Copyright © 2001 National Underwriter.  All Rights Reserved

"Hartford Surveys RMIS Needs" June 4, 2001

By Mark E. Ruquet

The ability to review individual claims and adjuster notes ranks as the most important component of one insurer’s risk management information system, a survey of its customers has revealed.

The Hartford surveyed an estimated 2,000 users to determine if its risk management information system, named @venture, was giving its users everything they needed, said Judson Barker, vice president of marketing at Hartford Specialty, a division of the Hartford, Conn.-based insurance and financial services company.

The results of the survey were shared publicly during the 39^th annual Risk and Insurance Management Society’s conference in Atlanta earlier this month.

The Internet survey asked agents, brokers and risk managers to rate various aspects of @venture.

The Hartford received 255 responses to the survey, 155 risk managers and 100 agents and brokers-- nearly 13 percent, which was a good response rate, according to Mr. Barker.

The respondents were asked to rate the importance of RMIS on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest. The ratings results shared by the Hartford were of the top two responses on the scale.

While most of the results were not surprising, it gave the company a basis for future development of the year old system, Mr. Barker said.

According to the survey, 94 percent of the respondents said that RMIS is most important to them in reviewing individual claims and adjuster notes. This response was followed by 84 percent saying RMIS is important to them for creating simple reports to be shared with others, and 83 percent saying the generation of charts and reports on claim activity was most important to them.

While the results were generally not surprising to the Hartford, there was some disappointment that some elements provided by @venture system did not score higher, Mr. Barker said. For example, only 37 percent of the respondents said that the ability to view service plans elements was important to them, he said.

Risk managers were also asked to rate their major concerns over workers’ compensation management. The top two responses were getting injured employees back to work promptly (81 percent) and reducing the frequency of claims (59 percent).

The same concerns were found to be just as important to agents and brokers.

Mr. Barker said he was surprised with the response from both groups that they were not that concerned with dealing with medical privacy regulations. Only 4 percent of risk managers and 11 percent of agents and brokers found the issue to be of important concern.

He predicted the concern over the issue would grow within a year or more as regulations grow in the future.

Reducing loss costs, controlling insurance premiums, and motivating operating units to embrace safety were of top three risk management concerns of both the risk managers and the agents and brokers responding to the survey.

Seventy percent of risk managers and 71 percent of agents and brokers selected reducing loss cost as the top concern.

The groups differed, however, in concerns ranked below the top three. For example, 44 percent of risk managers named complying with federal and other regulations coming in as their fourth highest concern. Proving the value of risk management to senior executives ranked fourth for agents and brokers, at 28 percent.

Agents and brokers showed more concern with the insurance markets, as 21 percent said they were concerned with dealing with non-traditional risks such as market fluctuations compared to 5 percent of risk managers saying this was a concern to them.

Mr. Barker said this reflected the different attitudes among the two groups. While risk managers are concerned with getting the best supplier for services, the agents and brokers are more concerned with markets, he said.

The results of the survey are still under review by the Hartford as it looks to enhance the value of @venture to its users, Mr. Barker said.

The company has not decided if it will continue with the survey in the future, he said.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, June 4, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.