Challenges

ClearRisk spoke with David Richards, Director of Public Works Operations for the City of El Cajon, to learn how ClearRisk has impacted the risk department.

Prior to ClearRisk, the city’s claims submission process was entirely a tedious process, reliant on manual paper submissions, data entry, and follow-up. The entire process was incredibly time consuming, taking approximately a week from when the claim was received to make its way to the risk department and get entered into the city’s system. ClearRisk’s claims submission workflow using online web forms allows instant submission of claims and related attachments, reducing frustration felt internally and externally. 

Reporting was also a timely process, and would consume approximately 140 hours/year to meet their insurer reporting requirements.

Solution

The claims submission and reporting process was able to be sped up exponentially with the implementation of ClearRisk’s cloud-based data submission web forms and ClearRisk’s report builder. With David Richards spearheading this process, 95% of claims received by the city are now being submitted via automated web forms, reducing employee & citizen wait times, manual data entry, and inaccuracies, while enhancing the services offered for citizens in the process. 

By implementing web forms, the city has been able to streamline data collection and storage, greatly reduce paper files, and reduce the amount of time spent waiting and manually entering data, while enhancing citizen experience and satisfaction with the submissions process. Previously, it took an estimated 18 minutes of manual data reporting per claim, ClearRisk has eliminated that manual data entry process, saving the city’s risk management team ~20 hours per year.

ClearRisk’s cloud-based claims and risk management system and streamlined data reporting has allowed the team to transition from annual loss run insurer reports to reporting monthly. The ability to increase their reporting frequency to their insurance pool enables the city to accurately analyze changes in liability and lowers its liability exposures through enhanced efficiencies and effectiveness ultimately leading to lower insurance premiums. Previously, the risk team estimated spending about 144 hours per year on insurer reporting, with ClearRisk reporting now takes 4 hours per year, that is a time savings of 97% or 140 hours per year.

The annual time savings from implementing web forms and streamlining reporting resulted in the risk team being able to reallocate that time to increasing their analysis and strategic communication about risk management with the city decision makers, furthering the reach and impact of the department in the city. 

The city has 45 days once a claim is received to evaluate and respond. By streamlining the entire claims reporting process, the city is receiving claims faster and increasing its time available to prepare a response. Ultimately reducing legal fees and positively impacting outcomes for the municipality.

"The additional time has allowed me more time to increase our analysis of

risk management trends and increase risk management communication with city decision makers."

- David Richards, Director of Public Works Operations

Results

• 160 hours/year reduced in time previously spent on manual tasks
• 95% of claims being received by the city are now reported via webform
• Reduced overall legal costs due to enhanced claims management
• Enhanced data reporting is enabling the city to negotiate more favourable insurance renewal terms
• Automated processes, workflow and report communication
• Reduced paper usage due to electronic data submission and reporting
• Enhanced citizen and staff claim submission experience

These time savings and increase in risk management analysis lead benefits for the entire organization, such as:

• Faster identification of frequencies and blindspots in the reporting of incidents
• Increase in employee satisfaction
• More insights into trends and frequencies allows claims to be resolved quicker and creates the opportunity to proactively mitigate claims.
• Faster and more favorable insurance negotiations by virtue of having better data
• Opportunities for enhancements in training, safety features, and equipment
• Guidance on allocation of resources in the organization