Car Insurance

Everyone talks (and advertises) about the personal approach of their companies, organizations and practices, but they are empty words. In the final analysis, it seems everyone is too busy to really care. The doctor is too busy, which reflects on the doctor’s assistant, who thinks she’s too busy and depends on the receptionist, who doesn’t have the knowledge or authority to respond, even if she isn’t busy. So, the calls go to voicemail, which is also busy!

Did you ever try to get through to your utility company or your airline on a bad weather day to speak to a real person? You know how frustrated you get when your electric, water or cable goes off. Well, try calling a physician’s office, or perhaps your own office, and see how the process works. Sometimes, these new gadgets that are supposed to increase efficiency are really promoting antipathy.

Yes, it’s frustrating not being able to communicate regarding a business issue, but it’s even worse when the person has pain and has no one else to go to for relief and counsel, considering that the health care practitioner is the one with whom the patient has entrusted their life and well-being.

I mentioned receptionists and assistants. Let’s talk for a moment about them. They are the very heartbeats of a physician’s practice, and God bless them. I don’t know what most practitioners would do without them. However, I have always believed that the attitude of an underling reflects that of the owner, boss or supervisor. As President Harry Truman used to say, “The buck stops here,” meaning the person in charge has to take responsibility for what the people below them do.

Thus, if a health practitioner has an impatient, curt, unsympathetic or rude person working in their office, the practitioner is responsible. In most cases, the staff will copy the attitude of the practitioner. Show me a caring doctor, and I will show you a caring staff. Show me a doctor who is “too busy,” and I will show you a staff that is “too busy.” Show me a doctor who takes an “ownership” role, and I will show you a staff that takes an “ownership” attitude. Show me a doctor who recognizes their moral responsibility, and I will show you a staff that fosters professional accountability. You can’t make it happen just by talking about it. It comes as a result of actual conduct through training, empowerment and the personal involvement of the physician.

I always get a kick out of companies, particularly banks, that advertise how personal they are in their relationships with their customers. Then when you call, they treat you as if you were a creature from outer space.

I am not telling you anything new about the fallacies of customer service as it is practiced by industry, particularly retailers. But what bothers me is that it has seeped over into the profession and now is manifesting in all the health professions. Perhaps it is the result of an automated society. Perhaps as computers and voice-activated electronics have made office management theoretically more efficient, they also have made communications less personal and people less accountable.

I sincerely believe that somehow, health care professions have lost touch with the public and many individual practitioners have lost touch with their patients. This is tragic because it has caused a great divide where communications, understanding and compassion are all-important as a conduit to better health.

As I thumbed through a book, The Essence of Leadership, I thought to myself, “I could easily juxtapose the word chiropractic for the word leadership.” The essence of chiropractic, in its purist and most admirable form, is exactly what the author saw as the essence of leadership. Among the characteristics is having what the late Vince Lombard! called “heartpower.”

Even in sports, this great coach knew it worked. He believed that when you captured the heart, you captured the person. He felt trust was closely aligned with honesty and integrity. He saw it as a cornerstone of relationships. Gaining trust, he visualized, was like filling a bucket one drop at a time with water. That trust grows by one’s actions, slowly one step, or drop, at a time. Drip by drip, it takes a long time to fill, but with one swift kick, it can be knocked over, the contents spilled, and all can be lost.

So true! Except, it’s not water we are talking about - it’s the spirit of a patient relationship and in the final analysis, the lifeblood of a practice. I’ve seen young doctors go into practice and do everything by the book because they had the time and perhaps good intentions to do it. They start out thoughtful, deeply committed and caring for their patients. But then success overtakes them and their values are drowned by their expectations. Soon, they are driv-. ing an expensive car, paying for a big house, and hiring staff to do the things they should be doing themselves. They start delegating, taking themselves away from the little caring things that drew patients to them and built trust and confidence.

Abstract

A single case study involving a 58-year-old female, short stature, overweight, who presented to a chiropractic office 24 hours after a frontal-collision accident in which she was the driver. Her son captured the scene of the accident on his mobile phone and digitally uploaded this to my facility via HyperSend, a HIPAA private e-mail system commonly used by insurance companies for record protection. The patient had a post-accident history of regional-chest-wall and breast soft-tissue trauma, and head, neck, and torso complaints, without any apparent cervical radiculopathy.

Objective The objective was to present this unusual case’s clinical rationale using an evidence-based approach to critical thinking and differential diagnosis. A critical method of thinking prior to actual physical examination is necessary and is commonly used in the emergency department, while awaiting the arrival of critically injured patients. This method is utilized in order to determine an algorithm of care. The doctor of chiropractic is asked to review the images provided of the scene of the accident while evaluating the various phases of forces that the occupant experienced.

Mechanism of Trauma and Phases in a Restrained Occupant Typically, in a frontal crash the vehicle will crash into another moving or stationary vehicle, lose control and strike some object. The striking vehicle’s front end will be pushed inward, directing forces into the structural area of the struck vehicle’s body frame, usually off-center. If pre-braking occurs in the frontal crash, the nose of the striking car will dive downward. If the restrained occupant is aware of the impending crash, attempts at bracing will occur. As the crush proceeds, forces will continue to be transmitted from the firewall into the seat frame, dash floorboard and steering wheel, as rapid deceleration forces occur within the occupant’s cage. The front of the car typically will crush inward 2 feet, allowing the vehicle to move forward by about 2 feet before stopping suddenly. The vehicle stops before the occupant does and the occupant literally will run into the slowing car’s interior as the seat belt tightens.

Once the vehicle reaches maximum deceleration, the 2 feet of frontal crash ends with the driver’s head, neck, torso, hips and knees moving forward faster than the seat beneath them. The restrained driver’s left shoulder moves forward until the shoulder harness reaches its limits, holding back the left shoulder while the right shoulder moves forward. The right shoulder and torso may continue to move forward, causing head rotation and increasing the probability of a closed-head injury (concussion, etc.), intercostal sprains and other torso soft-tissue injury.

The driver’s head, neck and torso reach peak deceleration levels, by which time the vehicle has stopped all forward motion. The shoulder belt harness may load up to 2,000 pounds of force, depending on collision speed. The pelvis moves forward and upward about 6 inches, depending on the lap-belt slack. While the torso is restrained, the entire neck is pulled forward, causing axial stretching.

The vehicle now goes through recoil. Most frontal impacts have about a 10 percent recoil velocity. The driver’s head, neck and torso rebound backward into the seat. This causes deflection, which then springs the occupant forward again.

Just as important as the mechanism of trauma and its phases in collision injuries are the significant factors that play a role in a patient’s prognosis, symptoms and disability, which have been documented in the literature. In this case, the other factors are the gender of the driver and their seating position. Most important, besides whether or not the driver is restrained, is if they sustain injuries. Seventy-two percent of drivers develop chronic symptoms.

By combining various off-the-shelf products, agencies create custom solutions that meet their unique needs

Car salespeople sell cars. Broom salespeople sell brooms. And insurance agents and brokers sell insurance. That’s just what they do. Well that’s what some insurance agents and brokers do, anyway.

Others differentiate themselves. More and more, they’re achieving distinction through the delivery of risk management services. And they’re tapping technology to help.

Focus on risk Scott Addis, CPCU, president of The Addis Group, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, has built a process that he’s dubbed “The Risk Management Audit.” “This lets us, very efficiently, uncover an organization’s risks, prioritize and measure them, and then set a strategy to mitigate those risks,” he says. Addis’s staff also evaluates related tools and processes that the entity has in place, including claims management systems, insurance program design, risk management procedures, and any training initiatives.

The whole task requires some heavy lifting. “We go in, typically, nine months before renewal and go through this process,” Addis says. This raises a slew of eyebrows among his peers. They’re convinced the work, while beneficial, just can’t be cost effective.

Addis disagrees. “It’s just the opposite,” he says. “When we go through the audit process, which typically takes from two weeks to two months, we literally become the broker on the account instantaneously.” He’s adamant that the audit process is less time-consuming than traditional agent practices. Plus, his hit ratio hovers around 90%.

To help deliver, Addis and his team use automation-from customer relationship and management tools to robust risk management software. He’s also developing and refining technology to make the process more efficient, something he sees as necessary for agents and brokers who want to, as he says, “get away from the commodity trap.”

The name works literally-short for reconnaissance, which Tyler says agents should be ready to perform every day-or as an acronym: Research the data, Examine the risk, Collaborate on solutions, Organize the players; and Neutralize the risk. Either way, it features a service timeline that covers the entire policy period, spelling out exactly what the agency will deliver each month. “It’s been unbelievably successful,” Tyler says. “We’re able to renew many of our accounts two months before renewal date. That keeps a lot of our competition out.”

Effective use of technology helps drive RECON 365. In creating the program, the agency bought commercial software where it existed and built tools to fill gaps. The piece-meal approach came, in large part, because Tyler wasn’t satisfied that any product on the market at the time would meet all of the agency’s requirements. RECON 365 does.

A key element is automated communication between agency and insured. Included in this are electronic newsletters the agency sends clients, addressing risk management issues that businesses face.

Online claims viewing is also included. “For companies interested in managing their claims, we create regular reports, using proprietary software, and then hold quarterly review meetings,” Tyler says. “We take carrier claims information and present it to clients in graphical format, complete with analysis.” These meetings can take place in person but often are done online using Web conferencing software.

The agency also uses off-the-shelf and proprietary software to deliver OSHA logs and other safety and wellness information. And clients can perform online policy selfservice through InScope, a feature of the agency’s management system. “They can go in and look at their policy whenever they want,” Tyler explains. “They can print out certificates of insurance, automobile ID cards and dec pages on their own schedule,” Tyler notes.

Higgins and his staff use proprietary software, along with products from two Australian firms. The process involves a thorough examination of the types of events that could affect the firm’s people, income, reputation, and objectives.