Overcoming Cost Management Hurdles: Practical Solutions
Insurance companies administering automobile no-fault and workers’ compensation claims tend to understand the importance of cost management. However, overcoming cost management challenges can feel like a daunting task when your company is tasked with a multitude of other important priorities, such as indemnifying your claimants. There are a few practical solutions when it comes to overcoming the challenges of cost management within auto no-fault and work comp claims administration.
Improve cost management
One solution is to improve the efficiency of your adjusters and examiners. This can be exceptionally challenging, especially when your claims team members are already efficient. When it comes to improving efficiency, you may want to evaluate a few areas.
For instance, a customer care line offered by a provider partner can free up immense amounts of time for your adjusters and examiners. On one hand, the care line, when it is also opened up to claimants, allows your claimants to contact knowledgeable experts who will answer questions and assuage concerns as they arise. This leaves your adjusters and examiners free to work on other aspects of their claims aside from claimant communication.
On the other hand, adjusters and examiners may also call into this care line to get their questions answered. This further reduces administrative time on each claim since adjusters and examiners can receive immediate help on a question that comes up during one of their assigned claims, rather than spending countless minutes or even hours researching on their own.
Another practical solution for cost management pertains to pre-authorization. When you have pre-authorization in place for every claim you administer, you are assured that you are eliminating unnecessary payments to medical providers. Adjusters and examiners will no longer need to review each invoice to confirm that each physician prescribed service is directly related to a claimant’s injury, because all physician prescribed services must be pre-approved before being provided to the claimant.
When pre-authorization is paired with a credentialed network of medical providers, even more benefits are available to insurance companies and claimants. Insurers will be able to access contracted rates through the provider network, helping to hold down the cost of claims. Claimants will not need to pay for physician prescribed services out of their own pocket thanks to the combination of trusted medical providers in the network and pre-authorization, further reducing unnecessary expenses via the elimination of tasks like reimbursement requests.
The most practical solution in managing your company’s claims costs is to partner with an experienced durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and medical supplies (DMEPOS), pharmacy and ancillary service provider. Northwood is a trusted provider with over 30 years of experience and offers numerous processes and procedures designed to hold down claim costs while delivering excellent claimant care.
Hold down claim costs
Please call Rosanne Brugnoni at 586-755-3830 ext. 3771 to schedule a time to review the ways that a partnership with Northwood will benefit your insurance company as well as your claimants.