Snap polls reflect questions posed by members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. This question came about from a member who was looking for insights and advice around billing practices. This deck provides a summary of the responses to a Snap Poll conducted July 2022 . 17 insurers responded to this survey.
If you are an insurer and are interested in participating and receiving these snap polls, please email kcarnahan@celent.com to verify eligibility.
The question that was posed was:
Background:
This insurer is looking at modernizing their billing function and replacing their current product. They currently offer both direct bill and agency bill and handle the billing process themselves (not outsourced). They’re looking at how others have handled this process in a way that improves customer services - but also reduces errors and creates efficiencies.
Questions:
Do you offer Agency Billing, Direct Billing or both? | |
Do you do your own billing, or have you outsourced it? | |
If outsourced, who did you outsource it to? | |
If in house, are you considering outsourcing? | |
Do you currently offer paper invoices, or have you switched to all electronic? | |
Do you currently offer payments via check? If so – what cash matching solution have you adopted? | |
In bringing payments from checks and coupons and matching them to receivables, what is your match rate? | |
What is the percentage of payments that come in through checks vs other payment methods? | |
Who are you using for physical and electronic invoice presentment to Insureds and Agents? | |
What challenges have you faced with this? | |
Looking at the following functions, do you have a single consolidated solution that provides all of this or are you using multiple systems (place an X next to the features provided in your single core accounting system) | |
Ability to remit invoices via eBill, electronically or via links | |
Ability to add marketing materials to invoices on an ad-hoc basis. | |
Allow National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) compliant ACH payment acceptance via self-service, IVR, CSR assisted, or web portal. | |
Allow customizable invoice templates for differing lines of business. | |
Provide ability to generate various reports by channel | |
Integrate into various systems such as imaging system, billing system, and web portal to allow direct posting of payments. | |
Payment matching system to auto-match payments to billing system | |
Postal mail of issued policy documents along with ability to reconcile sent/received.
What system are you using if it is not your core accounting?
