The Claims Luminary Award recognizes a claims leader who has made significant contributions within their claims organizationm and that description sums up what Kay and his team do every day.

“I pride myself on our customer service,” he explains. “Everything today is technology and when you lose the face-to-face aspect you lose that personal perspective. I keep in mind that it's a person at the other end of the claim.”

Within the company, he is known as a customer advocate and is willing to share his knowledge with colleagues and customers alike. His actions and innovations have improved efficiency within the company while earning high praise from his customers.

One of the processes Kay implemented arose out of the company's decision to apply the LEAN Six Sigma methodology, which promotes a collaborative team approach to improve performance and reduce waste within an organization. Kay supervises seven people and everyone deals with multiple coverage issues. He and his team were selected to lead a pilot program that gave more autonomy and authority to claims handlers as part of managing the claims process, allowing them to adjudicate claims faster up to a certain level. The pilot was extremely successful and has since been expanded to include other teams within the company.

Kay also spent a considerable amount of time working to implement auto-adjudication to the claims department. Because the company offers a number of different types of coverage, it was important to find a way to process claims faster and make the process easier for policyholders.

He helped to devise a method to fast-track the claims so customers could be paid more quickly based on some predetermined criteria. Since the company has a large number of repeat customers, improving the process really matters to them. The changes allowed the company to resolve over 15,000 claims within an average of 48 hours.

Brandon Kay and Patti Harman, editor-in-chief of Claims magazine. (Photo: Daniel Gray Photography)

Technology's impact

Kay started working for CSA over seven years ago and has seen a number of significant changes in that period. “When I first started, all of our files were paper files,” he remembers. “You'd have 70 claims files on your desk with colored tabs, so when someone called you had to physically pull their file out and look for it. Now everything is electronic and technology is really changing things.”

While not everyone appreciates these innovations, Kay can definitely see the benefits of digitizing the files. “The move from paper to technology has been huge. Some people still prefer paper, but others want to do everything online. E-claims should make everything faster and easier.”

Brandon Kay (Daniel Gray Photography)

Kay says anything that improves the customer experience is helpful.

“The culture they've built in the company is very customer focused,” explains Kay. “We take all of the feedback and use what we can to change the process and make it better. It's a great culture.”

While Kay knew that he had been nominated for the award, it was still a surprise to learn that he had actually won. “I was so honored that our entire team was recognized for this,” says Kay. “I was taught to treat claims like people. When I found out I won, I was more excited to share it with everyone and have all of us recognized for trying to improve the claims experience. I was very proud that we won.”

Each claim is important to Kay and his team. He remembers one customer who was overseas and needed to be flown back because he had broken his leg. On the way to the airport, the client tripped and broke his other leg.

“They had put him in a soft cast for the first broken leg and he fell. I thought he was pulling my leg at first when he said he had broken the other leg!” recounted Kay.

Every aspect of the claims experience requires Kay and his team to provide stellar service for their customers. And it's a challenge they are more than equipped to meet. Kay says, “We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. If everyone had that attitude, it would definitely make the world a better place. And we really focus on that at CSA.”

Patricia L. Harman ([email protected]) is editor-in-chief of Claims magazine.

Related: The changing face of insurance leadership