Insurance Luminaries 2023 Claims Innovation Honorees
Claims Innovation honorees thoroughly understand the impact that a single claim has on policyholder satisfaction. (Part 2 of 5)
This marks the third year that PropertyCasualty360 has highlighted P&C insurance professionals and organizations that are pushing for fresh thinking around some of the most pressing issues of our time. This year, Insurance Luminaries are recognized in five categories that reflect the state of the industry: Claims Innovation, Coverage Innovation, Risk Management Innovation, Technology Innovation, and Innovation in Workplace Culture.
Honorees in the Claims Innovation category thoroughly understand the impact that a single claim can have on policyholder satisfaction. They foster progressive tools and practices to manage claims, and further fraud and claims mitigation.
Administrative Strategies
Company
Since its inception in 2010, independent adjusting firm Administrative Strategies (AdStrat) has demonstrated an innovative approach to adopting technology to improve the claims process. Under the guidance of President and CEO Linda Sullivan, AdStrat focuses on the goal of helping people through their most challenging circumstances. Rather than hiding its innovations as proprietary information, AdStrat shares the lessons learned to help the industry innovate faster collectively, improving the lives of everyone who depends on the assistance of the insurance industry in times of trouble.
In 2022, AdStrat worked with Verisk to determine how well Xactimate Mobile with LiDar could improve flood claims. The technology increased productivity, improved accuracy and decreased turnaround times, even when handling higher indemnity loss amounts and 1,000 claims — more than double the number of claims from the previous year. https://www.administrative-strategies.com/
Alpine Intel
Company
Alpine Intel’s innovative claims solutions provide unbiased and actionable intelligence, allowing adjusters to settle property and liability losses with confidence. Grounded, empirical methods drive their innovation, making them reliable solutions for the industry. Alpine Intel brings a customized approach to claims, always looking for new ways to make the claims process easier for adjusters and policyholders.
Alpine Intel’s response to Hurricane Ida revealed that many claimed windows are not actually damaged by storms. In 2022, the company employed this data to create a fixed-price window assessment product that mitigated indemnity leakage by properly matching replacement and repair recommendations to the window’s actual state at the point of claim. A similar approach to HVAC assessments could prevent indemnity leakage by an average of 61% per residential claim while helping to make policyholders whole more quickly. Meanwhile, the company shortened cycle times and improved customer service by reducing calls per claim, introducing text message-based surveys, and decreasing hold times. https://alpineintel.com/
Arturo
Company
Arturo is a portfolio intelligence provider that turns property data and insights into impactful intelligence of underwriting, risk, and claims. Their sophisticated AI models allow adjusters to understand historical conditions, current damage and future risk, allowing carriers to expedite assessments, streamline claims management, and predict their portfolio’s long-term health. Arturo has a 100% renewal rate, demonstrating how much their customers value the product.
Arturo customers can overlay event footprints on their book of business to see which policies might be affected. Accurate meteorological data and detailed property information supports allocation of human and capital resources, improving response times in the hardest-hit areas. In addition, the company’s sophisticated API quickly provides essential information, reducing cycle times by an average of 30 minutes per claim. https://arturo.ai/
Bill Brower
Individual
Bill Brower is the vice president of industry relations at Solera, where he advocates for numerous innovations to improve the company’s products, services and global impact through three key initiatives.
First, Brower supports a hybrid AI model for the claims experience. In addition to creating a fully touchless claims process, he wants to ensure that customers can immediately speak with a human if they desire.
Second, Brower helps drive ESG initiatives in the claims industry. Solera is an industry pioneer when it comes to defining, creating and standardizing an algorithm of carbon monoxide emissions tailored to the claims journey — a process in which Brower is intimately involved.
Finally, Brower is spearheading Solera’s DEI efforts by looking at the company’s hiring model and how it fits with the organization’s larger DEI goals. https://www.solera.com/
ClaimBuyout
Company
ClaimBuyout offers carriers and their policyholders a cutting-edge post-accident solution. Instead of waiting to repair damaged vehicles, policyholders can sell their damaged vehicle to ClaimBuyout in an average of just two days (referral to contract). Utilizing proprietary methodology and technology, ClaimBuyout can tailor offers specifically to each customer. When given an offer, 70% of customers take it.
In 2022, ClaimBuyout improved its product in several ways. They launched the ClaimBuyout Direct portal to meet the demands of adjusters who need quick and efficient access to the offer information. ClaimBuyout worked with adjusters, developers, and a leading collision estimating company to identify those vehicles that would receive the most benefit from a ClaimBuyout offer. Finally, they relaunched their website to better inform customers, insurance companies, and prospects about their services. https://claimbuyout.com/
Clearspeed
Company
Clearspeed’s voice analytics technology can quickly and accurately assess risk. With an accuracy rate greater than 97% as validated in a formal U.S. Department of Defense study, the technology gives insurers the confidence to expedite low-risk claims while flagging high-risk claims that require further review or investigation.
In the first year of using this technology, one client was able to pay some claims 30 times faster than before, while saving nearly $1 million in potential fraud losses. The client identified a more than 30 times return on investments.
Clearspeed also helps make the claims process more impartial. The voice analytics AI is unbiased with regard to race, gender, age, language, accent, location, socio-economic factors and all other variables. By removing bias from the claims process, Clearspeed also helps improve the customer experience of groups that have in the past struggled to be treated fairly by insurers. https://www.clearspeed.com/
Driver Technologies
Company
Driver Technologies is an AI-based mobility tech company delivering products and services to keep everyone protected on the road. Its mobile app, Driver, transforms a driver’s phone into a smart dash cam. Not only can users record their trip, but they can also receive safety alerts related to forward collision risk, driver drowsiness, and driver distraction.
Users have full control over their data, but many choose to share their data during the claims process, including video and telematics, in exchange for a discount. The Driver app not only provides data it collects but can incorporate data from third-party hardware.
A study involving 17,000 drivers showed that using the Driver dash cam made users 11 times less likely to speed, four times less likely to run stop signs, three times less likely to tailgate, and three times less likely to hard brake. Driver hopes that its safety scoring system, Driver Score, will become widely accepted as a third-party tool. https://drivertechnologies.com/
Expert.ai
Company
Expert.ai brings the AI capability of reading documents in the same way humans do, but in a fraction of the time. Its Platform for Insurance recognizes and aggregates key data, reducing the time spent reading and analyzing documents from hours to seconds. The product deploys a unique mix of natural language understanding and machine learning techniques to extract relevant data at speed and scale. The Platform for Insurance is uniquely trained for specific claims processes and can be customized for each client’s use.
The impact of this technology is significant. It can improve customer service by allowing handlers to access relevant data faster. Meanwhile, it can reduce hours spent reading documents by up to 90% and erroneous payouts by 5% to 20% by identifying fraud and policy issues. https://www.expert.ai/
Gain Life, Inc.
Company
Gain Life’s product Jarvis is a transformative AI-powered claims assistant for workers compensation improves the process for all parties. Organizations can reduce their claims costs, improve the claims experience, and deliver payments to claimants more efficiently.
Jarvis provides numerous simple benefits such as automating time-consuming tasks like data entry, document processing, e-signatures, and case management. It allows organizations to devote less time and resources to workers’ compensation so they can focus on their core business. Beyond this, Jarvis has the unique ability to identify psychosocial factors that can complicate claims. Jarvis identifies claimants experiencing stress and anxiety that can lead to claims escalating into litigation so organizations can take mitigating action early. Organizations utilizing Jarvis achieved a 20% reduction in claim costs (Med only) while also achieving a 15% improvement in claimant satisfaction. https://www.gainlife.com/
Maxwell Lin
Individual
Maxwell Lin embraces digital transformation by advocating for the adoption of advanced technologies in claims management. He understands that time is of the essence when a client needs assistance and champions the implementation of cutting-edge claims management software, mobile apps, and online portals, to enhance efficiency and transparency in the claims process.
Lin also actively engages in industry networks and associations dedicated to claims management and fraud prevention. Through close collaboration with peers, he gains insights into innovative practices, which he applies to enhance claims management and fraud mitigation efforts. Lin shares these insights within the company, organizing workshops and training programs focused on fraud awareness, interview techniques, and emerging industry innovations, he ensures that everyone in the company remains vigilant and capable of identifying potential fraud indicators. https://c3insurance.com/
Michael Pritt
Individual
Michael Pritt recognized the impact that large, devastating losses can have on individuals or families, as well as the claims professionals that support them. With the partnership of his employer, PURE Insurance, and a trauma-informed care expert, Pritt developed a trauma-informed care certification program for his colleagues, setting a new standard for the insurance industry.
The program teaches claims professionals how to recognize trauma symptoms and to acknowledge the role trauma may play in effectively communicating with someone going through a claim. Claims professionals learn to focus on helping members in a supportive way without exacerbating their trauma symptoms, giving them the time and grace needed to process their experience and then work through the claim in a more healing way. The training also benefits claims professionals, as they learn techniques to reduce empathy fatigue, burnout, and stress. https://www.pureinsurance.com/
PURE Insurance
Team
PURE Insurance sees personalizing the claims experience as a key area of opportunity for the industry, especially in the high-net-worth space where consumers tend to expect service that is tailored to their preferences and easy to navigate. The current market, with its rising insurance costs, has driven standards even higher.
PURE keeps information on members’ preferences — such as their preferred communication methods, payment methods, and contractors and repair shops — to ensure a more customized, high-touch experience. PURE also leverages technology to reduce administrative work for its adjusters so they can spend more face-to-face time with members. The combined effect is to build essential trust with clients and reduce friction in the claims process. https://www.pureinsurance.com/
QBE North America
Company
QBE North America was the first insurance company in the United States to fully integrate automated fraud detection software that utilizes metadata and internet search capabilities in its DETECTsystem Fraud Detection System (FDS). The system uses over 100 detection points when analyzing document metadata and conducts a web history search through the search engine TinEYE. FDS flags suspicious details, including alterations and whether files have been through suspicious software or editing programs. It also reveals whether submitted materials already reside on the web, such as previously filed claims or files posted on social media. The analysis takes about five seconds, and happens in the background, so it doesn’t impede customer service or the function of other programs. It discreetly notifies claims handlers about specific concerns to streamline verification and investigation.
Since its deployment, FDS has detected many fraud attempts and prevented payment of fraudulent claims, detecting fake receipts, invoices, estimates, and valuations as well as altered police reports and medical bills. https://www.qbe.com/us
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