WC Claims Adjusting Services
The Claims adjusting services can be found with an RFP for Workers Comp services. This is one of the “touchiest” subjects in Workers Comp right now with employers and governmental agencies. Risk Managers, company owners, CFO’s, and anyone in charge of their company’s Workers Compensation program are becoming very aware they may be spending too much in this area.
Quite often, a carrier or Third Party Administrator (TPA) will offer a package inside of their claims adjusting bid that may not be the most beneficial to their client. This may not be done on purpose. It is just the result of the very complicated services structure such as medical bill processing that exists in Workers Comp and disability claims environment.
One recent comment from a Risk Manager/CFO was that examining RFP’s for Workers Comp claims handling and all the other services was akin to “shopping for a car with all the different options.”I can understand that point. In looking over RFP’s from across the nation, there seems to be more attention to this point.
Many governmental agencies’ RFP’s now ask for only the claims processing fees, not the medical bill processing or the rehabilitation nurse fees to be calculated into the bid. In fact, quite a few have their own established “ala carte” services they have purchased to more effectively breakdown the costs.
A very large city school system has purchased each part of the Workers Comp claims adjusting services separately by purchasing each service from a different vendor. That may be taking the “ala carte” idea a little far.
I am presently reading an RFP from Indiana where the governmental agency specifically required a bid for claims adjusting and processing only.If any other services were mentioned, the bid would automatically be removed from consideration.
Are we getting to the point where the person(s) responsible for choosing the Workers Compensation claims adjusting vendors are going to have to do multiple RFP’s? If so, there would need to be at least five different ones.
I will be covering Workers Comp medical bill processing in my next post. It may be a shocker to some – which is a good thing.
