From inbound premium payments to outbound agency commission checks, a lot of money goes in and out of your insurance operation.
And when it comes to money, it’s not always plain sailing. Inevitably, there will be payments that don’t match up and confounding billing questions. These issues can become labor-intensive and time-consuming to deal with.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that more insurers are outsourcing premium payment services to specialist Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partners to accelerate their resolution rates and cut costs. The time and money that’s saved can be redirected into core revenue-generating activities and competencies.
This quickly translates into improved business performance and enhanced billing and remittance experiences for both customers and agents.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at why outsourcing premium services is the smart choice for forward-looking insurers.
Top 5 Reasons for Outsourcing Premium Services
1. Save Money
Staffing a full premium payment administration department can be a significant capital investment. Full-time staff also represent a fixed overhead cost as they need to be paid salaries and benefits. Hiring an extensive internal premium services team also means renting more office space and buying more office supplies and equipment.
When you work with a BPO partner to provide premium services support, you gain access to specialists in the field without needing to make any internal financial investments – which gives you a substantial cost advantage.
Learn more about Covenir’s Onshore Insurance BPO services. Frontline Services, Back Office Support, and Customer Communications options. We’re not an extension of your team, we ARE your team. Talk to us today.
2. Fewer Errors Means Less Risk
Without a dedicated and experienced team for payment services, your firm is more prone to errors during the payment administration process. Moreover, every insurance firm is susceptible to risks stemming from changing government regulations and evolving technologies. It’s all too easy to incur losses when payments aren’t handled diligently and with care. Worse still, if serious errors were to slip through the cracks, your entire firm’s reputation could be at risk.
Outsourcing your insurance premium services to a seasoned BPO partner specializing in this field can protect you from the risk of mistakes made by inexperienced or overworked staff. A premium services partner assumes the risk of the work they’re carrying out and employs professionals with relevant experience, thanks to the specific nature of their work. They’ll also employ people familiar with all applicable insurance payment and billing regulations, so you can rest easy knowing that compliance will be integrated into all your company’s operations.
3. Ensure Business Continuity
Employing a dedicated in-house premium services team introduces human resources risk. What happens if two or three of your top administrators decide to leave in the same month?
Outsourcing part of your premium services function is a smart way to mitigate personnel-related risk and enjoy predictable operations.
4. Boosts Productivity
As we touched on earlier, the world of premium payments is often characterized by payment exceptions, including bill rescheduling, unidentified payments, and pay plan requests. These can be among the most time-consuming parts of the back-office process and involve multiple calls and emails.
The best third-party premium services providers have the skills to manage and handle many payment issues and queries in one go. They can work with your firm’s internal premium services team and provide quick response times to debtors and other stakeholders. Ultimately, they streamline and complement the entire process.
5. Focus on What Matters
Payment checking, processing, and resolution activities can be demanding due to the required data validation. Often, insurance firms suffer because they allocate more resources to these kinds of back-office services, which takes their focus away from core, revenue-generating business activities.
By outsourcing your payment services, your in-house team has more time to focus on what matters – delivering top-notch customer service and pursuing opportunities for profitable growth.
Why Collaborate with Covenir for Payment Services?
Covenir’s team of premium and payment problem solvers can lighten your load in the following ways:
- Receive checks and post payments directly to your software via intelligent lockbox
- Resolve payment exceptions, including bill rescheduling, unidentified payments, and pay plan requests
- Disburse return premium and claim checks
- Disburse commission reports and checks
- Provide daily and monthly reconciliations
- Work within your banking platform to process chargebacks, positive pay decisioning,
acknowledgments, and more - A comprehensive quality control program
- Fully transparent and committed to keeping you informed
- All services are 100% onshore
Say goodbye to premium headaches with Covenir. Our team takes pride in being part of your team, not just an extension of it. With our help, you can achieve more in less time – without sacrificing quality or results.
Our services don’t stop at premium services support activities; they can extend to all aspects of the insurance lifecycle, such as underwriting support, FNOL, call center, and product service advisory.
To learn more about our premium services capabilities, contact us today at info@covenirbpo.com.