Claims handling has a critical impact on the business—both financially and operationally—making it central to the organization’s strategic objectives. It is key to customer satisfaction, and so to growth. And as it accounts for more than 70 percent of the insurer’s expense base, it is a vital determinant of profitability.
Yet in most companies the claims department is significantly underperforming. This is due to cumbersome processes, poor allocation of tasks to skilled personnel, an inability to deal effectively with intricate, diverse insurance products, the growing burden of regulatory compliance, and an overly complex and therefore inefficient processing platform. Many initiatives intended to address these shortcomings have been “quick-hit” interventions and isolated point solutions – and have yielded disappointing results.
Accenture’s research and experience shows that claims handling represents the single greatest opportunity for property & casualty / general insurers to drive significant gains in business performance and customer service.
"A reputation for settling claims fairly and efficiently can give you an unassailable marketing advantage." — Michael Costonis
Michael Costonis,
Executive Director,
Insurance
Accenture has abundant experience helping insurers unlock hidden value by optimizing and industrializing their claims operations: reducing their complexity and maintenance requirements, and improving their functionality and efficiency. New processes and services are introduced, automation is extended, world-class operating metrics and capabilities are implemented, and a workforce is developed that uses the new capabilities to their best effect. The focus of these initiatives is on three key areas—loss cost containment, expense control and service enhancement—to ensure customers' expectations are met, growth is supported and costs are minimized.
The benefits of this service can include:
- Improved claims outcomes and settlement costs.
- Reduced unit cost per claim.
- Lower IT costs.
- Dramatically improved service to customers.
Related Research
Rethinking Claims: The only way to ensure a durable competitive advantage and high claims performance is to rethink the organization, embracing a new vision that is built on a foundation of human performance, information access and management, claims segmentation and organizational agility.
How World-Class Business Information Drives High Performance in Insurance.
Insurance companies need to manage enterprise information, since they face rigorous regulation and complex, information-rich value chains. Information management is central to their competitiveness and license to operate, and yet many insurers lack adequate insight to operate as high performers. What is needed is an approach to business intelligence (BI) that takes into account the challenges of the insurance industry.
Claims Masters: Achieving top-flight claims performance requires a high level of IT/business alignment to deliver high-tech, high-touch service in the customer’s hour of need, Insurance & Technology.
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