System Notifies Builders of Lapsed Work Comp

Tracking eases administrative burden

A joint program developed by the Home Builders Association of South Carolina and the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission offers an automated system that will notify a general contractor upon midterm lapse of its subcontractor’s Workers’ Compensation policy. This new system solves the problem of a general contractor not being aware of when a subcontractor’s Workers’ Compensation policy lapses midterm due to nonpayment of premium.

Constantly monitoring the coverage status of the subcontractor’s Worker’s Compensation policy has always been an administrative nightmare for general contractors. A general contractor is considered liable for Worker’s Compensation injuries/costs incurred by an uninsured subcontractor.

The program works as follows:

• Go to the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission website  and selects the verify coverage link on the homepage.
• Follow the instructions to enter the security code for access to NCCI’s search. Click submit.
• Search for the name of the subcontractor for which you would like to activate the
  monitoring service.
• After viewing the search results, verify that the name of the subcontractor is correct.
• Enter your email address to register for electronic email notification in the event of policy
  midterm cancellation.
• You will receive a confirmation message when your entries are accepted and confirming your registration for the subcontractor(s) in question.
• In the event of a midterm policy cancellation you’ll be notified immediately by email. The
  database of canceled policies is updated daily.
• The website offers a reporting function that allows a registered user to receive a report of
  all subcontractors for which notification has been activated.

This is a fantastic service that should be of great benefit to general contractors, insurance carriers, insurance auditors, and insurance agents.

The fact is that many smaller subcontractors frequently enter cancellation status due to nonpayment of monthly premiums. This places general contractors at risk in addition to the administrative burden of tracking subcontractors. This new system will likely force subcontractors to pay more attention to their monthly payments to make sure that their Workers’ Compensation policy does not cancel.

We also offer step-by-step instructions on how to use the new service.