Physicians Insurance Company of Wisconsin Streamlines Billing, Improves Legal Matter Management with CSC's Legal Solutions Suite
Client: Physicians Insurance Company of Wisconsin
Challenge: Eliminate paper-based processes for bill-paying and auditing
Solution: CSC’s Legal Solution Suite software for Web-based submission of bills, legal bill analysis, budgeting and planning
Results: Shortened the turnaround time on bill payments, improved budgeting process and tracked performance data on outside counsel
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Physicians Insurance Company of Wisconsin (PIC WISCONSIN) was founded nearly 20 years ago to help ensure affordable coverage for Wisconsin healthcare professionals. In recent years, the company expanded into seven states.
Faced with bills from a growing number of outside attorneys, PIC WISCONSIN began looking for an electronic system to improve its bill-paying process.
Streamlining the Bill-Paying Process
PIC WISCONSIN reviewed legal billing systems on the market and selected the three components of CSC’s Legal Solutions Suite — Legal e-Bill, Legal Bill Analyzer and Legal Matter Manager. CSC was a pioneer in the field of legal e-billing, and today more than 6,000 law firms nationwide submit bills electronically using CSC’s software.
All bills are now submitted electronically, and the system verifies compliance with PIC WISCONSIN’s guidelines and the accuracy of the information before they are submitted to the company.
“The attorneys really like it because it processes their bills as soon as they come in,” said Pennie O’Hara, vice president of Claims for PIC WISCONSIN. “They can count on their bill being paid within 30 days. It has really improved our turnaround times because we don’t have to worry about sorting through paper bills and coding various expenses. It also integrates very well with our attorneys’ billing systems, so they don’t have to do extra work on their end.”
Improved Preparation for Trial and Appeals
The system’s Legal Matter Manager component is playing a key role in the legal case planning and budgeting process.
For every case, claims personnel must now receive an electronic staffing plan, preliminary report on the case and a litigation budget from defense counsel. Incoming legal bills are automatically compared to the budget, and automated alerts remind claims personnel of key deadlines to ensure cases are monitored closely.
“Legal Solutions Suite ensures that we don’t process a bill unless our budgeting and planning process is followed,” O’Hara said. “This capability has significantly improved the entire budgeting and case management process.
The system’s end-of-case evaluation feature also lets claims personnel develop report cards on law firms and individual lawyers. The system gathers useful performance-based metrics, based on an organization’s criteria, which extend well beyond win-loss ratios.
Involved in CSC’s Development Community
Since Legal Solutions Suite was implemented in July 2003, PIC WISCONSIN has worked closely with CSC on the ongoing enhancement of the system. O’Hara now serves on the Legal Solutions Advisory Council, which sets priorities for the strategic direction of the product.
“I am very impressed with the Advisory Council and the users’ groups,” O’Hara said. “CSC appears to be genuinely interested in our input and feedback and involves the user community in the development process. It’s a good differentiator for CSC.”
