Claims System To Save HB
$80K
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Anthony O'Donnell
Insurance & Technology, February 2003
Claims handling is one of the few opportunities that insurance
companies have to show value to customers, but traditional claims-handling
procedures involving cumbersome communications with multiple
parties do little to comfort customers in need.
For example, until recently at HB Group (Mississauga, ON) "sales
and service people would take the initial claims information,
the claim would be set up and then assigned to an adjuster, who
would get back to the client within 24 to 48 hours," relates
Keith Dalgleish, vice president, e-commerce.
To improve service HB Group initiated what it called the "One
Step" program at the end of 2000, dedicated to accomplishing
as much as possible during the customer's first phone call. "We
hoped to eliminate delays experienced by clients," Dalgleish
says. To do that, adjusters, administrators and supervisors,
as well as all the firm's preferred repair shops and rental companies,
needed to be tied together through "a communication mechanism
that would allow for a process that provides the customer with
the fastest response time and coordination with industry vendors," he
adds.
HB was approached by InsuroCity (acquired by Toronto-based Castek
in July 2001) with a proposal to use the Web to handle claim
assignments, as well as dispatch and exchange relevant information
among all claims parties through an ASP (application service
provider) solution, according to Dalgleish. Intrigued by the
proposal, HB considered a second vendor but stuck with InsuroCity
because "they were geographically close to us and they were
quite willing to deal with our own workflow as part of the process."
Having decided to run a 90-day pilot, running all automobile
physical damage claims from the carrier's Ontario business, HB
hired a former employee familiar with HB's systems architecture
to develop an extract of all policies in-force from the carrier's
legacy system, displaying all coverages and information-for only
CD$2,500, Dalgleish reports. The extract was set up to run once
a week and FTP'ed to the ASP.
HB staff contributed workflow analysis and browser front-end
training for all the participants. All other technology development
was handled by InsuroCity, according to Dalgleish. The pilot
of HB Group's application, called ClaimsPath, was launched in
June 2001. "We finished the pilot on-time in September and
found we had an overall 40 percent time reduction in initial...first-notice-of-loss
claims reporting," Dalgleish says.
The solution includes a claims journal that documents every
communication and has built-in triggers for ensuring service-level
performance, Dalgleish says. If a message to a vendor has not
been read within a defined period, an automatic message is sent
to the adjuster.
Today, "75 preferred body shops, 130 rental company locations,
65 general contractors, our salvage dealer network, electronic
replacement vendor and a property assessment company" are
on the system, Dalgleish relates. Functionality has been extended
to the Maritime provinces, and the Western provinces will be
added during 2003.
Big Savings
Not only has acceptance of the application been universally
positive, according to Dalgleish, but the value to the carrier
has been impressive. HB Group initially paid the vendor a per-transaction
fee, but going forward Castek will be paid per assignment by
the participants. Meanwhile, HB has "conservatively estimated
[CD]$80,000 savings for 2003," he asserts.
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Case Study Closeup
COMPANY:
HB Group, Mississauga, ON, more than CD$4.7 billion in assets.
LINES OF BUSINESS:
Group and personal lines home and auto.
VENDOR/TECHNOLOGY:
Castek (Toronto) ClaimsPath ASP claims communication and management
platform.
CHALLENGE:
Increase claims processing ease and efficiency.
This article orginally appeared in the February 2003
issue of Insurance
and Technology Magazine. Reprinted by Permission.