We decided that putting Claims’ mission, vision and values down on paper would help guide our strategic planning for 2016 and serve as a reminder of why we do what we do. It led to a philosophy that we thought we would share with you.

When brainstorming what first came to my mind was a statement like “fast, fair, and friendly,” or how we want to focus on “speed, empathy, and convenience” for our policyholders.  I decided to ask our Senior Claims Managers what they thought, and here is the answer I received, “pay what we owe, do it promptly, and base our decisions on facts by fairly applying standards across the board.”

So exactly what do we mean by “pay what we owe, do it promptly, and base our decisions on facts by fairly applying standards across the board?”  Here’s how we broke it down…
 
Pay what we owe means to strive to understand what we owe and why we owe it. It also means helping the policyholder understand what and why we owe what we do. It means “pay the right price,” not a dollar more or a dollar less.  It means being a good steward of policyholder funds and making a conscious effort to not underpay or overpay claims. 

Do it promptly means work with a sense of urgency for the policyholder and for ourselves.  Take the time to do it right, but do it promptly.  Keep in mind at all times the most important issue for the policyholder is getting their payment promptly with an easy-to-understand explanation as to the basis of any payment.

Base our decisions on facts by fairly applying standards across the board means we don’t “wing it” or rely on personal bias or opinions. Rather, we base our decisions on facts and strive to be objective at all times.  It means we act professionally, with respect for others, and demonstrate integrity.  If we don’t know the answers, we seek them out even if it means we have to hire experts to provide the answers.  It also means we act transparently and share the information and basis for our decisions with our policyholders so they understand the conclusions we reach. 

As you can probably tell, I really like the philosophy our team worked out. We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time here at TWIA Claims. It is a credit to the leadership in our team and the hard work of all our team members. For that, they have my sincere thanks.