premium costs.

After a decade, the company says it has saved clients more than $4 million in premium charges.

'It's rare that we don't find overcharges when we review a company's records," said Schiff.

WorkComp was founded in 1990 by Len Schiff, who spent 30 years at Pinnacol Assurance, formerly the Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority. Sons Gregg and Todd round out the ownership.

One of the WorkComp group's successes in recent months involved home builder Melody Homes Inc. WorkComp, after an audit of past records last fall, found that Melody had been overcharged by $138,707 on its workers compensation premiums just in the past two years.

Gregg Schiff has his own theories for why businesses are overcharged. "Probably a lot of it's because there are so many rules and regulations out there, plus there's a lot of people who have their hands in the calculations of premiums," Schiff said.

"More people involved and more rules involved means there's more opportunity for errors to happen."

Typically, when a company enlists the services of WorkComp, the firm reviews the past five to seven years of workers' compensation premium calculations. This includes copies of billing statements, the company's loss history, and any other factors used in calculating its workers' comp premium.

"Once we find something, we document where the...