Doing battle in this hard market: while risk managers can't do much about premium increases, they are doing something to ease the burden of lengthy applications

Risk & Insurance, Sept 1, 2003 by John Otrompke

Good, of Rohm and Haas, says five years of technological growth have made it possible for him to improve his company's system. "'This is the current process in the industry," he says. "The property reports are published on paper and sent to various locations, which may or may not respond. The engineer needs the information for his review, but the chances are slim to none that the responses will ever be linked back to the report itself."

Good says the improvements make it easier at renewal time. "Now all the reports are issued via e-mail," he says. "When the inspector goes out to the facilities, we require our locations to respond in 30 days. Any time the underwriter wants to see the reports, we just give them a password and temporary access to our Web site," he says.

Jablonski of Hearst began in the firm's accounting department and experienced some of the data incompatibility headaches when he later moved into management information systems. "As far back as 1992, I found that the industry as a whole had an arcane way of manually collecting and crunching data," he says. Those were the days when his company was using mainframe-based applications called ASK OSCAR provided by The Hartford.

"In 1992, in order to review our claims filed with the carrier, I'd have to take two or three days off to sit down with a claims handler at one of their terminals to discuss whether we wanted to close a claim or change the reserves," he also says. "It was a tedious process which required me to be out of the office and in Dallas."

In 1998, Hearst switched to a system known as e-Carma, offered by Travelers, and these days Jablonski can also download all the pricing data into an Excel spreadsheet with the click of one button instead of using a fee-based a la carte system.

Risk managers, however, say it is still not enough to cope with the burdens of filing renewals.

Easing the Search For Breaks! Sprains And Strains

Over the past five years, new database technology available to risk managers has made industrial plants safer and more productive, says Chris Addieg, risk manager for San Francisco-based Del Monte Food Co.

"We used to have a lot of problems with a leg injury," he says, "but the technology has expanded the ability to code to a finer level." That has allowed Del Monte to replace pieces of equipment that took a physical toll on employees.

Technology has enabled Addieg to cut claims by 30 percent, allowing him to generate claims based on what kinds of workstations employees were using and what they were doing when they were injured. "We found that three people had gotten rotator cuff injuries on a certain piece of equipment," he says. "The coding helped us justify the cost of replacing that equipment."

Del Monte's database, maintained by NATLSCO (a TPA recently spun-off from Kemper Insurance Co.), also provides risk managers with the adjuster's notes used in reviewing an employee's medical record.

"Let's say I want to look at all back injuries involving more than $20,000 in reserves," says Addieg. "In the past the plant would know we had six slip-and-falls for $5,000, but with each passing year we've been able to give our locations a better understanding of how they were being charged back."