Author: Andrew

How to Leverage Data to Improve Claims Processing

Posted on

April 20th, 2020

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Insurance companies don’t often have frequent communication with their clients until a claim arises. While most insureds are fine with this limited interaction, how their insurance providers handle claims is the single most meaningful and telling interaction they have. If an insurance company mishandles the claim or fails to bring it to a satisfactory resolution quickly, they run the risk of losing a customer.

What Claimants Want

High-quality claims processes have three things in common: they’re fast, they’re efficient, and they’re transparent. Customers are no longer willing to accept vague or murky answers regarding where their claim is in the process. They also expect an error-free claim to receive their settlement quickly. Delays, mistakes, or confusion all cause insureds to reconsider their insurance provider.

Better data and automation can help insurance providers streamline their claims processes. The following are some of the ways insurance providers can utilize data:

  • Automatic first notice of loss (FNOL). First notice of loss occurs when the insured first reports the incident to their insurance provider. However, many vehicles come equipped with telematics that can detect accidents and injuries. While some vehicles will dial emergency services in the event of an accident, insurance providers can use this same technology to trigger a claim on the insured’s behalf. Vehicle sensors and video imagery can give insurance companies an idea of the extent of the damage to make sure the most relevant adjuster receives the claim.
  • Drones and satellite imagery. Similar to using vehicle telematics to initiate FNOL for car accidents, insurance companies can pull data from drones and satellites following major storms to identify damage to the insured person’s property. When the customer calls to report the loss, their provider can already be several steps into the claim to expedite the process and improve the insured’s experience during a stressful time.
  • Greater accuracy on repair timelines. When insureds file a claim for a vehicle loss or property damage, the first question on their minds is how long it will take to fix so they can resume their lives as usual. Insurers can pull from historical data to see how long certain repairs will take based on the type of damage or loss the insured reports.
  • Reduce fraud. Fraudulent claims increase costs, which increase premiums for all customers. By harnessing data from social media, insurers can identify fraudulent claims. Utilizing AI can also red flag cases that score high for fraudulent behavior.

Most insured don’t think about their insurance provider until they need to make a claim. How smoothly and quickly that claim processes play a significant role in customer satisfaction and retention. If your claims processes are frustrating customers or costing your insurance company business, Actec can help. Contact us to learn more about improving claims management.

How Will COVID-19 Affect Insurance Claims?

Posted on

April 13th, 2020

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So long as policyholders are up to date on their insurance, their coverage remains in effect. However, with the novel coronavirus, business as usual has taken on a drastically different meaning. Processing insurance claims requires greater connectivity and technological solutions than ever given the social distancing protocols recommended by the CDC.

Expect a Surge in Virtual Claims

Mobile apps and online dashboard are nothing new for many insurance providers. However, few are fully equipped to manage the entire claims process through the customer’s smartphone uploads. While touchless claims have been gaining in popularity, it’s been slow to implement for many carriers. Facing the realities of social distancing, many insurance providers are going to need to play catch up to allow customers to submit claims in a timely manner as well as receive fair compensation.

Some examples of how to implement virtual claims include:

  • Allowing customers to submit pictures from their phone to the mobile app
  • Allowing customers to take video footage to provide a closer look at damages related to their claim
  • Submitting police reports via the mobile app

For smaller claims, it’s possible that the customer can provide the appropriate photo or video documentation to assess the claim, identify the appropriate vendors or service providers to address any damages, and pay out applicable settlements.

What Insurance Providers are Doing to Help Clients Affected by COVID-19

Many insurers are taking steps to help relieve the pressure COVID-19 has put on many individuals and businesses. Some examples of the steps they’ve taken include:

  • Keeping policies active despite non-payment due to epidemic-related job loss
  • Establishing payment plans to reduce monthly statements for individuals who can’t make full payments due to the coronavirus
  • Allowing insurance employees to work remotely to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while still providing services to customers
  • Keeping call centers fully operational

Policyholders have high expectations of their insurance providers. A bad claims experience can lose customers, particularly during an already difficult time. Contact the experts at Actec to learn how we can help your insurance business improve claims management.

Biggest Work from Home Challenges Employees Face

Posted on

April 6th, 2020

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As more states issue stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19, many businesses are trying to implement work from home programs. This will allow them to keep operations going while complying with CDC recommendations for social distancing. While there are many benefits to working from home—no commute being one of the biggest ones—there are also several hurdles employees need to deal with in order to remain effective.

The following are some of the leading difficulties that will impede the success of a remote workforce:

  1. Employees working too much. Work is a job without end. There is no true finish line as more tasks follow on the heels of completed jobs. When working in a typical office building, employees have clear cues on when to begin and stop working. At home, those lines can become blurred and many employees may overwork as a result, which can lead to burnout. To avoid this, employers should set clear business hours and encourage employees to create boundaries between their workspace and the rest of their house such as creating a home office space.
  2. Prioritizing tasks. There are significantly more distractions at home than there are in the workplace. It’s easy for employees to get sidetracked by a sink full of dishes or watching TV during their lunch break. To mitigate wasted work hours, employees should focus on their most important tasks first. Many employees find certain tasks daunting and they’re less likely to procrastinate if they tackle those jobs first thing during the workday. This can set a momentum for a productive day.
  3. Household interruptions. In light of the coronavirus, many parents working from home will also likely have small children or spouses home with them as well. Establishing a workspace or office is critical to creating boundaries between family time and work time. Explaining to children and other household members why it’s important to avoid interruptions as well as setting consistent work hours can help limit these kinds of disruptions.
  4. Isolation. Switching from a typical office setup to a one-person work environment can be jarring for some employees. Loneliness and cabin fever can derail productivity so it’s important that employees incorporate socialization into their day. Downloading video chat apps or making a social phone call during lunch breaks can help ease the feelings of isolation.

Communication will also be a significant challenge as workplaces adjust to using chat programs and making calls to discuss projects rather than stopping by a coworker’s office or cubical. Actec understands the challenges employers face ensuring their workforce is productive. Contact us to learn more about managing employee’s time and attendance while working from home.

4 Things Insurance Companies Struggle to Do Well

Posted on

March 23rd, 2020

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Insurance is one of those expenses that seem burdensome up until the policyholder needs to make a claim. Whether the individual is in a car accident, experiences a loss due to flood damage, or any other covered incident, insurance becomes indispensable. However, there are many pain points for customers when it comes to their insurance providers. If insurers don’t take steps to rectify these issues, they may find their customers leaving in search of better insurance options.

The biggest areas where many insurance providers fall short include:

  1. Meeting young clients’ expectations. Millennials are more likely than other generations to shop around for a new insurance provider following a dissatisfying interaction. They expect emails or text updates about the status of their claims. They also expect to be able to access their claim information from the convenience of their phone on an app.
  2. Explaining insurance rates breakdown. Several factors affect insurance premiums. Insurance providers consider the type of car the customer drives as well as his or her age, gender, marital status, credit history, miles driven per year, and zip code before offering a rate. However, most insurers don’t explain how much weight they give to each category and this can make it difficult for insured customers to understand their premium or how to reduce it.
  3. Explaining coverage. Insurance providers know the terms of their policies inside and out. However, many insurance representatives struggle to present insurance products and packages in a way that is easy to digest for the average customer. Insurance jargon can confuse or mislead customers regarding their coverage.
  4. Processing claims correctly the first time around. Insurance companies want to resolve claims quickly just as much as the customer does, but several issues can trip them up in the process. Health insurance companies are notorious for claims processing errors. While claims processing has improved over the past decade, there are still a significant amount of denials. This leaves customers frustrated and drags out the settlement process.

The competition among insurance providers is fierce, as millennials have shown they have no qualms switching companies. One sour claim experience can result in the loss of a customer as well as any potential referrals that customer may have provided. To learn more about improving claim management, contact the experts at Actec.

How to Implement a Successful Work from Home Program in 5 Steps

Posted on

March 16th, 2020

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The novel coronavirus has made headlines for months and isn’t showing signs of stopping anytime soon. For many employers, the likelihood of business interruptions is no longer a potential that can wait unchecked. If schools and daycares close, employees will need to stay home to provide care for their children. This leaves employers in a quandary—how do they continue business as usual with a skeleton crew? For many, the answer will be allowing their workers to telecommute.

What a Telecommuting Workforce Will Look Like

Many companies offer flexible schedules or work from home options on certain days of the week already, as these are appealing benefits among millennials. Expanding this policy to allow employees to work 100% remote won’t be without its challenges. It will be even more difficult for businesses that have no exposure to such policies.

To implement a successful remote work policy, employers will need to know its limitations first. Not every job is suited to working from home so employers will still need to develop strategies or workarounds for jobs that are impossible to perform from home. Managers will be a vital resource to executives, as they should know which tasks are most suited to telework and which ones are not.

Employees will also need access to adequate equipment including, at a minimum, a computer with high-speed internet. While most households have these things, executives should be sure employees have the ability to attend teleconferences and maintain good communication while working from home.

How to Implement a Work from Home Policy

There will be a learning curve as employees and employers alike adjust to the change. Some employees may find they’re more comfortable working from home in their pajamas while others may dislike bringing work into the home. There may be communication hiccups as well so investing in a company chat program may help employees maintain the back-and-forth needed to keep projects moving.

To ensure the program is a success, employers should do the following:

  1. Start testing it now. Waiting until a closure happens and forces the company’s hand isn’t likely to be a smooth transition to remote working. To get a feel for how telecommuting would work, employers could implement the program on a one-day a week basis.
  2. Iron out the wrinkles. Establishing a telecommuting policy isn’t as simple as providing employees with a computer and access to the company network. Communication will be key to maintaining order. Investing in apps that focus on communication like chat programs, video conferencing, and more will help achieve that goal. In the testing phase, employers can identify problem areas and tweak the policy or find an application to resolve the issues.
  3. Establish work hours. This will be especially critical for workplaces that offer flexible scheduling. With employees clocking in and out at varying times of the day, chaos can quickly ensue. Employers will need to decide whether all employees must be available during the same hours of the day or if the work lends itself to a flexible schedule without issue.
  4. Recognize where it won’t work. Some jobs require employees to be onsite without any way to perform the work from home. Employers will need to determine a plan for those employees as well as how (and if) their business can continue to operate without them.

Businesses need to have a plan in place for how they will respond if shutdowns or illness forces their employees to remain at home for an extended period. At the bare minimum, employers should consider revising their absence policy. For example, progressive discipline policies may unfairly affect working parents or employees who have to remain home to care for an ill family member. Contact the experts at Actec to learn more about our absence management solutions.

How to Simplify Your Claims Processes to Improve Growth

Posted on

March 9th, 2020

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Filing an insurance claim is often a frustrating time for customers as they’ve likely experienced a loss. A claims process that is difficult or slow to produce results can further those aggravations and can cause customers to look elsewhere for their insurance coverage. There are a lot of factors that contribute to customer loyalty, and the claims experience tops that list.

Technology Band-Aids No Longer Bridging the Gap

Customer Pain Points

Insurance providers know that customers expect a mobile application and an online portal to manage their bills, policies, and claims. However, simply developing an app is not enough. Many forms still require customers to download and print them out to complete. Then they have to scan and upload the document.

This process is time-consuming and no longer realistic. The setup of a desktop computer with a separate printer has faded into technology history as more people rely on laptops. The need to print things in general has decreased as more industries get on board with electronic documents and signatures. Add in the cost of buying a printer and ink, and owning a printer becomes costly and unnecessary.

Electronic forms still pose problems for customers as well as many aren’t responsive. If the customer happens to be home and have access to their laptop, they can fill out the form. If they attempt to do so on their phone or tablet, however, many begin to experience compatibility problems. In a high-tech world, these kinds of difficulties are unacceptable to most insured customers.

Insurance Provider Pain Points

Even when insurance providers offer forms, they often lack the ability to capture the information contained within it. This means they have to manually carry over the information the customer provided, which takes time and is prone to human error. Many forms also lack all of the details insurance adjusters need to process the claim so they end up contacting the customer to ask for the information again. This aggravates the customer as it comes across as redundant and delays the claim.

Switching from paper to a truly high-tech digital process can save insurance representatives’ and adjusters’ valuable time processing claims, expedite the claim for the customer, and improve customer satisfaction with the overall claims process. The experts at Actec understand what insurance providers need out of their claims handling processes. Contact us to learn how we can help improve your claims intake, FNOL, and more.

How to Keep the Workplace Healthy to Prevent Business Interruptions

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March 2nd, 2020

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The novel coronavirus has made headlines for weeks and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. With infected Americans returning home from abroad, experts say it’s not a matter of if the virus spreads across the country but when and how severe the effects will be. The CDC confirmed the first case of the illness in the United States with no known origin—the individual hadn’t recently traveled to China or had close contact with anyone suffering from the illness. While the CDC hasn’t confirmed this is an instance of community spread, it’s a harbinger of illnesses to come.

What Businesses Can Do to Prepare

The CDC has three recommendations for what businesses can do now to lessen the spread of the illness outside of pharmaceutical means. These include:

  1. Urging employees to stay home when ill
  2. Canceling large gatherings of people such as conferences or training seminars
  3. Vigilantly cleaning surface in the office

In addition to encouraging employees to stay home when sick, businesses should also consider suspending the requirement to produce a doctor’s note for employees suffering from respiratory illnesses. Doctors’ offices will likely be operating at a hectic pace and doctor’s notes aren’t likely on their priority list. Employees should refrain from returning to work until their temperature has remained below 100.4F for a minimum of 24 hours without the assistance of medication.

As for the workplace, performing routine cleaning of all touchable surfaces is critical. As it’s still cold and flu season, it’s likely employees are already taking measures to protect themselves from airborne and contact illnesses. However, businesses should ensure surface cleanings include doorknobs, keyboards, and any other surface that employees touch that can be wiped down.

Posting signs about proper sneezing and coughing protocol can help prevent the spread of germs as well. In addition, many adults fail to wash their hands properly so businesses should also consider posting notices with guidelines near all sinks.

What to Do in the Event of Closures

Employees may have no choice but to stay home in the event of daycare or school closures. Businesses may opt to temporarily close as well if a certain percentage of the staff falls ill. However, not all businesses can withstand a prolonged shutdown. Businesses should consider updating policies regarding working from home as well as using teleconference tools.

There’s no way to predict where the coronavirus will spread or how it will affect businesses. Now is the time for companies to look at their sick leave policies and ensure employees understand all procedures regarding calling out, working from home if applicable, and returning to work.

Keeping track of office-wide illnesses can spiral out of control if businesses don’t have a solid absence reporting program in place. Contact the experts at Actec to learn more about absence management technology to track paid leave, identify absenteeism, and more.

How to Harness FNOL to Improve Customer Satisfaction

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February 24th, 2020

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It costs insurance providers a lot more money to obtain new customers than it does to retain existing ones. That’s why improving customer satisfaction is an ongoing process for most insurance companies. However, customers aren’t going to care about great rates if their experience filing a claim is a disastrous one. When the claims process is more arduous than the event that triggered the claim in the first place, insurance providers will quickly discover they have a retention problem on their hands.

Whether a policyholder is calling to report the damage to their home, their vehicle, or some other covered item, first notice of loss (FNOL) represents the single greatest opportunity to influence customer satisfaction. Insurers that manage the stress of the claim right from the start can help customers feel at ease. Any claim that has a rocky start is unlikely to improve in the eyes of the customer so insurance providers need to make FNOL count.

How to Help Put Customers at Ease During FNOL

Customers filing a claim are likely to be in a turbulent frame of mind. Insurance representatives can help put customers at ease in the following ways:

  • Be empathetic to the customer’s situation
  • Answer all questions that customer may have
  • Provide a clear picture of the claims process
  • Be direct in how long the claim should take from FNOL to settlement
  • Provide information on the next steps to simplify the claims process for the customer

If an insurance company fails to put a customer’s mind at ease about the outcome of the claim, they’re unlikely to secure that customer’s loyalty.

One of the most challenging aspects is getting a handle on empathy. It’s easy to offer condolences following FNOL, but that does nothing to ease the situation for the customer. Reacting to the reality of poor customer satisfaction following claims, many insurers are overhauling their approach to FNOL. Some examples include helping arrange estimates or coordinating with contractors on the insured’s behalf.

Building loyalty is challenging in the insurance industry and FNOL is the key to getting started. Helping the insured customer feel secure throughout the claim process starts when they first report the loss. To learn more about improving your claims process, contact the experts at Actec.

How to Prevent Time Theft in the Workplace

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February 17th, 2020

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Nearly three-fourths of businesses experience a problem known as time theft, which is when an employee receives income for time he or she didn’t work. This isn’t like sick leave or vacation leave, as the employee informs his or her employer of those absences. With time theft, the employee takes the pay on the sly and the employer is often none the wiser.

What is Buddy Punching?

Buddy punching is one of the most well-known forms of time theft and many employees don’t realize they’re doing anything wrong when they do it. Employees who are running late or need to leave a few minutes early will ask a coworker to punch in or out for them to avoid trouble with their boss. Most coworkers don’t view this as time theft but as one buddy doing another a favor.

A few minutes here and there may not seem like much, but time theft like this costs businesses across the country more than $373 million per year. For small businesses with numerous part-time employees, this could shake out to roughly $30,000 per year. Thankfully, businesses have a number of tactics available to them to prevent buddy punching:

  1. Develop clear rules and enforce them. Employers may think actions like buddy punching are clearly a bad idea, but that isn’t always the case. If attendance guidelines aren’t explicit, employees have room to interpret them on their own. Spelling out attendance rules in clear language allows employers to enforce them effectively.
  2. Stop using physical cards. While not many workplaces use antiquated punch machines these days, plenty still have physical cards that are easy to swipe in or out for a friend. Several online applications allow for digital timecards, which are less prone to buddy punching.
  3. Implement sensitive logins and passwords. While high-tech time cards are harder to falsify, it’s not impossible if employees share their logins to continue their buddy punching practices. Making ID numbers personal or sensitive will make employees less prone to sharing the information and thus cut down on buddy punching.
  4. Lean on technology. If all else fails, employers can turn to biometrics or geofencing to eliminate buddy punching. With biometrics, employees can’t scam the system since their thumbprint or facial recognition won’t match up correctly. Geofencing is also effective as it relies on GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell data to create a fence around the business. If the employee isn’t physically within that fence with their cellphone, they won’t be able to clock into work.

Businesses, especially small businesses, can’t afford to lose thousands of dollars every year for work their employees never performed. Eliminating time theft like buddy punching can help improve attendance as well as boost businesses’ bottom lines. However, buddy punching can be a symptom of a much larger issue. Employees who arrive late and leave early can be a sign of a burgeoning absenteeism problem. Contact the experts at Actec to learn how we can help your business improve attendance and reduce absenteeism.

4 Most Common Challenges of Insurance Claims

Posted on

February 10th, 2020

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Payers and providers are often at odds when it comes to filing insurance claims. While payers want clean claims free of errors, providers want prompt payment. These aren’t always adversarial goals, but frustrations and errors can happen if a payer or provider is hasty while processing a claim. Errors can take a while to fix which costs both parties in resources and time as they rework the claim.

Of all the challenges providers have to navigate while processing claims, the following are the most headache inducing:

  1. No or slow information from the payer. Following any service, providers code the claim and submit it to their payer. However, waiting for an update can be a long process that leaves many providers wondering when or if they’ll receive payment. As a result, many providers follow up frequently, which takes up valuable time.
  2. Claim denials. While a denial at least lets providers know where they stand in the claims process, it’s not the update they were hoping to receive. The denial process is often murky as payers aren’t always clear on the reason why they denied the claim.
  3. Vague feedback. Continuing with the above point, payers return claims unpaid for a variety of reasons, but they always include a code as to why. However, these codes can be vague and frustrating for providers such as claim/service lacks information. Without any specification as to what is missing, providers have to hunt and guess for the reason.
  4. Rules are different for every payer. Even if the services that providers offer never vary from person to person, the method of coding differs among payers. This makes it challenging to navigate the claims process as one payer may consider a submitted claim clean while another may reject that same claim. Compounding the problem, insurance claims rules change often with little notice, which can muddle claims as well.

Improving communication between payers and providers can help reduce rejected claims and expedite payment for services. However, submitting clean claims the first time around is also critical to saving time and reducing hassles. Implementing a full service claims management program can help achieve that goal. Contact the experts at Actec to learn more about improving claim management.