Digital Mailroom and claims processing solution increases customer satisfaction while lowering cost
The largest North American insurance company had multiple regional mail processing centers handling incoming claims, related correspondence and checks. It was faced with enormous pressure to become more efficient and reduce administrative costs while providing necessary document processing services to its business units.
Although these mail processing centers had admirably stayed on pace despite challenges such as increased labor costs and the need for equipment and technology investments, they could not meet the ever-changing service level requirements of the business units they supported and remain cost competitive.
Challenge
With a manual process of receiving correspondence, claim processing turnaround and response times were extensive. High level of errors were made due to lack of quality assurance checks and the number of employees needed to support operations was elevated due to the manual and time consuming paper process. The firm needed to improve efficiency and tracking, tighten turnaround times, ease work distribution and reduce costs.
Solution
EDM relocated the mailroom processing center to its headquarters in PA to simplify operations with all PO Box mail re-routed to the EDM facility. Barcode technology was incorporated into the process to track each mail container and verify turnaround times at each point in the process. Documents are scanned and imaged via high-speed IBML production scanners with index data from the files icaptured by OCR technology with the ability to extract data from unstructured documents.
The software extracts information such as the claimant name, date of birth and SSN, and uses those attributes to find the unique claim that the correspondence relates to. Data is then sent to one of over 140 queues validated against client-specific tables, ensuring that documents are forwarded to the correct department for further processing. The data is exported into EDM’s proprietary cloud-based document hosting system, EDM Online for client use with a turnaround time from mail receipt to export of data of 24 hours or less.
Results
By outsourcing their mailroom and claims processing systems to EDM, the firm now receives images of received mail within 24 hours of receipt. The firm reported the following significant benefits of using EDM’s Digital Mailroom for Claims Processing:
- Higher auto-adjudication rates resulting in lower processing costs and improved turnaround times which lessen state-imposed penalties for slow claims payment.
- Consolidation of facilities lowered overhead and operational costs and reporting and search capabilities allowed for insight to find any claim and its status quickly and easily. Confirmation of receipt to clients via text and email, resulted in higher client satisfaction and overall operational visibility into entire claims process across the organization, from management to client support was enabled.
Key Performance Indicators
10m
Images a year
24hrs
Images of received mail within 24 hours of receipt
24hrs
Turnaround time from mail receipt to export of data of 24 hours or less.