As a Consultant who manages disability claims nationally, I often hear the big picture of what’s going on, and lately I don’t like what I’m hearing. Government and state agencies no longer have the resources to provide insureds with much needed services.
A good example would be the caller yesterday who shared with me that he was unable to get in contact with the CA Department managing State Disability. Apparently, the phone message tells the caller to call back later in the day, but then isn’t available then either. How does one apply for CA State Disability then? Good question.
I ran into the same problem here in Maine a month ago when trying to contact a Maine Agency. The phone message was clear. “Call another time, there’s no one here to help you.” What the heck is going on”, I asked myself at the time.
Two years ago, a Unum claims handler told me that its Communication Center in Columbia, SC was a disorganized mess and that mail is more often lost than not. Apparently, this is playing out big time, and mail sent, even Certified, or US Priority isn’t making it to its destination.
I experience this myself with the amount of mail I send and receive. Nothing seems to be on time. I had to laugh one day when we didn’t receive any mail at all. I called the post office and the postmaster said, “Well, both of the delivery folk were out sick, so you’ll get today’s mail tomorrow.” Life in Maine.
While Maine is relatively insignificant, it is clear within the disability insurance industry, which is paper laden anyway, that inefficiency has taken over. This is just one of many concerns that insureds have with the current processing of claims.
Let’s not forget about the decentralization of insurance companies outsourcing the processing of claims as far away as South Africa. With untrained people “in charge” of multi-locational processing, the left hand doesn’t know what the right and left feet are doing.
Although with a perceived calmness to the claims process, insureds are sitting back comfortable in the chaos, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable. With overpayment checks floating around the company, I wouldn’t rely on negligence to get the job done.
Finally, there are complaints from insureds that they don’t have assigned “claims specialists” anymore, and that they can’t get in touch with any one person. It appears insurers assign TEAMS to claims, which means there are several people who manage claims depending on who is available at the time. Also, not a good system.
I don’t think this situation is going to get any better, unfortunately. So, heads up, and try to keep up with the insanity.
