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HR Party of One is brought to you by BerniePortal.

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Have you ever received an insurance bill and noticed something wasn’t quite right?

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Maybe you’ve been billed for an employee who no longer works for your company,

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or perhaps the amounts just don’t match up. Inaccurate insurance bills are more common

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than you might think, and they can lead to a lot of headaches if not handled properly. So,

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what happens when you receive an incorrect insurance bill? In this episode, we’ll break

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it down step-by-step. Let’s get started!

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Step 1: Identify the Inaccuracy The first step is noticing the

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error. Maybe you’ve been billed for an employee who left months ago, or the total cost seems

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inflated. Either way, the mistake needs to be identified so you can take action.

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Step 2: Contact the Carrier

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Next, you or your broker will need to reach out to the insurance carrier.

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This usually involves calling the client service line and explaining the situation.

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Step 3: Carrier’s Response

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Most often, the carrier will tell you to pay the incorrect bill now,

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and they’ll adjust it next month or reimburse you later. It’s not ideal, but it’s a common response.

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Step 4: Make Adjustments on Your End In the meantime, you’ll likely need

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to track this overpayment in your accounts payable system. It would require making notes

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and setting reminders to check future bills for that promised adjustment.

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Step 5: Follow-Up Unfortunately,

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the issue might not be resolved with just one phone call. In many cases,

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you’ll have to follow up with the carrier to ensure the correction has been

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made. This process can stretch on for months, leading to more administrative work and stress.

Why do Insurance Bill Inaccuracies Happen?

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-Why do Insurance Bill Inaccuracies Happen?

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One of the primary reasons insurance bill inaccuracies occur is due to broken

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communication between eligibility updates and billing systems. Here’s how it typically happens:

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When an employee is no longer eligible for coverage—like when they leave the

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company—employers notify their carriers, and the employee should be removed from coverage. However,

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while the coverage is terminated, the billing department may fail to reflect that change,

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leaving the employer on the hook for paying for an ineligible employee.

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This communication breakdown between eligibility and billing is all too common,

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especially when employers and carriers operate with separate,

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disconnected systems. It can lead to inaccurate billing and frustration on both sides.

Four Risks of Inaccurate Billing

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Let’s cover four risks of inaccurate billing: Overpayment or Underpayment: One of the most

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obvious issues is overpayment. Let’s say you’ve terminated an employee,

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but the carrier hasn’t removed them from the bill. You’re still paying for their coverage,

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meaning you’re essentially eating the cost of overpayment until the adjustment is made.

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On the flip side, underpayment can be even more dangerous—if you underpay,

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it could result in coverage being canceled for your employees. This creates a major risk,

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especially if someone needs to file a claim and discovers they’re no longer covered.

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Increased Administrative Burdens: As an HR Party of One, your burdens can already feel

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very heavy. Handling billing errors only eats up more of your day as it takes time and resources

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to track down errors, make adjustments in your accounts payable, and follow up with carriers

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to ensure corrections are applied. Plus, you may have to explain to employees that their paycheck

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deductions were wrong, and then deal with the payroll issues. That leads us to the next risk...

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Eroded Employee Trust and Morale: Inaccurate billing can damage the relationship you’ve

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built with your employees and put your company’s reputation on the line. Imagine

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having to tell your employees that their paycheck deductions were incorrect or that their insurance

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coverage might be in jeopardy. These kinds of issues make withdrawals from the employee’s

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“emotional bank account”—a term that refers to the trust and goodwill you’ve built up

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with your team. Over time, small issues like this can erode trust and hurt employee morale.

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and finally Increased Claim Disputes:

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Another big risk is claim disputes. If eligibility changes—such as after a qualifying life event or

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during open enrollment—aren’t communicated to the carrier in time, employees could file

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claims that get denied. Whether the delay is the fault of the employee, the employer,

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or the broker, it’s the employee who suffers. And that can turn into an HR nightmare when you have

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to deal with employees who are rightfully upset or resolve disputes with carriers.

How to Eliminate Insurance Billing Errors

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so How Can You Eliminate Billing Errors?

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Managing insurance billing errors can be a complicated and frustrating process—something

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I regularly hear about from my broker partners and their HR clients. However,

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there’s a straightforward solution that has helped many of them prevent these issues.

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BernieBill is an integrated billing solution designed to keep your insurance bills accurate

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by connecting real-time eligibility data directly from your BerniePortal

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benefits administration system to billing. It consolidates everything into a single platform,

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so you don’t have to manage separate systems or manually update information.

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With BernieBill, any changes in billing are handled automatically. When you onboard or

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terminate an employee in BerniePortal, BernieBill is instantly updated, meaning you won’t need to

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contact the carrier or file a claim to fix billing errors. This ensures your bills always reflect

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the most current information. Whether you’re adding or removing employees, you can trust that

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you won’t be charged for anyone who no longer qualifies. And best of all, you’ll never have

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to worry about paying an incorrect bill again. Remember—your role is as strategic as you make it!