Louisiana-based carrier aligns with agents
who share its philosophy on loss control
By Dennis Pillsbury
Craig Leach is senior vice president of sales and marketing for Amerisafe Insurance Group.
Because workers compensation is generally a line that experiences a number of small claims, frequency rather than severity is the major concern. However, in some high-risk industries, the reverse is true--a small number of severe claims account for most of the loss dollars. Amerisafe Insurance Group, DeRidder, Louisiana, focuses on this latter category.
Amerisafe started out with a primary focus on the logging and lumbering industry. After several years, the company expanded its focus to include other industries with severity exposures, including trucking, construction, oil and gas, and higher hazard agri-businesses.
"Our value is in the services we provide our clients," notes Craig Leach, senior vice president of sales & marketing. "In underwriting hazardous industries, our top priority is safety. We involve our loss control people right from the start. They are part of the underwriting process and help us decide which accounts to write. In nearly every case, we send safety engineers to a prospective insured in advance of a quote. We want to establish a relationship with the insured right from the start that involves a focus on safety and loss control.
Craig Leach (left) and Chris Lestage, senior vice president of claims, continually analyze Amerisafe's loss control and claims management processes for ways to improve customer service.
"However, we also understand that accidents will still happen, and our ability to intensely and effectively manage severe injuries produces the best result for all concerned," he continues. "Speedy recovery and return to work is our prime objective. We do a better job than our competitors by limiting the number of severe injuries our case managers handle to 60. This affords them ample time to work each case in a highly effective 'in person' fashion."
Leach continues that Amerisafe is very "touchy feely." He says: "We work extra hard to provide information to our agents and our insureds. We actually go as far as taking pictures of our underwriters and auditors and enclose them with the policy so the agent and insured have a name and a face as well as a number to call."
Amerisafe focuses on small to medium-sized employers. The average size of an account is around 10 to 50 employees. "In some industries, the average may be a little higher," Leach points out. "We do have some sizable accounts on the books, but that is not our area of primary focus."
He continues that "success is no accident in high-hazard industries. We deal with people who are safety conscious. This business demands that you do it this way."
The company uses the same level of care in deciding with which independent agents it will align. "We visit the agency before we start doing business and make certain there is a fit," Leach explains. "We're looking for agents who have a decent sized book of business in our target markets, but we're also looking for agents who share our philosophy about the importance of loss control."
Chris Lestage, senior vice president of claims, adds that "we really manage every claim. Every claim that is in excess of six weeks' indemnity is handled in a highly personal manner. Our field case managers meet face to face with the injured worker immediately (claims come in through an 800 number and are turned over to the field as soon as they are received) in order to establish a plan for recovery and build trust. We want to get there before the attorney and we want to take care of the injured person and his or her family as quickly and effectively as possible.
"Our concern is with the quality of care and the outcomes," Lestage says. "We visit with medical providers on a regular basis to make certain they are the best people to handle a particular injury. We don't look for the cheapest provider, but the one that produces the best outcome. We also have nurses on staff who provide medical information to the field. Our nurses also review and advise our field case managers on every file that involves a serious injury."
He continues that the field case manager maintains "constant contact with the injured worker, as well as the insured employer and the medical professionals. We try to establish a relationship with the worker and his or her family to put them at ease. If a specialist is needed, we'll sit down with them and tell them 'why' in order to try and reduce the anxiety involved in seeing a stranger. If there appears to be an opportunity to return to work in a different position because of the extent of an injury, we sit down with the employer and strategize about possible light duty alternatives."
He concludes that this "proactive approach to claims handling has paid off. Very few claims go to litigation--well under 5%."
Amerisafe was founded in 1985 and began doing business in 1986. It operates in 45 states. The company has more than 550 employees, with approximately half of those in the field. "We don't do business by phone, fax and e-mail alone," Leach notes. "We have safety engineers, claims people, premium auditors, and marketing people available across the country to help our agents and our insureds. We really do practice what we preach." *
"Our field case managers meet face to face with the injured worker immediately ... in order to establish a plan for recovery and build trust."
--Craig Leach
For more information
Web site: www.amerisafe.com