One of the greatest challenges we had in my old claim’s organization was getting adjusters to respond to inbound subrogation demands and arbs.   As one of the largest insurers in the nation these missed responses resulted in substantial payments that could have been avoided with a more robust subrogation response process in place.

Our situation was not unique but rather one that many insurers, TPA’s and self-insured’s grapple with.   Why does this phenomenon occur?  In our case we built an entire Six Sigma study around missed responses it came down to a very simple and predictable answer.  Adjusters were busy.  With a growing business, staff promotions, attrition, and ever evolving claims assignment models something simply had to give.

For today’s blog I want to share a recent case study from a Top 5 carrier.   They were challenged with a backlog of inbound arbitrations and asked SecondLook, a New York based subrogation firm, to assist them in addressing this challenge.

This response task involved months of work and thousands of files worth tens of millions of dollars.  At the end of the project the client evaluated their success based upon internal criteria and determined that the SecondLook response approach resulted in an $18 million dollar savings!

How can a response solution help you?

Everyone is busy.  A subro demand that doesn’t get responded to has a high probability of turning into an arbitration filing that doesn’t get responded to.    This will likely lead to an award for the filing company that will be paid by the company that failed to respond.   This is real money that adds up. Fast!

The SecondLook response solution was developed specifically to help carriers, TPA’s and self-insureds get out in front of volume challenges.  By leveraging this approach, it creates immediate bandwidth for adjusters and/or subrogation personnel to focus on higher probability, higher value claims to maximize bottom line results.

SecondLook has positioned itself as a leader in the subrogation space with a customized approach that is configurable to any organization.  Their mission is to fit into the claims ecosystem as a plug and play solution.   Unlike a one size fits all approach, SecondLook uses over 600 years of claims expertise to identify gaps in the end to end recovery process.    The result has been the recovery of over one billion dollars for clients.

Chris Tidball is an Executive Claims Consultant with SecondLook, a leading provider of subrogation and claims consulting services.  He spent more than 25 years with multiple leading carriers as an adjuster, manager, and executive.   He is the author of multiple books including Re-Adjusted:  Taking Your Claims Organization From Ordinary to Extraordinary.   He can be reached at ctidball@2ndlook.net.