Delivering better workers comp claims analysis by adding data-driven benchmarking and risk mitigation
The entire goal of Mod Advisor, an internet-based
application, is to simplify and streamline the analysis process.
By Lori Widmer
The standard for mod analysis, according to Todd Thams, founder of Mod Advisor, should not be a PDF delivery of technology-generated reports. And yet, Thams says, until recently that method was the most up-to-date way of compiling workers comp claims analysis.
“I’m a technology guy, and here I am delivering these old PDF reports to our prospects and clients that look like they’re out of Excel 2003,” says Thams, refering to how things operated during his time as an agent. “I was frustrated with the limited tools that existed in the marketplace.”
Then, in 2020, Thams got the idea that eventually became Mod Advisor. He joined BrokerTech Ventures (BTV) and talked with fellow brokers, who were expressing the same level of frustration.
Many sleepless nights and long hours later, Thams, who served as solo founder, developer, marketer, and salesperson, had built what he considers to be the next generation of workers comp analysis software. In 15 months, Thams had assembled a development team and had developed Mod Advisor, which launched in 2021 to BTV partners.
Thams sold his family insurance agency in 2022—an agency that had operated for nearly 90 years—and pursued Mod Advisor full time, implementing what he learned from the BTV partners.
Their feedback, he says, was invaluable. “We learned so much from these great partners on what was really needed, so we went back to the drawing board and started building again, releasing a new version in Q4 of 2023.”
What it does
The entire goal of Mod Advisor, an internet-based application, is to simplify and streamline the analysis process. NCCI bureau reports can be imported through drag-and-drop capabilities, then the data is extracted automatically, and users can generate up to 30 reports from the data. “We’ve built out a solution center that’s workers compensation focused: state compliance, return-to-work programs,” giving brokers the tools to help clients address their workers comp programs.
“We want to look at trends and meaningful data that actually help the conversations,” says Thams. Data for each demographic, department, or job function can be generated quickly and give actionable insight. Thams says the system can show actual loss by body area, easily viewed in a summary report. To extract more information, Thams says, users simply select the summary and it opens to a more detailed report.
Mod Advisor also has an Intelligence tab, which gives users the ability to see every aspect of a particular account—from policy information and premium range to expected versus incurred and where claims are occurring. Brokers can see which accounts are best performing and which are worst performing. “It all lives on one page,” says Thams.
As simple as it seems to operate, the implementation is even simpler. “Many times, we have businesses up and running the same day,” says Thams. “If they would like, we can perform an onboarding call, which typically lasts less than an hour.”
What users say
For broker InterWest Insurance Services, LLC, a critical part of the job is accuracy. “For some clients, particularly in construction, the experience modification rating not only impacts their costs, but affects their ability to bid work,” says Jen Weathersbee, vice president and executive director of InterWest’s Claims & Risk Management Services department. “The calculations are complicated, and the factors fluctuate by year and by jurisdiction, so the ability to project the experience rating factors with accuracy is not only vital but one of the most important services we provide for our clients.”
While working with another platform, Weathersbee says, her company started exploring ways to improve cost and efficiency. At the time, Mod Advisor was “in its infancy, but looked promising.”
Even at such an early stage, Mod Advisor was showing plenty of promise, Weathersbee says. “During our initial conversations, it was evident that Todd developed Mod Advisor to go beyond an experience modification projection platform—he wanted to provide a tool to help guide conversations with clients around the ‘Total Cost of Risk.’”
The opportunity to grow was also there, she says, for both InterWest and Mod Advisor. “Our insights and feedback could be used to develop enhancements to Mod Advisor’s offerings and overall customer experience—resulting in a win-win for everyone involved.”
Having a say in what the product should look like, along with the cost savings the company would gain, were the deciding factors. InterWest adopted Mod Advisor at the end of 2021. Onboarding, she says, was easy; a quick demo was all it took.
Data import is just as easy as is customizing the data. “An additional bonus for us out here in California is that the new rates from the WCIRB [Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau] are imported into Mod Advisor much earlier than with our prior platform, so we have little to no disruption in our ability to project modifications using the most current rates; this means our calculations are consistently more accurate,” Weathersbee adds.
Three years later, Weathersbee and InterWest couldn’t be happier. She says moving to Mod Advisor “has resulted in not only significant cost savings but also a vastly improved experience.”
The feedback she and her team provided to Mod Advisor has helped the platform become much more than an experience modification ratings program. “With analytics, reports, and resources, Mod Advisor allows us as insurance advisors and consultants to better use data to talk with our clients about their total cost of risk and help them make informed business decisions,” she says.
She and her team are also providing feedback to BrokerTech Ventures Accelerator members. “After working with Mod Advisor for several months, we learned that they had applied and were accepted to the BrokerTech Ventures (BTV) Accelerator for the class of 2022 cohort. Our firm, InterWest Insurance Services, LLC, is one of the original members of BTV and is actively involved in working with the start-ups in the accelerator so we were able to share our Mod Advisor journey with BTV members.”
That experience is one of getting exactly what the company was hoping to get from their mod platform. More so, Weathersbee says the communication between InterWest and the Mod Advisor team has been a huge bonus. “In our industry, relationships matter. Todd and his team at Mod Advisor treat us like a partner, not just a customer. We look forward to a long and prosperous partnership.”
The author
Lori Widmer is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor who specializes in insurance and risk management.
BrokerTech Spotlight offers a look at insurtech offerings from startups that have partnered with BrokerTech Ventures (BTV), a convening platform for brokers, carriers and wholesalers, and tech firms, and includes insight from other BTV member owners.
