Automate Your Claims Handling Processes Using RPA

25th September 2019 | By Jan Cahill

Automated claims processing using RPA or Robotic Process Automation can help law firms, claims and insurance companies to create huge efficiencies and speed up processing times for claims handlers. 

Hiring robots or digital workers may sound like a daunting new technology, but RPA is now being adopted by many businesses due to the massive opportunities for increased productivity. This is particularly relevant for those with labour intensive manual processes such as the insurance and claims industry.  According to Gartner, the RPA market grew by 63% in 2018.   

RPA is accessible for businesses and organisations of all sizes.  It isn’t just for large companies willing to invest in their own platform, software and developers.  SME’s can access RPA As A Service through Cleardata’s Robocloud offering. This enables companies to hire digital workers via a simple monthly subscription, is scalable and can be used to meet the demands of seasonal high volumes in your claims workload. 

How much time could you save for your claims handlers?

To get started on your digital transformation journey, a good point is to look at the way claims and related paperwork arrives into your  businesses. Commonly this can be in multiple formats, with some claims arriving in electronic format via 3rd parties and a percentage arriving in paper format, together with associated documentation such as medical records.  

Incoming paperwork alone creates multiple tasks such as sorting, validating and digitisation on arrival as well as conversion into PDF readable files, document naming, upload and forwarding onto the relevant claims handler. 

Perform an analysis to discover how much time your claims processing handlers are spending on manual processes. Imagine if you could free up the average time per case on a daily basis. Read our recent case study to find out how we helped Winn Solicitors save 62 hours for their fee earning staff per week. 

Many organisations just tend to employ more and more claims handlers to cope with high demand and speed up efficiencies, but this in turn can increase overheads and affect profitability. 

Read our recent RPA case study for Impakt Claims Claims Processing Automation - RPA

Case Management

Opening and updating cases – timely manual data entry is required to open a case within the organisations case management system.  

  • By identifying and capturing key information from paperwork, apps, web portals and other forms of media Robocloud’s software robots can extract client information and open new cases within your case management system. 
  • Add incoming documents to cases – recognise existing claims numbers and other key data on incoming documents and add to case management system, with indexed metadata. 
  • Continuously update cases – the case management system can be updated automatically at each stage of the claims process using RPA, allowing the organisation to report on claims approaching completion and provide an email update to the client. 

Digitising paper records – despite pushing for records in digital format many claims companies still have to scan records on arrival which can be inefficient due to outdated scanners, quality issues and lack of experience. 

  • Digital Mailroom – Cleardata offers an outsourced digital mailroom service, allowing incoming mail to be scanned on arrival. The bureau is accredited for legal admissibility of electronic information and quality management. 
  • Intelligent capture – software can be used to automatically extract key fields and data from the incoming paperwork. Information can then be validated against existing databases. 
  • Deadline management – RPA can be utilised to recognise and extract key dates to your claims management system to ensure information is processed in line with key deadlines. 

Categorising & renaming documents  – often when obtaining records from 3rd parties records arrive in an unstructured format with no categorisation, meaning that it is the job of the agent to put records into a workable order.  Staff may also be performing repetitive OCR keyword searches within the documents to look for supporting information that assist with the claim.  

  • RPA can help classify documents based on certain rule sets and ensure the necessary information is contained within incoming records. An exceptions list can be produced for automated email notifications back to the client, or for claims handlers to action.

Chasing 3rd parties  – many claims advisers spend time chasing third parties for information either via email or over the phone. 

  • Our digital workforce can send emails to clients throughout various stages in the process to request information or keep customers updated.  

RPA should now be considered to combat these manual tasks, improve productivity and keep business costs under control. Here’s some key benefits:-

  • Free up time for fee earning claims handlers to spend on more profitable tasks
  • Quicker turnaround times for claims
  • Increase efficiency 
  • Higher data accuracy 
  • Improve customer satisfaction 

To find out more about Cleardata’s Robocloud RPA Service for claims management, contact our team on 0800 046 8086.