NEMT insurance renewal: a 120-day plan for a smaller increase and no lapse

When should a NEMT company start its insurance renewal?

Start about 120 days before the policy expires. The work that lowers the price happens before any insurer sees your file: clean loss runs, an accurate application, and a decision about who shops the account. Give that a month.

The insurers set the back end of the calendar. Some specialty programs will not review a submission early. RLI’s surplus lines NEMT program, for example, takes submissions only when the effective date is 90 days away or less, with loss runs valued within the last 90 days. Brokers and states set the other end. Louisiana’s Medicaid transportation rule wants proof of renewal in hand 48 hours before the old coverage ends.

This guide is your side of a normal renewal. If your insurer has sent a cancellation or a notice that it will not renew, the deadlines and options are different; see what to do when NEMT insurance is cancelled or not renewed. Buying coverage for the first time is covered in getting NEMT insurance.

The renewal calendar, day by day

Count backward from the expiration date on your declarations page.

1. Day 120. Request loss runs from your current insurer and every insurer from the past five years. Pull every broker, health plan, and facility contract signed since the last renewal and list each one’s limits and endorsements.
2. Day 105. Update the vehicle schedule, driver list, payroll by class, and revenue by payer. Write a short note on each claim in the loss runs.
3. Day 95. Meet your agent. Decide whether the account goes to market, which insurers it goes to, and whether a second agent takes any of them.
4. Day 90. Submissions go out. Answer underwriter questions within a day or two.
5. Day 60. Your current insurer’s terms should be in hand. In New York and Wisconsin, a renewal on worse terms needs written notice no later than 60 days before the policy expires.
6. Day 45. Compare every quote against the contract list from day 120, not just on price.
7. Day 30. Choose and bind in writing. Set up payment or a premium finance agreement.
8. Day 14. Certificates and endorsements go to every broker and facility.
9. Day 0. New policy in force, new expiration dates in your credential tracker, renewal file closed.

Order loss runs before anything else

Every insurer quoting your renewal will ask for loss runs, from the current insurer and the ones before it. Request them in writing on day 120.

State law can force a quick answer. In New York, an insurer must send loss information within 10 days of a written request from the first-named insured or its agent. That covers closed claims, open claims with the payments made, and reported occurrences. The insurer may charge a reasonable fee only for information it was not already required to give you. The loss runs glossary entry covers the deadlines in Florida, Oregon, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

Ask for runs valued recently. A loss run printed six months ago may show reserves that have since changed, and some programs refuse it: RLI wants runs valued within 90 days of the effective date.

Put what changed this year on the application

A renewal application that copies last year’s answers prices last year’s company. Update these before the agent submits:

• Vehicles. Every van added or sold, with VIN, garaging city, seating, and modifications such as lifts and stretcher mounts, plus the stated amount if you insure on stated value. RLI’s vehicle schedule asks for each of those fields.
• Drivers. An up-to-date driving record for each driver, plus the hire dates of new ones. The driver approval guide covers what underwriters look for.
• Operations. New service types, new counties or states, longer trips, and new payers. A first stretcher van or a move into long-distance trips changes the risk and belongs on the application.
• Contract limits. A contract signed this year may need more than your policy carries. WellTrans’s Indiana agreement, for example, sets auto liability at $1.5 million for each accident and accepts only certain covered auto symbols; the WellTrans broker guide lists the rest.
• Payroll and revenue. Use this year’s real figures. A low estimate comes back as a bill after the policy ends, as the premium audit guide explains.

Accuracy is not optional. The standard business auto form is void if you intentionally conceal or misrepresent a material fact about the policy, a covered auto, or a claim.

Explain each claim before the underwriter asks

Underwriters see a loss run as a list of dates and dollar amounts. Give them the story behind each line in one or two sentences: what happened, whether your driver was at fault, what the claim is expected to close at, and what you changed. For example, a rear-end collision followed by retraining and a following-distance rule reads differently from the same claim with no note.

Attach proof of the changes: the revised fleet safety program, training logs, a driver who was removed from the roster. Write the notes yourself and send them with the submission, so every insurer reads the same account.

Shopping your renewal without blocking your own markets

Shop only through agents you have authorized, and give each one a separate list of insurers. Most insurers will discuss an account only with its agent of record, so once one agent submits your company to an insurer, a second agent may not be able to get you a quote there. Two agents racing to the same insurers can leave you with fewer real quotes, not more.

Louisiana addresses this directly. When an insurer receives a producer of record letter on an application, its law requires a quote to the new producer based on that producer’s application, even if other quotes are outstanding. It also requires 10 calendar days’ written notice to the producer being replaced.

A broker of record letter is how you move an existing account from one agent to another with the same insurer:

• What it is. A letter you sign telling the insurer which agent represents you. New York’s insurance regulator has said it is an industry practice, with no statute or regulation setting its procedure or any notice to the old broker.
• The waiting period. A 2001 New York opinion described the custom of giving the incumbent broker 10 days to get you to sign a letter cancelling the change. The regulator treated that as a contract matter between the parties, not a rule.
• Virginia’s rule. An insurer must honor a written request to change agent of record, signed by you and the new agent, giving the policy number and naming you, the insurer, and the new agent, each with an address. The change takes effect at the next renewal, and the insurer must tell the current agent first.

Sign a broker of record letter only after you have decided to move the account. It is not a quote request.

Reading the renewal offer line by line

Compare offers against the contract list from day 120. Check the premium, each limit, deductibles, the covered auto symbols, the insurer’s status (licensed in your state or surplus lines), and the forms list. A new endorsement on the forms list can take away coverage your contracts require; the exclusions guide shows where to look.

Some states require warning before a worse renewal:

• New York. Written notice 60 to 120 days before expiration for a renewal with lower limits, less coverage, a higher deductible, a new exclusion, or a premium increase over 10 percent. Increases from more vehicles or payroll, experience or retrospective rating, or an audit are left out of the 10 percent test. The notice must give the specific reasons and the amount of the increase, or a reasonable estimate.
• Wisconsin. At least 60 days’ notice before renewing on less favorable terms or at a higher premium. A late notice delays the new terms until the full 60 days have run and lets you cancel; no notice at all continues the policy for another term at the old premium. The rule leaves out an increase under 25 percent that applies to the whole class of business, and an increase caused by your own change in the risk.

Other states’ windows, and what late notice does in each, are in the cancellation guide. A notice that arrives late can buy you time, so check its mailing date against your state’s rule before you accept terms.

Bind early and get proof to every broker

Bind in writing, then send proof. Brokers act on the paperwork they hold, so a missing certificate can cost you trips even while the new policy is in force.

• Louisiana Medicaid. For enrolled transportation companies (the rule calls them traditional providers, for-profit or non-profit), proof of renewal must reach the department or its designee at least 48 hours before coverage ends. A statement of coverage from the agent who wrote the policy is not accepted; the proof must show the coverage dates and a 30-day cancellation notice clause. If coverage expires, enrollment is suspended from that date.
• CareOregon. Proof of insurance is due at every renewal. During a lapse, the brokerage may pause new trip assignments, and trips already assigned for that period come off your schedule until you show coverage again.
• WellTrans. New certificates are due immediately on renewal, from an insurer authorized in the state with an A- or higher rating from A.M. Best.

Have your agent issue each certificate of insurance with the endorsements each contract names, such as additional insured status and notice of cancellation. Send them two weeks before expiration so a rejected certificate has time to be fixed.

After the renewal

Keep a renewal file: the submission, every quote, the notes on each claim, and the certificates sent. It becomes next year’s starting point. Expect a premium audit on the expiring policy if it was rated on payroll, sales, receipts, or miles, and tell your agent mid-term when a new contract changes those figures.

Renewal day in HealthRide

Each van and driver in HealthRide carries its insurance, registration, license, and certification dates. Reminders go out before anything lapses, and dispatch is warned before a trip goes to a van or driver with an expired credential. Enter the new policy dates once on renewal day and every record is current. Fleet management shows how expiration tracking works.