The past few years have seen waves of challenges, changes, and concerns across New Zealand.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to business operations and industry standards. Many have turned to partner sourcing as an essential strategy for improving operational efficiencies, developing talent, and unlocking growth potential to stay afloat.  

As these changes continue to influence trends that sweep the globe, business operations, both locally in New Zealand and across the seas, continue to be reshaped. This leaves operators with no other choice but to outsource to increase support and successfully manage claims. Steven Walsh, Chief Client Officer, shares insights into the benefits and best practices of partner sourcing and how they can improve insurer outcomes.  

Q: In what ways can insurers benefit from partner sourcing claims management? 

Outsourcing all, or segments of your claims management services, ensures every aspect of your business is receiving the level of attention to detail it deserves – reducing risk while offering a flexible and cost-effective way to respond to uncertain demand. Partner sourcing will drive cost and operational efficiencies opening the door to wins across the business. Some insurers elect to outsource their high frequency, low severity claims to a TPA partner, others benefit from outsourcing all the claims in a particular line of business or complexity. Similarly, some insurers may just have a need for loss adjusting for specific claim classes. Additionally, partnering with a TPA can yield several benefits for insurers electing to ringfence a particular book of business so that the customer has an elevated experience or if it's a closed product that doesn’t easily fit within their current offering. 

Q: How does having the right TPA partner help an insurance insurer unlock growth options? 

To benefit from the full value of outsourcing, it is imperative to form a collaborative relationship that respects the unique needs of each business and shares a mutually beneficial understanding of your business, clients and the local landscape. Partnering with dedicated TPA experts provides specialised service and support to enhance data analysis while simultaneously expediting the prioritising and finalising of claims. A focused claims management approach to risk and regulatory requirements delivers efficiency through better oversight to streamline the claims management process, reduce the total cost of risk, and secure better outcomes for all involved. It enables the insurer to enter new states and new lines of business while being entrepreneurial and prepared to effectively manage claims that arise. 

Q: What risks do businesses face if they “cut corners” when selecting a new partner? 

Selecting a new partner should be considered as meticulously as an internal hire. The alignment of company values, culture and their claims ethos cannot be underestimated. From directing new projects to supporting or managing portfolios, it’s vital to have a partner who understands your business landscape like it's their own. If an insurer cuts corners and selects a new partner who doesn't align with business objectives, it can cause a negative ripple effect across your organisation. Specifically, poorly fitted partners and processes can result in a deterioration of culture and retention, as well as not maximising the benefits of the new relationship and the new way of doing business. At Gallagher Bassett, we make sure our people integrate as an extension of every insurer’s team and go-to-market strategy from day one to help expand resources and support higher talent retention – there is no us and them – we are simply an extension of their business. 

Q: What advice do you have for businesses looking to onboard a new partner? 

If you are thinking about outsourcing, there are a few factors, beyond cultural alignment, that you need to consider. The costs you are currently incurring through inefficient processes or expertise, the additional resources now available in overflow or event scenarios, combined with the benefit of variable costs versus fixed that comes with outsourcing are to name just a few. I encourage you to also consider ongoing investment in systems and innovation, compliance costs, recruiting, turnover and training. Many times over, I have seen insurers fall into the trap of focusing solely on claim management expenses as a primary basis for evaluation. Take time to understand your strategic requirements, beyond the questions of who can do the job and at what cost. A partner’s analytic approach to factors like claims duration, cost containment strategies, and accuracy of reserving combined with their ability to articulate how they can deliver better outcomes for customers will help you decide if they are a good match for you. 

Q: How does Gallagher Bassett tailor its services to support insurers in the current market? 

At Gallagher Bassett we know that you are the expert on your business, which is why we suggest an integrated model with your businesses operations in order for you to unlock the full value of a partnered claims model. It’s paramount to establish a collaborative relationship with support teams to successfully interact with insureds, brokers, law firms, reinstatement companies, engineers, valuers and others. Our approach to partnered claims solutions leverages the efficiency of our proprietary systems, people, and processes to deliver a consistent, benefit-driven experience that makes our people feel like a natural extension of the insurer’s team. 

Q: How does Gallagher Bassett continue to innovate for insurer partners in an increasingly complex environment? 

At Gallagher Bassett, our team of industry experts have experienced it all. As one of the first companies to offer the TPA model in several countries, including New Zealand, you can rest assured that we understand the outsourced claims management landscape. Our suite of technology solutions provides innovative customer solutions or the latest in claims platforms, all so that insurers can more accurately assess and control the total cost of risk and a great customer experience. Our specially trained industry experts guide our partners through today’s complex insurance environment allowing our insurers to focus on profitably by growing their core business. 

Connect with our experts

Steven Walsh, Chief Client Officer, is well versed in the types of solutions that insurers need, whether it be managing the claims in peace times or in events, or maybe it’s a loss adjusting response that you need, or new claims platform, or even RMIS solution, it’s worth having a conversation to find out how working with Gallagher Bassett can better your business. Connect with Steven on LinkedIn or via email for a confidential discussion about your business objectives and the benefits of partner sourcing to discover how we can help you.