The Next Generation of eDocs: Billing and Claims Digital Solutions to Save Brokers Time and Money

CSIO’s Innovation and Emerging Technology (INNOTECH) Billing and Claims Working Groups have chosen to leverage CSIOnet and the CSIO eDocs Standard to deliver electronic billing and claims notifications.

The Working Groups endorsed the use of CSIOnet and the successful eDocs Standard due to their industry wide adoption and familiarity among insurance providers – including more than 2,200 brokerages and all major insurers.

Background

The INNOTECH Advisory Committee, launched in August, 2019, was created to evaluate the application of existing, new and emerging technology and digital innovation in the P&C insurance industry. Comprised of a cross-section of industry stakeholders including insurers, brokers and representatives from the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC), the Committee identifies, shortlists and approves solutions to solve some of the most common industry pain points.

In March 2020, the Advisory Committee shortlisted billing and claims notifications as two priority industry pain points for developing digital solutions. Working Groups for billing and claims were then formed to further investigate the solutions.

Feeling the Pain

Arguably, two of the most important and ubiquitous client transactions in the industry are billing and claims inquiries that are unrelated to policy changes.

The current process is typically slow and unwieldly when customers have billing or claims questions. For brokers to respond to inquiries about claim status or billing changes, there is a certain amount of back and forth with the insurer creating a cumbersome customer service experience. Clearly, this gap in data exchange between insurers’ and brokers’ software prevents a seamless experience.

With no common workflow for these inquires, proprietary software systems used by insurers and brokers prevent the sharing of customer data – machines cannot talk to one another. As a result, valuable time is lost using inefficient and outdated methods causing brokers to be reactive rather than proactive.

Last June, CSIO conducted a survey about brokers’ experiences with the current process for handling billing and claims inquiries:

• 66% reported making at least one claims related phone call per day to an insurer
• 74% would like to receive a claims status update document as an eDoc
• 68% reported spending at least one hour per day supporting customers with billing related items
• 68% of brokers would like to receive a cancellation notice (billing document) as an eDoc

CSIOnet and CSIO eDocs Standard Make Brokers’ Lives Easier

CSIOnet is essentially the ‘information highway’ with which eDocs are sent and is the network for connectivity and data exchange between insurers and brokers in the P&C insurance industry. More than 38,000 brokers and 75 insurers connect with CSIOnet daily, and in excess of 45 million eDocs have been sent in the past year.

The CSIO eDocs Standard allows documents to be downloaded directly from an insurer’s system to a broker management system (BMS), via CSIOnet. eDocs are standardized which means that insurers and brokers who use eDocs structure their data in the agreed upon rules to enable any software to read and store that data.

In a recent CSIO member survey, brokers’ experiences with using the CSIO eDocs Standard was reflected in their highly positive feedback:

• 96% were “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with their eDocs experience – because eDocs supports a reduced need for paper resulting in more efficient workflows that allow for real-time, instantaneous transactions
• 79% indicated that eDocs were useful or very useful for Personal and Commercial Lines
• 73% reported savings of up to one hour per day by receiving eDocs

INNOTECH’S Billing and Claims Digital Solutions – Easy, Fast, Seamless

What the digital billing and claims solutions offer is the ability for insurers to send customer information to brokers as eDocs, through CSIOnet. The electronic information is clearly labeled and attached to a customer file. Brokers can view the file within their BMS and see key claims and billing details that were automatically delivered. And, eDocs reduces the need for paper among brokers, insurers and customers creating more efficient workflows that allow for real-time, instantaneous transactions.

Brokers and insurers are handed a practical and effective solution with accurate, up to date claims status and billing information. It is a giant step forward in the broker and insurer partnership and in providing exceptional customer service.

“Having critical processes digitized and automated within the claims and billing journeys will make a significant, positive impact for brokers and the customer experience. Eliminating manual work allows for greater productivity and efficiency for brokers, requiring less time contacting insurer partners and more time focusing on the customer,” says Catherine Smola, President & CEO of CSIO.

Learn more

To learn more about the INNOTECH billing and claims digital solutions, access the “Everything INNOTECH” course in CSIO’s Digital eLearning program . Brokers can find out how much time and money the solutions can save them by using CSIO’s Savings Calculator.