Finally, Pain Free Supplemental Claims
It is often difficult to accurately capture all of the information for a claim settlement. For example, an auto insurance adjuster is unable to document the damage that is hidden and invisible to the naked eye. Only after damaged vehicle parts are removed can additional damage be discovered. The follow up claims that include newly discovered damage are referred to as supplemental claims.
This means that for every inspection and claim adjustment, there is a significant likelihood that additional damage may be discovered. 30% of auto claims result in inoperable vehicles that almost in every case require supplemental claims to be filed as the auto body shops disassemble them for repair. Compare this statistic with a total of $261 billion dollars in annual claims settlements, this accounts to significant costs associated with supplemental claim handing.
Large volumes of supplemental claims present many operational challenges that ultimately result in higher claim handling costs. To handle these types of claims, carriers employ a large number of mobile vehicle adjusters in the field whose sole responsibility is to drive from shop to shop to document the claims. If the number of claims exceeds vehicle adjuster capacity to close them, the vehicle repair progress stops, often incurring additional car rental and vehicle storage costs. Hence, the main question is how an insurance carrier can improve the efficiency and productivity of supplemental claim adjustment.
To solve this challenge, some carriers have turned to real-time visual technology that delivers a live stream from the shop to the auto adjuster. Imagine a shop manager being able to use a mobile device to supply a live video to demonstrate the full extent of the discovered damage in the supplemental claim. Since the video is live and includes metadata, such as GPS coordinates and the ability to capture high quality pictures along with storing the video during the interaction, this process allows making the supplemental claims adjustment completely virtual with significant efficiency and productivity.
This is not a new concept as pictures have been applied to improve the auto claim process efficiency for quite some time, however, pictures have had a limited application in that they required an experienced claims adjuster to accurately capture and document the right type and amount of information detail. Live streaming capabilities with the use of the mobile devices are finally lifting the impediment on the skill level necessary to capture the visual information.
Being able to see what a customer or a body shop manager sees live in real-time, the claims adjuster can serve as the guide to position the customer or the body shop manager to capture the right information necessary to handle the supplemental claim. This means disrupting the standard supplemental claims handling by eliminating the logistics and planning necessary to handle these claims in the field and instead transitioning to handle these claims completely in-house via virtual visual platforms and virtual teams of adjusters.