Special Advertising Section
Sharper Focus on
Claims Management
MSB
t’s Review: Jon, could you give us a quick overview
leverages better
of MSB’s businesses and, in particular, of MSB’s work in your
line, the claims market.
technology and B
es
KOst: For more than 70 years, MSB has provided data
more data to
and valuation solutions that enable better decision-making in insur-
help property
ance, real estate and government markets. We also provide outsourcing
and consulting services in the insurance space. In the claims area, we
insurers and provide data, technology, and analytical support for claims management
vendors improve
and claims estimating in the property space. We also help restoration
the claims
contractors and independent adjusting firms to collaborate with carri-
ers to facilitate productivity and customer service improvements.
process and BR: What are some of the trends that you’re seeing in the property Jonathan Kost,
outcomes.
claims market today?
Senior Vice President, Claims &
KOst: What we’re seeing today is more of a reliance on technology
Commercial Solutions Group
to process claims quickly and effectively. Seven or eight years ago, reli-
ance on technology to ensure adherence to proper property claims-han-
dling procedures was ill-founded. Technology was not smart enough at
“
One of the
that time to really support what the carriers were looking to achieve.
places where
Now technology has caught up. There’s a lot more intelligence that
value had not
has been built into the systems available today. As a result, companies begun to be
are able to focus in on very specific types of issues to generate more
dredged out
desirable outcomes through the use of specialized teams.
until lately was
BR: Are there special challenges to this trend toward specialization?
the interaction
KOst: Yes. The extreme segmentation that enables specialization
requires a lot more data, and it requires the data be of higher quality. It
between under-
can also cause some staffing and training challenges since the market
writing and
today is struggling to balance cost control and workforce management claims . . . I expect
against the benefits of specialization. So what we’re seeing is more com-
this to change
panies leveraging vendors to complete many of the specialized tasks.
significantly over
BR: In what kinds of services are vendors specializing?
the coming one
KOst: Some have a very strong focus on issues like fraud or spe-
cial investigations and some deal with specific types or parts of claims.
to two years.
”
We’re also seeing a lot of new controls being designed to assure con-
sistency internally at carriers and across vendor support organizations.
BR: What’s next on the horizon?
KOst: Leverage of granular data has really just begun. There are
a lot of places where we’re going to see data management, analyt-
ics and business rules employed in order to guide people to better
Listen to the
answers more quickly, more effectively and for a better result for
full interview
the consumer. One of the places where value had not begun to be
dredged out until lately was the interaction between underwriting
and claims. There’s a lot of data that’s captured about a property
and the things being insured on the underwriting side, but to date,
most of that hasn’t really been used for the claims side. Similarly,
claims is a very detailed process that involves very granular infor-
mation about specific properties and to date that information
hasn’t really been used for the benefit of underwriting. I expect
this to change significantly over the coming one to two years.
BR
n For the complete audio interview, visit www.bestreview.com/tech09.html.
Best’s Review Special Section 89
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