An NCCI Inc charge on your bill almost always traces back to one of two companies: NCCI Holdings, the workers’ compensation rating organization behind a penalty called the Audit Noncompliance Charge, or National Creditors Connection, a field-contact firm lenders hire to reach borrowers with past-due accounts. If you run a business and carry workers’ comp, it’s the first. If you’re a consumer with a delinquent loan, it’s usually the second.
The two are unrelated, and the fix is different for each. Most of what follows deals with the workers’ comp penalty, because that’s the version that produces large, unexpected bills.
Which NCCI Is Behind Your Charge
NCCI Holdings, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida, is the workers’ compensation industry’s rating and data organization. It writes classification rules and loss costs used by carriers in roughly 36 states and the District of Columbia. It does not bill employers directly. What appears on a statement as an “NCCI” line item is a penalty its rules authorize, applied by your insurance carrier.
National Creditors Connection, Inc., founded in 1992 and headquartered in Nevada, is a separate company. It sends agents to make in-person “field calls” on borrowers who have fallen behind on auto loans, mortgages, or credit union accounts. CU1, a credit union, describes NCCI as an “early intervention tool” it uses to help members resolve delinquencies. If a charge or notation from NCCI shows up alongside a consumer loan rather than a business insurance policy, this is the likely source.
What the Audit Noncompliance Charge Is
Workers’ comp premiums start as estimates based on projected payroll and job classifications. At the end of the policy term, the carrier runs a premium audit against actual payroll, tax filings, subcontractor certificates, and job descriptions. Underpaid the estimate? You owe the difference. Overpaid? You get a credit or refund.
The Audit Noncompliance Charge, or ANC, is what a carrier can bill when an employer refuses to cooperate with that audit. Without records, the carrier can’t verify the true premium. NCCI created the ANC through a filing called Item B-1429, which took effect for new and renewal policies on January 1, 2017. The filing set up a standard endorsement (form WC 00 04 24), a statistical reporting code (Code 9757), and the rules that carriers follow when an employer won’t participate.
How Much the Charge Can Be
Under NCCI’s national rule, a carrier can add up to two times the estimated annual premium as the noncompliance penalty. A policy with a $50,000 estimated premium can carry an ANC of up to $100,000 on top of the premium itself, for a $150,000 total. The charge sits outside the standard premium and is not run through experience rating, so it doesn’t feed directly into your future rate the way a claim would.
State surcharge levels vary. An AmTrust Financial announcement effective February 2020 grouped the states this way:
- 150 percent of estimated premium in most states, including Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, and Virginia.
- 200 percent in Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.
- 100 percent in Montana, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
Several states haven’t adopted the ANC at all. Texas rejected Item B-1429 in 2016 after its insurance commissioner concluded the charge could be unfairly discriminatory and excessive and that existing remedies, such as canceling the policy or estimating payroll, were enough. Alaska, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York were also listed in 2020 as non-adopting states, though Massachusetts runs its own version through its independent rating bureau.
What Has to Happen Before a Carrier Can Bill It
A carrier can’t apply the ANC just because you missed a call. NCCI’s rules require specific steps first, and if any of them are missing, the charge may be improper:
- The Audit Noncompliance Charge Endorsement (WC 00 04 24) has to be attached to the policy at the start of the term being audited. If it wasn’t on the policy, the carrier generally cannot impose the charge for that period.
- The carrier must make at least two good-faith attempts to get the audit information, spaced at least five business days apart under the Massachusetts version of the rule.
- A written final notice must go to the employer, sent by certified mail in some jurisdictions, warning that the ANC will be applied if the employer does not cooperate within a cure period. Massachusetts sets that period at ten days.
Only after all of that, and continued refusal, may the carrier bill the charge.
How to Get the Charge Removed
The most direct fix is to complete the audit. The endorsement and the NCCI rules both say that once an employer allows the carrier to examine and audit the relevant records, the carrier must revise the premium based on actual exposures and either refund the ANC or credit it against any outstanding balance. The statistical reporting rules line up with that: the carrier is required to submit a correction that deletes the Code 9757 charge and replaces the estimated data with audited figures.
If you believe the charge was applied improperly, NCCI runs a formal Dispute Resolution Process in the states it serves:
- Start with the carrier. Pay any undisputed portion of the premium and put the disputed amount, with your reasoning, in writing.
- If that fails, submit a written dispute to NCCI’s Dispute Resolution Services at DisputeResolution@ncci.com. NCCI assigns a consultant who contacts both sides and tries to broker an agreement.
- If the consultant can’t resolve it, request a hearing before your state’s Workers Compensation Appeals Board or Committee. Hearings are generally informal. Attorneys are permitted but not required. A written decision usually follows within 30 days.
- In some states, including Connecticut, an employer who loses at the board can appeal to the state insurance department within 30 days.
Massachusetts policyholders don’t have to pay the ANC while an appeal is pending, which takes some pressure off during the process.
Other Risks of Ignoring the Audit
The bill isn’t the only exposure. A carrier can cancel the workers’ comp policy for continued refusal to cooperate. For employers in a state’s assigned risk plan, the market of last resort for businesses that can’t get coverage voluntarily, the fallout is worse. Under the revised Assigned Carrier Performance Standard 1-C-6 established by Item B-1429, an employer hit with an ANC is treated as noncompliant and becomes ineligible for assigned risk coverage until the audit is completed or the required records are handed over. Paying the ANC alone does not restore eligibility. The audit itself has to happen.
When the NCCI on Your Statement Is National Creditors Connection
If you don’t own a business and don’t carry workers’ comp, the “NCCI” on your statement is far more likely National Creditors Connection. The company does in-person outreach, collateral inspections, and loss-mitigation work for credit unions, auto lenders, and mortgage servicers in all 50 states. A contact from NCCI in this context generally means a lender you already owe has hired the firm to reach you about a delinquent account. CU1’s member-support page advises anyone contacted by NCCI to call their credit union’s member assistance team directly, both to discuss options on the account and to confirm the contact is legitimate.