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Target Markets Program Administrators Association Vendors Billing Management Services BillitNow, a division of the West Hartford, Connecticut-based Billing Management Services (BMS), is a third party billing administrator described by its management team as being “invisible to the insured.” Mike Brett and Chris Pesce, spokesmen for BillitNow, emphasize this is not just a software package. It is a complete service offering a state-of-the-art Web site interface that controls all billing transactions on behalf of the carrier, the program administrator, and the retail producer. Pesce says BMS has extensive experience in this area, having worked as program administrators and also running a retail agency as well. “We have seen the confusion when an insured receives a bill from a third party that does not identify on the envelope that the bill is coming from the insurance company or the agent. Additional confusion occurs when the agent cannot answer their questions and has to go to the call center for answers. Our program is built to direct everything back to the agent client relationship,” says Pesce. “We looked around in the marketplace for a billing system that would eliminate those confusions but no such system existed. So, we decided to build our own system.” “Any billing question the insured might have will always be directed to the subproducer, who will obtain the answers by logging on to the BillitNow Web site,” says Brett. “It is the subproducer who has the relationship with the insured.” According to Brett and Pesce, BillitNow offers customized invoice and envelope branding with electronically scanned return payment coupons, electronic payment via ACH and credit cards, secure lockbox processing with automatic blocks for canceled accounts so as to prevent post-claim deposits on cancelled risk, state complaint legal notice generation for non-payment of premium, secure data feeds between BillitNow and the carrier or MGA systems, and commission distribution to the MGA and sub-broker and premium remittance to carriers. “This is a very simple co-branded interface that offers detailed transaction history, copies of all statements sent to the insured, and has ACH and credit card payment capabilities available if elected by the carrier.” “BillitNow takes a daily electronic feed from the MGA or carrier’s policy management system and populates our system with that data,” says Brett. “From there, our system issues a co-branded invoice with a bar coded coupon directly to the insured, sets up to receive that invoice into our lockbox, assures that all invoices and accompanying checks are scanned into the system to create a permanent record, and records all aspects of the transaction into the Web site interface.” “Commissions are distributed monthly,” says Pesce, “not only to the MGA but the sub-broker as well, eliminating the need for a program administrator or insurance company to reconcile, cut and distribute the commission checks. Commissions are distributed via ACH directly into the accounts of the MGA, sub-broker and carrier. The system also offers online reports to brokers regarding monthly commissions, cancellations pending, active customers and non-active customers. In addition to the reports the broker can see, the program administrator and insurer receive the account currents, payment transaction reports, current balance due, credit balances, future receivables, broker listing, site auditing and site user lists. The program is built with a secure multiple user access, at the carrier level, the MGA level, the broker level and insured level, if requested, Brett and Pesce point out. * |
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