Claims and legal departments at insurance companies are under significant pressure to comply with regulations, contribute to corporate sustainability efforts, and control costs to help the bottom line. In this environment, it’s crucial for these teams to operate at peak efficiency while minimizing spend leakage. Legal and claims professionals within both functions have a valuable tool that can help them meet these challenges: robust outside counsel billing guidelines.
How do billing guidelines help?
Establishing clear, well-defined billing guidelines not only helps control costs but can also streamline administrative processes, boost value from outside counsel, and align the right firms with the right cases. Implementing and enforcing these guidelines across claims and legal can mean millions saved annually, greater efficiency, and enhanced accountability.
Despite these benefits, several challenges stand in the way at many insurance companies. For example, claims adjusters and in-house attorneys often see themselves as specialists, not cost managers or billing auditors. In addition, developing and updating billing guidelines can be time-consuming, requiring regular reviews and adaptations to stay current with industry standards. Some also worry that strict enforcement could damage long-standing relationships with preferred firms, even if there’s little evidence that these firms consistently deliver the best value.
Nonetheless, as the insurance sector pushes for innovation and cost reduction, strong billing guidelines will become indispensable. Legal and claims departments must create, uphold, and refine detailed billing practices that account for expenses, work hours, personnel, and other critical billing factors. Those who do often find that their time and effort are rewarded with increased cost savings and improved outside counsel relationships.
Begin monitoring guideline compliance now!
Monitoring for compliance is an ongoing job that involves tracking invoices and carefully reviewing them. The cleaner, clearer, and more accurate invoices are, the greater visibility you have into what’s being billed and whether it’s reasonable. Without monitoring compliance, you won’t have the data available to report to your leadership that the firm you’ve hired is operating efficiently or effectively.
In ELM Solutions’ latest eBook, How claims departments and insurance companies can improve legal billing guidelines and compliance, we outline the benefits of establishing good bill review guidelines and practices—and explain what steps you must take to reap them. Because when it comes to adding value, delivering better outcomes, and establishing stronger relationships with outside counsel, nothing beats having clear and strong guidelines for compliance.
This ebook covers:
- What makes well-crafted billing guidelines
- Benchmarking your guidelines against your peers
- The value you can derive from improving billing compliance
- The three components to successfully managing outside counsel billing compliance
- Examples of strategic goals that will help you measure success
We also address how billing guideline compliance can offer visibility into everything from budgeting to staffing. By emphasizing compliance, you’ll be able to better understand who’s working on your legal matters, how much you’re spending on those matters, and whether your firms are meeting your expectations.
Improve your guidelines today
Once again, it’s not easy to improve billing guidelines and compliance. It takes time to initially review the process, time to research industry standards, and time to review it annually. But the payoff is undoubtedly worth it. Compliance monitoring does more than just ensure clean invoices and improve visibility into your spend. It also is a process that helps communicate your expectations, ensure outside counsel understands them, and make certain they are the right firm for the job.
Download the eBook today to learn more.
