Jon Isaacson
  • Home
  • Words

Stop the Bleeding from Estimate Rejections

11/21/2019

0 Comments

 

Estimate reviews are part of the process in property restoration, how do we minimize our losses?

Claims review shredding your restoration estimateRejections sucking the blood from your estimates
Time is invaluable. It’s the only thing that we cannot purchase more of. In business when we are able to reduce wasted time we are able to increase our efforts in profitable endeavors. Wasted time is money bleeding out of your organization.

For those who have written estimates for an insurance claim, you know what it feels like to have your line items questioned by adjusters or your estimate picked apart by claims reviewers. Property restoration contractors often perceive the claims review process as a constant bleeding out of effort, energy and sanity.

It’s hard to produce for clients when you feel like you are always treating the wounded in your estimator bullpen.

How often have do restoration estimators say:
  • “They’ve shredded my estimate!”
  • “How do they expect us to make any money?”
  • “I give up, there is no winning this battle with these made up rules.”
  • “&#@$%”

Maybe this hasn’t happened to you but you’ve heard your peers complaining. Just wait, every estimator knows that their estimate will soon be the next victim of the insurance review gauntlet. The next time you send an estimate to a reviewer or hit upload in Xactimate, the process will run its vicious cycle with you.

For those willing to admit it, are your bruises still turning purple or are your wounds still bleeding? We all have choices to make. We can play the status quo game and complain about the system or we can work to find answers.

What would the typical response be as this scenario plays itself out?
  • “Who are they to question me?”
  • “They have no idea what it takes to run a business.”
  • “This claims review ‘professional’ has never been to this job – they’ve probably never been to any job site ever.”
  • “*&?^$”

Funny enough, this is both one of the issues as well as one of the keys to resolution as well. The person reviewing you claim has never been to this job. They typical claims reviewer works from a claims center half-way across the country. You are correct, they likely haven’t been to any job and possibly never will. It’s not their job.

This is a fact of the process and it does no good to complain about it.

Your roles should not put you at odds. One of you writes an estimate for the claim and the other reviews the estimate for the claim. Either of you may view your responsibilities to be at odds with each other but that is not inherent to the task at hand. The presiding principle should be to restore the client to pre-loss conditions and both parties should be working together to make this as expedient as possible.

The difference between what should be and what is leaves a lot of room for us to work towards a process that is clear and consistent.

As restoration professionals we can start by asking better questions.
  • “What are the objections of the claims review?”
  • “It appears that the claims reviewer has composed a detailed list of their reasons for the rejection of your estimate. What is the next objection?”
  • “Did we utilize the correct line items?”
  • “Did you call the adjuster to discuss the rejections?”

As an estimator you have the responsibility to learn how to tell the story of the loss through the estimating tool. The estimate has a language.

Whether you like it or not, for the majority of insurance claims, Xactimate has become the recognized story delivery tool. When your story does not resonate with our audience you need to learn how to communicate more clearly. In serving your client, it is necessary to use the resources in your tool bag to assist them in achieving a well executed outcome.

If your estimate is not compliant with basic carrier requirements, rejection is not the result of sadism its self-sabotage.

How do contractors gain ground in the claims review process?
  • Develop your process intentionally.
  • Do some research.
  • Tap into your peer network.
  • Communicate with the adjuster.
  • Make progress in your process.

Start the process of reviewing your rejections for trends.
You can do this as a team or you can do this as an individual estimator. To assist you with collecting data we have developed a FREE PDF download -Tracking Claims Review Worksheet. Gathering this information will help you to make informed decisions about your process, adjustments for your team’s approach as well data to discuss with adjusters, claims reviewers or carriers.

tracking_claims_review_worksheet.pdf
File Size: 436 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Resources for estimators, managers and adjusters composing estimates in Xactimate:
  • READ: This article is excerpted from a broader discussion on thinking through the claims review process to achieve better outcomes – Help, Claims Review Shredded My Estimate.
  • VIDEO: Claims Review Shredded My Estimate
  • ARTICLE: Habits of Xactimate Estimating Success
  • ​FREE E BOOK: The 10 Commandments of Xactimate Estimating Success
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    The DYOJO Podcast

    Author

    Thoughts on personal and professional development. 

    SUBSCRIBE TO THE DYOJO
    SUBSCRIBE
    Jon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a contractor, author, and host of The DYOJO Podcast. The goal of The DYOJO is to help growth-minded restoration professionals shorten their DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. You can watch The DYOJO Podcast on YouTube on Thursdays or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    February 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All
    Accountability
    Advice
    Analysis
    Authenticity
    Awkward
    Best Practices
    Blame
    Branding
    Business
    Business Solutions
    Care
    Career
    Character
    Claims
    Clarity
    Coaching
    Collaboration
    Commitment
    Communication
    Community
    Conflict
    Conflict Resolution
    Connect
    Connection
    Consistency
    Construction
    Controversy
    Creative
    Creative Solutions
    Criminal Justice
    Culture
    Culuture
    Customer Service
    Delusion
    Development
    Discipline
    Disgruntled
    Disruption
    Diversity
    Do Good
    Dysfunction
    Education
    Efficiency
    Emotional Intelligence
    Empathy
    Employee Development
    Employee Engagement
    Endurance
    Engagement
    Entrepreneur
    Environment
    Equipment
    Estimating
    Events
    Example
    Experiments
    Failure
    Family
    Fear
    Feedback
    Fitness
    Food
    Fun
    Funny
    Goals
    Good Cause
    Growth
    Growth Mindset
    Happiness
    Health
    High Horse
    Hiring
    Honesty
    Humanity
    Humanize
    Identity
    Incentives
    Influence
    Innovation
    Inspiration
    Insurance
    Intelligence
    Inter
    Interview
    Introspective
    Investing
    Issues
    Leadership
    Lean
    Listening
    Loyalty
    Management
    Marketing
    Meetings
    Mentorship
    Millennials
    Momentum
    Money
    Motivation
    Music
    Networking
    Non Profit
    Opposition
    Optimization
    Organization
    Parenting
    People
    Podcast
    Preparation
    Presentation
    Prioritization
    Process
    Process Improvement
    Production
    Productivity
    Profitability
    Progess
    Progress
    Project Management
    Promotion
    Property Restoration
    Publication
    Published
    Purpose
    Quality
    Racism
    Reform
    Relationships
    Respect
    Review
    Risk
    Safety
    Sales
    Scheduling
    Service
    Simple
    Social Media
    Society
    Soft Skills
    Speaking
    Status Quo
    Structure
    Success
    Symptoms
    Systems
    Team Building
    Tools
    Training
    Transparency
    Trauma
    Trust
    Truth
    Turnover
    Unity
    Values
    Video
    Vision
    Volunteer
    Water Damage
    Website
    Writing
    Xactimate
    Youth Sports

    RSS Feed

    ​<script type="text/javascript" src="//downloads.mailchimp.com/js/signup-forms/popup/unique-methods/embed.js" data-dojo-config="usePlainJson: true, isDebug: false"></script><script type="text/javascript">window.dojoRequire(["mojo/signup-forms/Loader"], function(L) { L.start({"baseUrl":"mc.us5.list-manage.com","uuid":"b9016446bd3c6a9f0bd835d4e","lid":"83282ffb9e","uniqueMethods":true}) })</script>

Jon Isaacson

The DYOJO 
The DYOJO Podcast
The Intentional Restorer

Connect. Collaborate. Conquer.
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Words