The Law Offices of Bradford & Barthel’s Audit Team has helped clients save millions on state-mandated workers’ compensation audits during the last 22 years by giving clients unmatched expertise on best practices and audit strategies.
The firm features a team of experienced claims specialists, and defense attorneys who are skilled in workers’ compensation best practices, and can provide detailed answers to claims managers, executives and adjusters.
Audits have one feature that make them characteristically unfair, which is that someone else is playing Monday-morning quarterback and calling every single decision a claims unit made on a claim. While Monday-morning quarterbacking is something that is not new to the workers’ compensation system, it can be unfair when the Monday-morning quarterback has unique statutory interpretations and ignores other relevant statutes and regulations.
That’s where B&B’s team of experts can help. Certified Claims Specialist Sherri Dozier is the head of the Audit Team, and specializes in helping clients prepare for and address PAR Audits.
Duane Matsunaga and Jeannine Lewis are also members of the Audit Team, and specialize in different types of audits. Matsunaga focuses in auditing law firm work product to ensure best practices in compliance with litigation guidelines. Lewis specializes in ensuring that Alternative Dispute Resolution systems adhere to standards set forth in collective bargaining agreements (CBA).
When the Audit Team needs help with statutory and regulatory interpretation during an audit, they will call on Bradford & Barthel partners and attorneys for detailed analysis of the law.
PAR AUDITS
Dozier said that the preparation process for PAR Audits actually begins long before the audit occurs. She has split the PAR Audit preparation process into the following phases:
- Audit preparation, which consists of identifying potential problem areas, correcting them, and improving overall best practices;
- Audit notification, with explanations for what the client should do and not do;
- Working with the client on the PAR audit as it happens;
- Providing defenses and additional support if the audit goes beyond PAR;
- Doing a post-PAR audit review to identify other areas to improve upon going forward.
This approach has helped Dozier save clients millions. Her first review helped reduce a client’s audit penalty from $1.2 million down to $56,000, and since then, Dozier has gone on to save clients countless dollars and headaches.
THE ROSTER
The Audit Team’s roster includes:
- Dozier, the head of the Audit Team, has helped B&B clients with PAR Audits for 22 years, and has 37 years in workers’ compensation claims. She has numerous workers’ compensation licenses and certifications including being a Claims Specialist, and spent decades working on and managing a claims desk for large carriers. Dozier has been with Bradford and Barthel for 24 years and also serves as a specialist for large loss claims. She is also a certified paralegal and nurse.
- Jeannine Lewis has more than 34 years of experience in the workers’ compensation industry in claims and claims management for various insurance companies in California and on a national basis. She has been with Bradford and Barthel for more than 14 years. While Lewis helps train clients, she also helps set up new collectively bargained workers’ compensation alternative-dispute resolution (ADR) programs for clients and performs claim audits on these unique programs.
- Duane Matsunaga has 34 years of workers’ compensation and liability claims experience, including management positions for both insurance carriers and third-party administrators. When he is not helping clients, Matsunaga helps the firm by performing internal audits on the firm’s files, and gives constructive feedback to defense attorneys within the firm.
EDUCATION
In addition to preparing clients for PAR Audits, Dozier and the Audit Team also give best practices webinars and trainings to help clients avoid audit troubles in the future. Because after all, nothing helps passing PAR more than having a well-established uniform claims department that follows best regulatory claims practices in the first place.
If you have questions about best practices or audit unit questions, please feel free to go here or contact Sherri Dozier at (909) 224-4658 or via email at sdozier@bradfordbarthel.com. And please stay tuned to the Bradford and Barthel blog for more audit-related content, as we will have more posts on best practices and frequently-asked questions (FAQs) in the future.
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