Khyati Dharamsi

Mumbai: General insurer Oriental Insurance has created a separate vertical to shorten the claims settlement period to 15 days from the earlier 78 days.

The move comes after a study by Boston Consultancy Group identified the areas that can help public sector general insurance companies be more competitive.

“We are setting up claims service centres in all the cities where we have more than seven branches and then slowly opening claims service centres in locations with five branches,” said M Ramadoss, chairman and managing director of Oriental Insurance Company, inaugurating the claims service centre in Mumbai.

Centres have earlier been opened at Delhi, Hyderabad and Jaipur, while a Patna launch is also on the cards. Explaining how the process to shorten claims settlement period will will help the company Ramadoss said, “The study by BCG found that only 15% of an employee’s time was spent on marketing the products,while the rest were spent only on registering and settling claims.”

So, by shifting the claims process to separate team, the other employees can focus on marketing the products. Reena Bhatnagar, deputy general manager of Oriental Insurance said, “Earlier, each individual looked after certain portions of the claims process. But, after the introduction of the service centre, one individual will handle the entire claim. He will do everything from registering the claim to completing the entire process.”

The shift from one person-one process to one person-entire process has helped the firm reduce settlement period to 15 days across centres and even 2-7 days in some centres. The earlier target was set at 22 days.

“However, the divisional offices will continue to settle the claims for the time being, until customers get adjusted to the model of the claims service centre,” Bhatnagar said.

The move would also help in accountability of the claims, said Ramadoss.

“As soon as a claim is registered the customer is informed about his customer service number along with the person who is responsible for the claim settlement. The details along with the number of the claims service centreperson’s number is informed to the customer via an SMS.”

As suggested by the central government other PSU general insurers too have been working on various aspects of improving the standards. Three of the four -United India Insurance, New India Assurance and Oriental Insurance - have employed the services of BCG, while the fourth player, National Insurance Company, has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as its consultancy.

Source : DNA