What is becoming increasingly clear in the last few weeks is just how much chaos and disorganization is going on inside insurance companies. Not only is it almost impossible to speak with claims handlers, it is also impossible to keep documentation updated because, according to them, “We can’t find it….we’ve had an outbreak of COVID so we’re behind…or we’ve lost it.”
COVID has been around for nearly a year now. Most employees were sent home to work remotely, but still things went pretty well. Now that we’re into about a year of reorganization, insurance internal processes couldn’t be worse. Apparently, the loss of centralized control over the administration of paperwork has set back many insurance companies. Excuses given seem to revolve around COVID and allegations that they are experiencing employee absences because of disease.
Whether true or not, the disorganization is putting a real glitch into getting paperwork processed, reviewed and liability decisions made. I would have thought that in a year insurers would have worked out any glitches in their claims processing system, even if it were only for profitability sake. A good recent example is Guardian who can’t seem to find proof of claim sent via U.S. Priority Mail Overnight Express, Signature Confirmation. The packet was signed for, and yet Guardian still can’t find it.
Guardian isn’t the only company who can’t seem to find things. Claims handlers are still reading less than 20 pages of files and will tell you, “It’s not in the file” when they aren’t reading back far enough. To say that insureds and claimants are frustrated is an understatement, because while threatening letters from insurers are setting up short deadlines, insurers still can’t find the paperwork when it gets there.
I’ve set up strategies of my own to hit insurers in their pocketbooks for late decisions due to negligence, but insurers may just yawn while claim delays are piling up. And, while insureds are having difficulty with the long delays, this kind of internal disorganization isn’t good for insurers either. I would have thought that any secondary accommodations to the claims review process could have been streamlined by now. But, it has not and it’s very likely, insureds will have to deal with,”I lost it, or can’t find it” for quite some time.
