Individual employer group member requirements - Reenrollment

Employer's responsibility

To reenroll in the same retro group

You must:

• Maintain your L&I industrial insurance account so that it is in good standing at the time of reenrollment.

Note: You do not need to complete a new application for group membership to reenroll in future coverage period and the same retro group. L&I will automatically reenroll you in the existing retro group if your account is in good standing at the time of reenrollment. If you want to discontinue participating in the current retro group, you will need to notify L&I and the sponsoring organization of the retro group that you are leaving in writing prior to the first day of the new coverage period. If you want to change to a different retro group, you will need to contact the organization that sponsors the group you are interested in and notify L&I in writing of your decision to change retro groups before the applicable enrollment deadline. Failure of an employer to notify L&I of a decision to change groups may result in the employer being enrolled in the former group and not the new group.

• Participate for the entire coverage period unless you sell or close your business.

Sponsoring organization's responsibility

To reenroll existing members in your retro group for the next coverage period

You must:

• Secure authorization annually from members that want to continue to participate in your retro group.
• Keep these authorizations on file for the selected coverage year and subsequent adjustment periods. These records are to be made available for department inspection upon request.
• Notify L&I in writing of any changes (deletion) of participating members before the first day of the new coverage period.

Our responsibility

Unless the participating employer member of a retro group or the sponsoring organization notifies L&I in writing

We will:

• Automatically reenroll the employer member in the retro group for each subsequent coverage period provided the employer's L&I industrial insurance account is in good standing at the time of reenrollment.

Note: This procedure is intended to reduce the administrative burden on employers associated with the reenrollment process. A sponsoring organization can adopt a similar procedure to eliminate the need of the annual authorization by members. To do this the sponsoring organization must send L&I a letter outlining this intent and then send written notice to all affected members with a copy of the notice to L&I. This notice must indicate the method that a participating member must follow should they wish to not participate in the retro group in the future.

• Provide the organization with a list of businesses that are seeking to withdraw from the retro group they sponsor prior to the beginning date of the coverage period.

Note: The organization should contact members to verify the change. Often the member is not seeking to change plans but is simply confused by marketing material of another group. If we do not hear from the employer or the sponsoring organization, we will enroll the employer's business in the new group.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 51.18.010(1) (www.leg.wa.gov). 02-23-089, § 296-17-90413, filed 11/20/02, effective 1/1/03.]

This rule applies to retro coverage period(s) established prior to January 1, 2011.

The courts can take judicial notice of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) only as published by the Office of the Code Reviser (www.leg.wa.gov). The text contained in this Web page may reflect minor changes when compared with the WAC.

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