Bringing the benefits of straight-through processing to P&C claims
P&C (re)insurers employ highly skilled claims adjusters to ensure their clients’ claims are managed promptly, professionally and fairly. The challenge for heads of claims is to make sure the members of their teams use their time as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Advanced claims management technology has a crucial role to play in enhancing their ability to do this. By automating low-value repetitive tasks, intelligent insurance claims software solutions like DOCOsoft’s straight-through processing (STP) service can dramatically improve adjusters’ productivity, while also driving improved outcomes for end-customers by getting uncontroversial claims paid sooner.
As new technology empowers P&C (re)insurance claims teams to reimagine the claims journey, solutions like STP can transform claims operations into more dynamic, efficient versions of themselves, better placed to deliver beneficial outcomes both for their clients and their bottom lines.
STP can reduce the time taken to process claims from FNOL to final resolution by eliminating manual intervention where it adds little or no value. According to a recent report from McKinsey, automation has the potential to reduce average claims journey costs by a third. When applied to the highly paid expert adjusters in the P&C (re)insurance space, the savings are likely to be higher still.
Clearly, STP is an approach that is most obviously applicable to run of the mill motor and household claims. There can still be some cultural resistance to the idea of straight-through processing in the big-ticket P&C world. But there’s a growing appreciation now that STP can prove both appropriate and advantageous when managing more complex claims.
Initial reservations quickly melt away when claims adjusters experience for themselves the improved job satisfaction that comes with spending less time on routine drudgery and more getting to grips with the tasks where their skills and experience make the most difference.
Worries about potentially problematic claims being fast-tracked through to an inappropriate resolution, similarly subside, when adjusters appreciate how flexible, sophisticated and rigorous STP solutions can be in filtering out anything requiring the human touch.
For example, DOCOsoft’s STP service enables users to define – and adjust – the precise parameters within which claims can be identified as eligible for STP, subject to adjuster approval. Configurable parameters include class of business, carrier code, role, transaction type, triage category and CAT code and financial metrics such as the value of the claims, carrier/bureau share, incurred/incurred movement, as well as lead reserve limit and lead reserve amount. Adjusters retain the ability to enter or remove any claims from STP at any time. This can be as simple as checking or unchecking an STP checkbox. Equally, if, for example, a new territory becomes subject to sanctions, all claims pertaining to it can be ejected from STP at a stroke.
Due to its highly flexible and adaptable configuration, users can dip a toe into DOCOsoft’s STP service as cautiously as they wish, then increase their STP eligibility appetite as they gain confidence in the process.
Developed initially to handle Lloyd’s and London market ECF claims, the base version of DOCOsoft’s STP service currently operates on a rules-based workflow model. But the option exists to adopt a more subtle and potentially powerful approach, configured to individual carriers’ needs, that applies AI and machine learning technology to determine whether claims are eligible for STP.
DOCOsoft’s STP service generates detailed granular reporting and MI on how, why and when claims have been routed via STP and/or subsequently ejected from it. Ownership of each claim remains with the assigned adjuster throughout. STP simply automates, within agreed parameters, tasks those adjusters would otherwise have to perform manually. In so doing, it creates significant process efficiencies and strips out inefficiencies, focusing human expertise where it is needed most.
If you would like to learn more about how DOCOsoft’s STP service could help your claims team operate more efficiently and productively, please contact me at jack.burgess@docosoft.com