Harco National Controls Skyrocketing Legal Costs, Drives 20% Productivity Gains with Legal and Claims Management Software

Controling Costs, Ensuring Accuracy

For commercial auto carrier Harco National Insurance, an explosive growth in business five years ago was accompanied by an explosive growth in claims and outside legal costs. The Illinois-based carrier, which offers products targeted specifically to truck and auto dealers and their customers, handles claims for 49 states from a central claims department.

“We watched our legal expenses skyrocket, and that’s a concern for any organization,” recalled Dave Thomas, who was serving as vice president of Claims. “So we were looking at ways to contain it and make sure that what we’re spending is accurate.”

Software Hosted by CSC

Harco was already using CSC’s software for policy administration and claims, so the company decided to include CSC’s Legal Solutions Suite® in its review of electronic bill review systems. Harco’s due diligence included talking to many current Legal Solutions Suite customers, and even flying out to a customer site to see the system in action. Once it was determined that Legal Solutions Suite could be a good fit, Harco did extensive testing in-house.

“CSC walked us through everything,” said Thomas, who now serves as litigation management director for Harco’s parent company, IAT Group, where he is responsible for litigation management across seven companies. “They set us up and gave us in-house training. They also trained our counsel, which we found there was very little training to do because 70 percent of our defense firms were already using Legal Solutions Suite for other carriers that they do work for.”

Harco chose to have Legal Solutions Suite hosted by CSC, so the company benefited from a very quick implementation.

“CSC hosting has allowed our IT staff to work other projects necessary to keep the day-to-day business going,” Thomas said.

Increased Efficiency Through Automation

Harco’s increased focus on claims management, which included adding imaging and workflow technology, has made the company more efficient and able to do more with fewer resources. After going paperless, which included automating the bill review process, the amount of time the company’s claim examiners have been spending per claim has reduced approximately 20 percent per claim.

In the past, to review legal bills, adjusters used a process called “redlining.” Bills would be mailed in or emailed, and adjusters would go through each bill to make sure the time allotted to a particular task was within the guidelines that Harco set for its defense firms. Now, the bill is submitted electronically through Legal Solutions Suite, and the system red flags items that are outside the guidelines.

“Examiners are still able to examine bills the way they were trained, but now it doesn’t take as long, because the bill is nicely formatted for them,” Thomas said. “They’re looking at it much more quickly than if they had to look at it without the assistance of Legal Solutions Suite.”

Thomas added, You always like to think the firms you selected to represent you are not only giving quality legal advice but also billing within the guidelines set up by the company, and we haven’t had much issue with the firms.”

With Legal Solutions Suite, firms have an opportunity to correct a bill before it is ever submitted to the carrier. The system alerts firms to any items that don’t conform to the agreed-upon guidelines, allowing them to do an internal review and make revisions where necessary.

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