Top Benefits of a Claims and Underwriting Procedures Review

As insurers, you understand just how difficult it can be to keep up with everything that’s changing in the industry. In 2018, technology is playing an even bigger role than before; reinsurance rates are rising thanks to the natural disasters that plagued our country last year, and cyber insurance is something we are all trying to wrap our heads around. If you’re not careful, these substantial changes can seize control of your focus and overshadow the importance of day-to-day operations. A great step you can take to safeguard these daily activities is to conduct a claims and underwriting procedures review. The success of an insurance company is closely tied to the underwriting and claims departments. If there are challenges and issues plaguing this function, it can be difficult to focus on other critical areas of the business.

Common Pitfalls

In the aftermath of the numerous catastrophic events in recent years, we’ve seen patterns for multiple claims for the same event. We’ve also seen contractors artificially increasing the price of materials and obtaining reimbursement of nonexistent property. Fraudulent activity in personal and commercial automobile for both first and third-party claims has grown exponentially, to the level insurance industry works closely with federal and respective state governmental agencies in combating fraud. Our firm can help you avoid these common pitfalls and instead focus on improving and evolving.

To help clients, prospects and others understand the value a claims and underwriting review can offer, JLK Rosenberger has provided a summary of key points below.

Key Benefits

By utilizing this type of review service, you will see a great deal of process improvement. These improvements will ultimately turn into financial gains.

• Help with reduction in loss ratios.
• Reduction in cycle time of claims files, in essence, reduced cost (per) feature claim.
• Reduced litigation costs with earlier closures.
• Identification of specific (fraud) trends that may develop as ‘ring’ operations or due to catastrophic natural disasters.
• Compliance, both internal and with Departments of Insurance.
• Better retention of business with proper underwriting, both at the frontline and when a policy is due for renewal. This is accomplished when detailed information has been received and reviewed for sound decisions.
• Identification and prevention of ‘application fraud’ as this tends to occur due to natural or catastrophic disaster. What may transpire in the southeast, may affect the business model on the west coast, or vica versa.
• Development of specific workflow processes and dashboards in respective cost centers within claims and underwriting.

How can we do this?

The skills of our reviewers are the essential element. Our team is steeped with insurance expertise, including 20 years of in-house experience with property and casualty underwriting and claims management.