Chameleon are set to roll out their third party assistance broker and insurance service on fault and non-fault claims, following the first results from an ongoing pilot which has proven significant cost savings in Road Traffic Accident personal injury claims by demonstrating that not every claim is a whiplash.
The initial findings of the pilot are so significant that Chameleon believe the model they have developed for brokers and insurance companies will bring an end to the debate around the ‘whiplash culture’ and remove thousands of unnecessary claims from the current system, which has been so critisised in recent months.
Using a triage system and the Initial Medical Assessment (IMA) product, pioneered by key suppliers, and already successfully used by AXA Insurance on their unrepresented RTA claims and also extensively by AVIVA on their award winning “Back-up’ private medical insurance product, the IMA screening questionnaire, developed by the world’s leading experts in injury diagnostics is able to filter a claim into the appropriate pathway of injury and treatment and, in the case of an RTA, identify symptoms of a whiplash or other likely soft tissue injury using a scoring system. The IMA has been able to prevent a claim proceeding to a further medical report or legal advice in over 30% of cases screened so far and could prove to be a catalyst in how future claims are assessed and processed.
The initial findings of the ongoing pilot with a number of broker and insurance clients comes at a time when intense scrutiny has been put upon broker and insurance companies around referral fees, whiplash and ancillary income.
Elaine Healey, Sales Director at Chameleon added, ” The most significant outcome so far is the testing we were able to do with old claims data. We have been undertaking a dynamic customer service exercise where some insurer and broker customers are contacted and medically assessed using either the triage or IMA system. This provides our clients with 2 things, Firstly, if the triage or IMA identifies any potential symptoms of injury, they are immediately processed and compensated, and secondly, and we believe more importantly, the data we are able to provide the insurance company on customers who have been screened means that if that claimant comes back into the system via a claims management company or lawyer the claim can be rejected confidently without further cost, based on the medical screening assessment.
Using methods already proven by AXA and AVIVA, we have been able to show a massive drop in claims proceeding through the old fashioned route, where every claim is medicalised as soon as contact is made. The triage and IMA can confidently predict whiplash symptoms and we have found that in over 35% of cases screened so far a claimant does not need any further medical intervention or in some cases even legal advice – the savings are obvious”
Sam White, CEO of Chameleon commented, “Currently brokers and insurance companies have to compete in what is no different to a 100 metre sprint, to get to their customers before a claims management company or lawyer can. Chameleon has been quietly working with brokers and insurance companies on fault and non-fault claims to develop a system that guarantees they win the race every time, and provides any injured policy holder with a quick and robust conclusion to their claim. Our brokers and insurance clients are all too well aware of the intense competition for claims, and decided long before the current focus on referral fees and the impending changes to the personal injury sector, to try and tackle the problem directly using services like ours to ensure claims stay within the broker and insurance network. Our outsourced third party accident management services allow a broker and insurance company to contact their clients, control any claim if there is one either for, or against them, control the costs and also, at a more strategic level, start to combat the issues surrounding whiplash.
Medico-Legal News Source: Claims Standards Council
