Innovative Thinking

Litigation Management | SPOT on Costs | SPOT on Ops

Time to Get Creative – Reducing Claim Costs without Sacrificing Quality (or your sanity)
BySuzanne Ganier November 22, 2010

In an environment of increased pressure to reduce costs and close claims, bright ideas can help to reduce legal costs while still ensuring great service. In this article, litigation expert Suzanne Ganier speaks about the importance of understanding what you know and what you don’t, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of those involved in the litigation process, and aligning those analyses with your organization’s philosophies. The result can be a litigation management process that reduces overall claim costs and preserves your sanity.

Read More Time to Get Creative – Reducing Claim Costs without Sacrificing Quality (or your sanity)
Best Practices | SPOT on Issues

Claims And The Investigative Journalist And Learning From All The President’s Men
ByMarc Lanzkowsky November 9, 2010

Investigating a claim is like being an investigative journalist. Using the story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and All the President’s Men, see how there is a relationship between investigative reporting and claims. In today’s post we also remind claim professionals how technology has truly made certain aspects of claims bette. Regardless, it is important not to forget what is most important in claims – the knowledge and skill of the claims professional’s ability to analyze fact and come to a reasoned and supported conclusion.

Read More Claims And The Investigative Journalist And Learning From All The President’s Men
Best Practices | SPOT on Issues

Promote Creative Thinking To Get The Most Out Of Your Claims Staff
ByMarc Lanzkowsky August 16, 2010August 13, 2010

Good workers are sometimes all that claims departments look for and, given the nature of claims these days, it is not a bad thing. There is so much to do and so little time to do it and good workers, however you define them, are great to have. But how often are creative thinkers looked for? In a video lecture from, Sir Ken Robinson, he asks why don’t we get the best out of people? He argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Do you recognize that employee in your organization? How should we promote creative thinking in the claims world – read more in today’s post at the Claims SPOT.

Read More Promote Creative Thinking To Get The Most Out Of Your Claims Staff
Best Practices | SPOT on Issues

3 Suggestions To Beat The Summer Slow Down In Claims (If You Do Slow Down)
ByMarc Lanzkowsky August 3, 2010August 2, 2010

It’s summer time and the living is easy!

Take advantage of the summer slow down and make changes, clean things up and improve your operation. In the latest post from the Claims SPOT see three suggestions for ways to use your summer effectively. One for the manager, one for the claims handler and one for the claims executive, suggestions to use the slow down to improve your operation. Take a look and suggest others – we would love to hear from you.

Read More 3 Suggestions To Beat The Summer Slow Down In Claims (If You Do Slow Down)
Best Practices | SPOT on Issues

Social Media And Claims Investigation: Do You Know About Foursquare?
ByChristian Stegmaier June 28, 2010June 28, 2010

Undoubtedly, you’ve read plenty of articles or have been to numerous presentations regarding the use of social media to investigate claimants. At this point, the novelty of Facebook and MySpace has worn off. The same can be said about Twitter. Everyone knows at this point to take a look at those platforms when searching a claimant’s background. Enough said. However, seemingly with every new day comes a new social media application. One relatively new application that you should also take a look at during your claims investigation is Foursquare.

Learn more from out latest contributor, Christian Stegmaier, JD and look for more articles from Christian in the weeks to come.

Read More Social Media And Claims Investigation: Do You Know About Foursquare?
Medical Malpractice | SPOT on Costs | SPOT on Issues

6 Steps To Reduce Expenses For Medical Experts As Suggested By The Expert
ByPhilip Lanzkowsky June 17, 2010June 15, 2010

The traditional method for preparing an expert is to send them the entire record and let them review for possible issues. Dr. Philip Lanzkowsky, a medical expert providing opinions and testimony on cases for both plaintiff’s and the defense, raises some practical questions and provides a series of suggestions as to how those expert costs can be reduced.

Read more in this interesting post of expense reduction of medical expert costs as suggested by the expert.

Read More 6 Steps To Reduce Expenses For Medical Experts As Suggested By The Expert
Best Practices | SPOT on Issues

Change Hats With Someone And Free Your Mind To Make Your Claims Operation Better
ByMarc Lanzkowsky June 9, 2010June 8, 2010

Don’t limit what you can imagine by what you know – look to others to help improve your claims department.

In Trading Places: A Smart Way to Change Your Mind, Harvard Business Review contributor, Bill Taylor discusses the “power of a whole new mindset about innovation.” The article goes into what happened when two CEO’s switched companies for a day and the learning that came from the new perspectives they had. The Claims SPOT discusses how having claims adjusters switch roles with different disciplines can be a new way to expand their skills. Having managers sit with other business divisions, such as underwriting or actuarial, can be a great way to get a better understanding of the entire insurance process outside of claims. And lastly, looking outside of claims and insurance altogether to change hats and free your mind to new ways to make your operation better.

Read More Change Hats With Someone And Free Your Mind To Make Your Claims Operation Better
SPOT on Costs

Cutting Costs Without Overloading The Claims Handler – Part 2 Of The Series
ByMarc Lanzkowsky April 6, 2010April 6, 2010

In part 2 of this series on cutting cost without overloading claim handlers I given an example of hiring a part-time employee to review legal bills. As noted, sometimes specific types of work, such as legal bill review, subrogation and anti-fraud, can best be handled by dedicated resources. Hiring a part-time employee that can focus on an area of claims is sometimes the best way to get results. Overworking claims handlers with additional tasks not part of their core job function – to evaluate and settle claims – can result in some aspect of their job suffering. Key cost cutting initiatives, such as Anti-Fraud and subrogation recovery, get put aside by the handler and never get the fullest attention needed to be successful. Take a look at the latest example of solutions that work.

Read More Cutting Costs Without Overloading The Claims Handler – Part 2 Of The Series