Full Claims Lifecycle Support Under One Roof, Part 1: Pre-Adjudication
The property insurance claims industry is currently experiencing a major evolution that seems to be impacting business from all directions. Claims operations leaders and adjusters are feeling the pressure of progressing customer expectations alongside increasing trends in claims surges. On the internal side of the business, experienced adjusters and contractors are leaving the industry, which is creating a significant staffing shortage at a time when incoming workforce expectations and demands are changing.
If you’re a leader in claims operations, you’re feverishly assessing solutions and technology that can help you:
- Create a best-in-class experience for policyholders.
- Establish manageable processes for staff that contribute to job satisfaction.
- Shorten claim processing time.
- Reduce loss adjustment expense (LAE).
Adapting to a New Claims Adjuster Workforce
One significant change that carriers are making to adapt to this new claims environment is to shift the focus of the traditional field adjuster role to a more desk-oriented position. Today’s claims adjuster coordinates and acquires accurate supporting resources to precisely adjudicate a claim and manage the policyholder relationship from first notice of loss to full restoration.
The Claims Technology Transformation
In this shifting claims model, carriers and adjusters have become more reliant on emerging insurance technology (InsurTech) to improve communication, reduce expenses, and ideally, streamline the claims process. However, the result so far has been a fragmented network of technology partners that is cumbersome for desk adjusters and leaders to manage. Desk adjusters are experiencing the fatigue of backlogged claims while they chase down contacts and piece together inconsistent or disjointed assessment records. Claims leaders are equally frustrated by quality control issues and wasted time bouncing between vendors.
Insurance companies that are leading the way in customer and staff satisfaction are turning to trusted partnerships with reliable claims support specialists like Hancock Claims Consultants.
In one call, Hancock Claims relieves the pressure by providing access to a full suite of tech-enabled services and a nationwide network of reliable experts. As a result, our carrier partners have benefited from time-saving efficiencies, reliable and accurate services, and satisfied policyholders nationwide.
How Hancock Uses Tech to Close Claims Faster—and Keep Them Closed
The needs of today’s successful desk adjuster go way beyond an on-site ladder assist. Hancock has evolved with those needs by investing heavily in claims technology and integrations that plugin with an insurer’s existing tech stack. As a result, we deliver improved efficiency and accuracy across our full suite of claims lifecycle services, from pre-adjudication to post-adjudication.
Our tech-forward approach has helped our carrier partners achieve the following KPIs:
Accelerate Pre-Adjudication With Streamlined Tech
For the remainder of this blog, we’re going to take a detailed look at how we use technology to accelerate the three major pre-adjudication steps and support streamlined workflows for desk adjusters.
Property Inspections
Using our instant scheduling technology, desk adjusters have on-demand access to a nationwide network of 500 techs who are available within 24 to 48 hours. In the face of a sudden claims surge, your claims team can scale quickly by scheduling interior and exterior inspections online or through our call center. From there, automated text and email notifications can be customized to keep carriers, adjusters and policyholders in the loop as much as necessary regarding scheduling and reporting.
Hancock’s team of certified, cost-effective technicians for roofs, exteriors and interiors are trained to ensure accuracy, accountability and professional customer service. Carriers can trust that their customers will be well cared for, and desk adjusters can move claims forward faster by eliminating back and forth with independent contractors. Offering additional services like ladder assist and emergency tarping and boarding services, Hancock has your inspections covered.
Estimations
Using the leading field-to-desk technology, our team of field inspectors can deliver accurate information directly to desk adjusters. While on-site, inspectors use an intuitive mobile app to navigate each step of the estimation process, ensuring precision and consistency with your company’s requirements.
Through our comprehensive evaluation process, Hancock provides:
- Detailed photo reports with captions clarifying on-site inspection findings.
- Accurate measurements of roofing, exterior, and interior damages.
- Damage repair estimates are rendered based on individual carrier estimating guidelines.
All information is packaged and sent to the desk adjuster, giving them everything needed to make well-informed claim decisions while cutting cycle time in half.
Contents Services
It’s common for the claims process to stall at the point of contents evaluation. When a policyholder looks at their belongings, they don’t see the fair market value. Reasonably, they see the emotional value, especially at a time when emotions are raw.
Hancock’s contents specialists serve as an objective third party, providing a compassionate helping hand to policyholders. Our specialists can deploy anywhere in the U.S. to help policyholders accurately assess and value their loss.
Every inspector arrives with a tablet loaded with inventory software that helps them quickly produce accurate inventory lists and valuations for each item. A real-time feed connects desk adjusters to each item uploaded into the database. Our experts freeze the list on-site, ensuring the inventory is accurate and no items are added post-evaluation. If a list already exists or on-site service is not needed, we will research and assign a value to each item for you.
Without leaving their office, desk adjusters can indemnify the policyholder faster and with confidence, the claim is closed for good.
Part 2: How Hancock Uses Technology to Improve Post-Adjudication
Once the claims decision is made, desk adjusters begin the often tedious process of sourcing specialized professionals to restore the policyholder and their property. In the second part of this blog, we’ll walk you through our two expert service lines, Preferred Expert Services and Preferred Repair Network. You’ll learn how we use technology to quickly deploy engineers and contractors from our vast network. And also, how we’re improving the desk adjuster and policyholder experience through automated communication tools.
Curious whether we can integrate with your internal systems and help process claims faster? Check out the full scope of Hancock’s tech-enabled claims lifecycle services.
