Mitchell International released its Industry Trends Report for the fourth quarter of 2019.

The Casualty Edition, “The Power of Advanced Reporting Analytics” has been a hot topic for a few years now, and for good reason. More than half of analytics leaders reported a correlation between their organization’s analytics initiatives and seeing a “significant improvement” in their competitive standing. In the coming year, more than three quarters of that same group plan to expand or modernize their IT infrastructure to support analytics, according to a study from Forbes and Cisco.

In the insurance industry specifically, claims organizations are seeing varying results with their analytics programs. According to a McKinsey report, while more than half of CEOs at a variety of major P&C insurance carriers that they surveyed consider analytics a top priority, only one in six responded that analytics was making a large impact. The reasons for these struggles varied, including lack of alignment with strategic goals, poor integration and adoption or poor data quality.

When analytics is implemented correctly, it can have a significant positive impact on the claims process. As evidenced by the McKinsey study, getting analytics right can be challenging.  The report outlined a few tips on how to use analytics effectively to make improvements in the claims process itself and to support a claims organization’s operations.

Within the claims process, claims organizations should be looking for different ways to highlight actionable insights for adjusters to react to and use throughout the process.

Use analytics to surface key findings in the claim to help give adjusters the full picture so they can improve decision making. For example, technology can help analyze if a claimant has been seeking treatment outside of the set treatment timeline, or if a bill was submitted for treatment that was unrelated to the injury. These types of analytics provide immediate information to adjusters so they can make more informed decisions, ultimately having a direct effect on the claim outcomes.

Implementing predictive analytics into the claims process could help claims organizations to accurately predict the severity of a claim or the types of symptoms typically associated with a type of injury. These types of predictions allow claims organizations to accurately triage claims to the right adjuster or group of adjusters to help make sure the claims are handled appropriately from the start.

Analyzing provider behavior and surfacing key insights for adjusters can help them to understand when a certain provider might be charging above the industry averages on a certain treatments, or treatments that may not be necessary for certain injuries. Questionable billing or treating practices can be further scrutinized by adjusters and nurses, or ultimately referred to the Special Investigations Unit. Implementing these types of provider analytics help claims organizations to be more confident that they are paying a fair amount on claims across the board, and that the injured workers are getting the right treatments.