Insurance E-billing Practices Slow to Take Hold: Ward Group Study

Ward Group, a provider of benchmarking and research studies to the insurance industry, recently published its findings from a study of billing and collections practices for insurance companies and identified several notable payment trends.

The majority of personal lines premium is paid on a monthly basis (40 percent), followed closely by annual payments. However, nearly 58 percent of personal premium is paid via paper check transactions and only 33 percent is collected electronically via electronic fund transfer (EFT) or credit card. For commercial lines, 31 percent of premium is paid on a monthly basis, however less than 14 percent is collected electronically.

A diverse group of 74 companies participated in this study, which was sponsored by Fifth Third Bank. Key findings of the study were recently presented to participants in a webinar hosted by Jeff Rieder, president of Ward Group and Jodi McIntosh, vice president, treasury management officer at Fifth Third Bank.