In today’s cutthroat insurance industry, US insurers are constantly on the lookout for technologies that can help them improve their efficiency, keep up with changing demands, and gain a competitive edge. To guide you in your search, here are four fields of IT that you should focus on:
1. Predictive analytics
Predictive analytics involves gathering, mining, and analyzing historical data to forecast possible future outcomes.
Does your law firm deal with medical records and other protected health information (PHI)? If it does, then you may be subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
The cost of noncompliance with HIPAA can be steep — Advocate Health Care Network paid a violation settlement of $5.5 million! Therefore, it’s wise to understand how this federal law affects your practice.
Insurance companies play a key role in keeping people financially secure amidst life’s uncertainties, such as illnesses, accidents, and deaths. They pay out claims to clients who experience loss to hopefully prevent the latter from depleting their personal savings.
Medical documentation is vital to the work of law firms and insurance companies. Law firms, for example, use medical records to win medical malpractice lawsuits and other personal injury cases. Companies that offer health insurance rely on medical records to evaluate an applicant’s risk profile.
Insurance companies rely heavily on records to serve their customers. For health insurance plans, for instance, medical records allow them to evaluate an applicant’s risk and coverage. And for auto insurance claims, police and accident reports help them determine their client’s eligibility.
Medical records often play a role in cases of all types and natures. As such, their retrieval and management are key functions for most law firms. However, given the sensitive nature of the information contained therein, the access and use of medical records is closely governed.
Ours is a world of increasing specialization. The market has shifted towards providers who focus their efforts and resources toward a narrower area of expertise in order to deliver a higher level of excellence. These choose to cultivate a smaller but devoted clientele rather than provide a one-size-fits all offering that suits a wide array of clients but is otherwise undistinguished.
The past year has been full of drastic upheavals, both for the legal profession and for society at large. As people struggle to adjust to the new routines and lifestyle changes mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic, including long lockdown periods and restrictions on mobility, businesses of all stripes have raced to adapt their operational models to the new status quo.
2021 is here, and so we once again hope to wipe the slate clean and start anew. 2020 may have been full of unexpected setbacks, and in some cases, extraordinary difficulties. Both individuals and organizations have had to make some radical changes in the way they do things in response to the changes in the status quo brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the adage goes, time is money. This holds more true for businesses than for almost anything else, with their ultimate objective being to generate income. Even activities that incur costs are expected to result in even larger returns at some point down the line.