This guide shows you how claims management companies can best handle claims in high volumes.
Reports Provide Valuable Insights into How to Handle Claims
When considering how to handle claims in the most successful way, you should make the most of valuable reporting tools in your claims process. Reports provide a useful insight into how to handle claims based on what you have done previously. For new claims management companies, you may not have a full year’s trading to reflect on but there is still plenty of useful information to be found in any previous claims.
Bespoke business software allows you to select the reports that would be most useful for your business, and tailor that information to suit your needs. Fortunately, Logiclaim not only provides tailored reports, but you can also change your reporting criteria at any time, without having to use a third party to amend the reports for you. This gives you complete control in changing and updating your reports as your business changes too.
Consulting reports when you consider how to handle claims in high volumes will highlight areas your claims management company could have performed better. Look at what points in the claims process could benefit from streamlining or other improvements. Is there a stage in the claims process that is taking too long? Is there a specific criteria that you find is frequently missing from clients? Examine these potential weak spots in your claims process and build on that to move forwards. Particularly at times when you anticipate high volumes of claims, you want to make sure every step of the process is optimised.
Forecasting Will Help Prepare You for High Volumes of Claims
Reports, as mentioned above, will help you build a picture of what claims handling may look like moving forwards. Forecasting will help equip you with a plan for how to handle an influx of claims. Consider first of all the rates of claim activity you should expect throughout the year. Anything you can prepare for, you should be. If your business handles claims that have seasonal increases in frequency, you should use that information to help your business handle claims.
At times you can predict there will be a surge in claims, it’s worth taking precautions to ensure you are ready for an influx of new and returning customers. Is your onboarding process fully optimised? Do you need to hire temp staff to deal with the increased workload? Laying the groundwork early will help keep the process smooth when you are experiencing peaks in trade. Hiring staff as a response to a spike in claims can mean that they are not prepared when you really need them, as learning the technologies and processes can take time away from more crucial areas of the business during these times. Making sure you are prepared in advance means staff can learn and get up to speed ahead of time, preparing them for the increased capacity around peak times.
If you are making changes within your business, however small, you should also consider this when forecasting your business for the year. Do you have necessary updates to carry out with your claims technology? Are you making changes to your processes? Ask yourself if this will impede your ability to handle claims in high volumes, and how you can avoid disrupting your business in this way.
There are several reasons why you might see a surge in claims and some you won’t be able to forecast. The Coronavirus, for example, has had a significant impact on the claims industry for a multitude of reasons, but this isn’t something anyone, let alone the claims industry, could have predicted. There are opportunities to preempt a surge in come claims though, depending on the claim type. Weather conditions can increase the likelihood of cancelled holiday claims. You may see a change in claims types around Christmas and either a dip in claims or an increase, so again check how historically seasonal events have affected the number of claims you are processing as a business.
Consider Factors Beyond Technology
While excellent online claims software can revolutionise your claims management company, it isn’t the only factor in how to handle large quantities of claims. Consider the factors beyond technology that may also be areas for improvement in your business. Are your staff sufficiently trained? Logican provides training consultations to get the most out of your software. Having a team well trained in understanding and using your claims management software will help them to process claims in the most efficient way.
Claims management companies that have a broad portfolio of claims types should take individual approaches depending on the claim type. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ system for processing claims. High value, complex claims will require handling differently to the high volume, lower value claims. Consider how your processes should differ between your varied claim types. As you diversify your business, you should commit to a best practice not only in general claims processing but also more specific best practices within individual claim types.
