DebitModRelief · a program of Excelsure Insurance Services
Workers’ comp solutions for businesses with a debit experience mod
A debit ex-mod can mean higher premiums and fewer attractive insurance options.
We help businesses with challenging workers’ comp histories explore available coverage.
All states, California preferred · CA License #0E89987 · Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 5:00pm PT
What a mod does to the same premium
$45,000 a year of that premium is the mod — not payroll, not class code.
- California-based, all states welcome
- 24-hour first aid response
- Retroactive WCIRB data auditing
- Osha consulting services
- Claims management
- No cost to get a second opinion
- Return to work
- Safety Services
Sound familiar?
Is your experience mod hurting your business?
These are the situations we see most often. If more than one applies to you, it's worth a conversation.
Debit workers' comp premiums
Your payroll hasn't changed much, but the premium keeps climbing every renewal.
Difficulty finding coverage
Submissions come back declined, or the only quote you have is from one carrier.
Recent claims
One or two bad years are still following you through the rating period.
Non-renewal
Your carrier sent notice and you have a hard deadline to find a replacement.
Loss history issues
Open claims and stale reserves may be inflating the numbers behind your mod.
Debit experience modification rating
A mod above 1.00 applies a debit to your manual premium, year after year.
How we can help
A straightforward process, in four steps
No obligation at any point, and nothing is submitted to a carrier without your say-so.
- 1
Review your current workers' comp situation
Declarations page, current premium, class codes, renewal date. We start with what you already have — no lengthy application up front.
- 2
Audit four years of reported claims data
We pull your claims history from your previous carriers and read it line by line. Roughly 70% of the time we find reportable errors, which go to the WCIRB for correction — and we pursue the prior carrier for reimbursement.
- 3
Explore available carrier options
As an independent agency we approach the California markets writing your class code, including carriers that consider tougher loss histories, and we argue your safety credits with the underwriter directly.
- 4
Put the program to work on next year's mod
24-hour first aid response, fast return to work, and claims managed from hour one. This is the part that changes what your mod looks like two rating periods from now.
Excelsure program results
- of reported injuries resolved before becoming claims
- 87%of reported injuries resolved before becoming claims
- average first aid response time, 24 hours a day
- 45 minaverage first aid response time, 24 hours a day
- average time to place an injured employee back at work
- 2 daysaverage time to place an injured employee back at work
- of retroactive claim audits turn up reportable errors
- 70%of retroactive claim audits turn up reportable errors
What membership includes
The work that actually moves your mod
Shopping the market is the easy part. These are the services that change the claims data your mod is calculated from — the ones we run for every member.
24-hour first aid response
An injury reported at 2am gets a response at 2am. Getting care in front of an employee immediately is the single cheapest thing you can do about your mod, because the claim that never opens never enters your experience.
- Available 24 hours a day, every day, with a 45-minute average response time.
- 87% of reported injuries are resolved as first aid rather than becoming claims.
- Early, documented care measurably reduces the rate at which injuries turn into litigation.
- resolved without a claim
- 87%resolved without a claim
- average response
- 45 minaverage response
Fast, safe return to work
The longer an injured employee sits at home, the more the claim costs and the harder they are to bring back. We place people into appropriate modified duty quickly, and the numbers hold up.
- 98% placement success rate, averaging 2 days from injury to placement.
- Re-injury or litigation on placed employees runs under 0.01%.
- Over $4,000 average savings per claim.
- Avoids disability syndrome and protects morale across the rest of your crew.
- placement success
- 98%placement success
- average placement
- 2 daysaverage placement
- average saved per claim
- $4,000+average saved per claim
Claims management from hour one
What happens in the first two days sets the reserve, and the reserve is what your mod is rated on. We don't leave that window to chance.
- A strategy call within the first 24–48 hours of a clinic referral.
- Direct follow-up with the injured employee, so they hear from a person, not a form letter.
- All incident and injury forms filed correctly and on time.
- Medical treatment arranged and tracked through to resolution.
Retroactive data auditing
Your mod is calculated from data your previous carriers reported. When that data is wrong, you have been paying for someone else's clerical error — often for years.
- We obtain four years of claims data from your previous carriers.
- Every claim is reviewed for clerical and reporting errors.
- Confirmed errors are submitted to the WCIRB for correction.
- We then pursue your previous insurance companies for reimbursement.
- of audits find errors
- 70%of audits find errors
- average reimbursement
- $7,500+average reimbursement
Underwriting advocacy
Safety credits are discretionary, and underwriters award them to the accounts that make it easy to say yes. We build that case for you and argue it directly.
- We work with the carrier and the underwriter directly, not through a portal.
- Your safety program, training records, and return-to-work results are packaged as evidence.
- In our experience, a well-documented account is consistently rewarded with credits.
Anti-fraud training
Most fraudulent claims are opportunistic, and they stop being opportunistic once everyone in the room understands the consequences.
- Bilingual safety professionals present at a company-wide meeting.
- Employees hear plainly what filing a fraudulent workers' compensation claim actually risks.
- Delivered on your site, in the language your crew works in.
Safety training
A learning management system your supervisors can actually run, with a record of who completed what — which is exactly what an underwriter asks for.
- Courses assigned, tracked, and recorded through the LMS.
- Completion records double as documentation for safety credit submissions.
Consulting services
The employment-side support that usually arrives as a surprise invoice, included as part of membership.
- 100 hours of legal consulting per year.
- Sexual harassment prevention training.
- Unlimited consulting support.
- Employee handbook creation and review.
- Free cyber assessment.
- legal consulting per year
- 100 hrslegal consulting per year
A dedicated assessment team
Every member gets their own team, starting with a short session to walk through every service above and decide which ones matter for your operation.
- A 15–30 minute review session covering all services.
- A team assigned to your account rather than a general service line.
- to review every service
- 15–30 minto review every service
Figures shown are Excelsure program results reported across member accounts. Past results do not guarantee a particular outcome, premium, experience modification factor, or offer of coverage for any individual business.
The basics
What is an experience modification rate?
Your experience modification rate compares your workers’ compensation claims experience with businesses of similar size and type. A mod of 1.00 represents the benchmark.
A mod above 1.00 can increase workers’ compensation costs, while a mod below 1.00 can reduce them. It is applied as a multiplier against your manual premium, so the effect scales with the size of your payroll.
| Ex-Mod | Modified Premium |
|---|---|
| 0.80 | $80,000 |
| 1.00Benchmark | $100,000 |
| 1.20 | $120,000 |
| 1.50 | $150,000 |
Illustration using a $100,000 base premium. Actual premium depends on class codes, payroll, and carrier rates.
Experience mod calculator
Move the numbers to see how the mod changes what you pay.
Premium before the mod is applied. Your rating worksheet calls this the manual premium.
Approximate effect of mod
+$92,500
A mod above 1.00 applies a debit to your manual premium — this portion reflects loss history, not payroll or class code.
Estimates only, for illustration. Actual premium depends on class codes, payroll, carrier rates, schedule credits or debits, state rules, and your published experience modification factor. This is not a quote or an offer of coverage.
Not ready to talk yet?
Start with the handbook: X-Mod Made Simple
A plain-English guide to how your experience modification factor is calculated, what drives it up, and what you can do about it. Written by Mark Habibeh for owners, not underwriters.
- How the experience mod is actually calculated, in plain English
- Why one bad year follows you for three
- The reporting errors that quietly inflate your mod
- What you can do before renewal, and what's too late to fix
PDF, First Edition. Free, no call required.
No cost, no obligation
Request a workers' comp review
Three short steps. Most of it is optional — if all you have is a renewal date and a phone number, send that.
A response within one business day
Usually a short call to confirm the basics before we do anything else.
Nothing goes to a carrier without your approval
We agree on which markets to approach before any submission.
You can skip the form entirely
Call 714-252-7442 and we'll take the details over the phone.
- 1Contact
- 2Policy
- 3Finish
Prefer to talk it through?714-252-7442
Questions
Before you call
What counts as a debit experience mod?
Any mod above 1.00 means you're paying more than the benchmark for a business of your size and type. In practice, businesses start feeling it around 1.20 and above, where some carriers begin declining submissions outright regardless of price.
Can you actually lower my experience mod?
No agent can change a published mod by asking — the WCIRB calculates it from the payroll and claims your carriers reported. What we can do is check whether that reported data is right. We audit four years of claims history, and about 70% of the time we find clerical or reporting errors; those go to the WCIRB for correction, and we pursue your previous carriers for reimbursement, which has averaged over $7,500. Beyond that, the work is forward-looking: keeping injuries from becoming claims and getting people back to work fast, so the next rating period looks different.
My carrier just non-renewed us. How fast can you work?
Call us the day you get the notice. Marketing a difficult account takes time, and underwriters ask for loss runs, payroll records, and often a safety narrative. Sixty to ninety days is comfortable; less than thirty is tight but we'll still take a look.
Do I have to switch agents to talk to you?
No. Plenty of first conversations are just a second opinion on a renewal, and we'll tell you if what you already have is competitive. If we do approach markets on your behalf we'll agree on which ones first, so nobody is blocked out of a carrier by a duplicate submission.
What does the review cost?
Nothing. We're compensated by the carrier as commission if you place coverage through us, the same way your current agent is.
Which states do you work in?
We work in all states, with a preference that California is your domicile state. This program is built around California workers' comp — the WCIRB's rating rules, California class codes, and the carriers writing here.
Is this an insurance policy or a service program?
Both, and they work together. We place the coverage as your agent, and membership brings the program services with it: 24-hour first aid response, return-to-work placement, claims management, safety training, anti-fraud presentations, and the legal and HR consulting hours. The services are what move the numbers your premium is rated on.