Life Insurance, Health Insurance
PR Newswire | August 17, 2023
EvolutionIQ, the market-leading Claims Guidance platform for Disability, Workers' Compensation, and Property & Casualty lines of insurance, today announced that Principal Financial Group® has extended the use of EvolutionIQ's Claims Guidance platform into production for all of its disability insurance lines. Principal® is now the first carrier to extend EvolutionIQ across every segment of its group and individual disability product segments.
EvolutionIQ's machine learning understands complex bodily injury to help guide claim examiners to the right actions on claims. Principal has extended EvolutionIQ's impact to all disability coverage phases. With claim actions happening earlier across all parts of the recovery journey, a positive ripple-effect occurs through the entire process.
Data shows that EvolutionIQ enables Principal examiners to reduce unnecessary customer interactions by 64% on stable-bound claims, which are claims that will migrate to a mature status due to the longer recovery times expected. With fewer unnecessary interactions, customers are able to focus more time on recovery. Improved customer experience includes:
More accurate referrals to clinical and vocational experts – which eliminates delays when the help of a specialist is what is most needed to help with recovery.
Better identification of modified occupation opportunities or alternative occupations for those whose illness or injury means they will not be able to return to work in their original occupation.
Faster benefit payments for sick or injured customers whose claims are stable or designated as long-term. These customers also benefit as the need to check-in with claims teams is significantly reduced.
Matching senior examiners to more complex claims so that the right expertise is applied at first notice of injury.
"Principal is dedicated to providing unique, tech-driven solutions for employers that simplify the benefits experience, not just at onboarding or the claims payment experience, but as part of the entire process in between," said Kara Hoogensen, Senior Vice President & Head of Workplace Benefits at Principal Financial Group. "Our continued collaboration with EvolutionIQ has improved the experience for our customers."
Added EvolutionIQ co-Founder and co-CEO Michael Saltzman: "We are thrilled to continue to work with Principal across their disability product lines. They are committed to all forms of innovation that advance the interests of their customers and policy holders and we're honored to help them further their mission every day."
Principal first integrated with EvolutionIQ in 2021 with the successful pilot and production launch of EvolutionIQ's Group Mature module. In 2022, Principal became a strategic investor in EvolutionIQ's Series B funding round, joining existing strategic investors New York Life Ventures, Tokio Marine, Guardian and Sedgwick, and has now expanded its use to include Group Short Term Disability and Group Long-Term Disability Core modules, as well as EvolutionIQ's Individual Disability module.
About EvolutionIQ
EvolutionIQ is the market leading Claims Guidance platform in Group and Individual Disability, Property & Casualty, and Workers' Compensation lines of insurance. EvolutionIQ now counts the majority of the top 20 US Disability and Life carriers as clients. EvolutionIQ's proprietary Artificial Intelligence uses the entire claim file contents, historical claims, and external data to guide claim handlers to their most productive task across the entire claim block, every day. The system combines real-time predictive accuracy, clear guidance, and explainable AI to ensure adoption and business impact. As a result, claims organizations spend their efforts on claims they can impact – and their claimants get better, more tailored service. Insurers choose EvolutionIQ to increase their profitability and control over complex lines of business by integrating decision intelligence into every step of the claims handling process.
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Core Insurance, Risk Management
GlobeNewswire | August 31, 2023
Risk Strategies, a leading national specialty insurance brokerage and risk management firm, today announced that it has acquired Benefit Design Group LLC, a retail agency specializing in health, life and retirement solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Based in Portland, Oregon and led by Joel Biernat and Dennis Warneke, Benefit Design Group (BDG) is an independent insurance agency specializing in health insurance solutions for businesses, individuals and seniors. With a client base across Oregon and Washington, the firm serves businesses seeking tailored employee benefits programs across a wide range of industries, including aged care, education, hospitality and manufacturing, as well as individuals and seniors.
“As a national specialist in the increasingly complex world of employee benefits, we’re always seeking new partners who can add to both our geographic presence and expertise,” said John Greenbaum, National Employee Benefits Practice Leader, Risk Strategies. “It’s why we’re excited to bring Joel, Dennis and the BDG organization into the Risk Strategies family.”
BDG offers a broad array of products to its individual and group insurance clients including medical, dental, life insurance, Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, among others. BDG as constituted today, was formed in 2017 when Biernat merged the firm with Warneke’s company, The Warneke Group, LLC. That firm primarily specialized in providing services and products for employers offering group employee benefits to their employees.
“We’re extremely excited to join Risk Strategies,” said Biernat, President, Benefit Design Group. “We know that being part of a true specialty brokerage with national scale will bring a myriad of benefits to our people, business and especially our clients.”
The purchase of BDG adds to Risk Strategies’ presence in the Pacific Northwest. It builds upon the firm’s previous acquisition of the Fournier Group, a full-service commercial and personal lines retail insurance agency.
About Risk Strategies
Risk Strategies is the 9th largest privately held US brokerage firm offering comprehensive risk management advice, insurance and reinsurance placement for property & casualty, employee benefits, private client services, as well as consulting services and financial & wealth solutions. With more than 30 specialty practices, Risk Strategies serves commercial companies, nonprofits, public entities, and individuals, and has access to all major insurance markets. Risk Strategies has over 100 offices including Boston, New York City, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Grand Cayman, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. RiskStrategies.com.
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Risk Management, Life Insurance
PR Newswire | August 11, 2023
Vitech Systems Group announced that it has been named a Leader of U.S. life and retirement (L&R) policy administration systems (PAS) in the ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance Platform Solutions report for the third year in a row. This report is conducted by Information Services Group (ISG) and offers an L&R PAS provider quadrant analysis and a comprehensive comparison of strengths, challenges, and competitive differentiators.
Vitech's V3locity cloud-native platform was commended in the study for its end-to-end functionality, flexible and agile operationalization, and robust support of group insurance benefits. Its capabilities enable quick time to value, straight-through processing, and an excellent user experience for employees, employers, and brokers.
Ashish Jhajharia, the author of the report, noted, "Vitech's V3locity cloud-native platform, which caters to the market with a system created exclusively for the group benefits area, offers a high degree of configurability, capabilities across the value chain and enhanced functionalities for carriers operating in this category."
According to ISG, L&R PAS quadrant Leaders possess a comprehensive product and service offering, a strong market presence, and an established competitive position. They also represent innovative strength and competitive stability.
"We are thrilled that Vitech has once again achieved the prestigious recognition of Life & Retirement Insurance Platform Solutions Leader by ISG," said David Burns, Vitech's CEO. "Receiving this recognition for the third consecutive time is market validation that our focus on innovation and unwavering commitment to providing market-leading capabilities and services continues to bring exceptional value to our customers and their beneficiaries."
V3locity is Vitech's cloud-native administration, engagement, and analytics platform. It is a transformative suite of complementary applications that offers full life cycle business functionality and robust enterprise capabilities. It marries core administration with a revolutionary digital experience. Its modular design enables flexible, agile deployment strategies. V3locity employs a cloud-native architecture that leverages the unique capabilities of AWS to deliver a solution with unparalleled security, scalability, and resiliency.
About Vitech®
Vitech is a global provider of cloud-native benefit and investment administration software. The organization helps their insurance, retirement, and investment clients expand their offerings and capabilities, streamline their operations, gain analytical insights, and transform their engagement models. Vitech employs more than 1,400 professionals, serving the world's most successful insurance, retirement, and investment organizations. An innovator and visionary, Vitech's market leadership has been recognized by industry experts, such as Gartner, Celent, Aite-Novarica, and ISG. For more information, please visit vitechinc.com.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 70 of the top 100 enterprises in the world, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry's most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit isg-one.com.
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