Key Vendor Attributes and Differences
Along with insurance carriers, broker/agents and TPAs that offer their own proprietary systems, there are a variety of direct RMIS technology companies who sell to direct insureds and even the carriers, broker/agents and TPAs themselves.
Major differences among RMIS vendors include:
- Currency of technology (Internet-based vs. Internet-accessible);
- System speed (response time for screen changes, report generation time, etc.);
- Flexibility in meeting client requirements (custom screen views, client-defined data fields, special reports, etc.);
- Ongoing support service quality (availability of senior/quality technical support, help desk availability, dedicated staff and stability, etc.);
- Data quality control (data conversion accuracy, data source cleanup, etc.);
- Pricing (first-year cost, ongoing cost, custom programming charges, data record storage fees);
- Availability of related modules (property exposure management, policy management, claim/incident setup, occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) record keeping, claims audits, etc.);
- Turnaround time for data loads;
- Foreign conversion/support (financial fields, language, fluent support staff, etc.)
RMIS system compatibility varies among carriers, broker/agents and TPAs. However, quality independent RMIS vendors by design can take almost any claim data source and convert or map the data to their particular system's file structure. A few major insurance carriers offer similar consolidation services, i.e., combining the insured client's current claim data with another carrier's or TPA's data for the same insured client. The other data sources can be for current separate insurance programs or from expired insurance programs. Usually, this type of consolidation service is performed to accommodate their major policyholder organizations. Major TPAs, however, more commonly offer such data consolidation services.
Read more about this topic: Risk Management Information Systems
Famous quotes containing the words key, attributes and/or differences:
“Now narrow minds can develop as well through persecution as through benevolence; they can assure themselves of their power by tyrannizing cruelly or beneficently over others; they go the way their nature guides them. Add to this the guidance of interest, and you will have the key to most social riddles.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Even though fathers, grandparents, siblings, memories of ancestors are important agents of socialization, our society focuses on the attributes and characteristics of mothers and teachers and gives them the ultimate responsibility for the child’s life chances.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“Generally there is no consistent evidence of significant differences in school achievement between children of working and nonworking mothers, but differences that do appear are often related to maternal satisfaction with her chosen role, and the quality of substitute care.”
—Ruth E. Zambrana, U.S. researcher, M. Hurst, and R.L. Hite. “The Working Mother in Contemporary Perspectives: A Review of Literature,” Pediatrics (December 1979)