Takeaways:
- Technology launched in January
- Unlocks information that was tough or expensive to get
- System promises honest answers about claim payments
The creators of an automated system for catching issues with insurance adjusters' work will meet with a professional association of adjusters next month.
Insuranceclaim123, based in Lakeland, Florida, will confer with the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters (FAPIA) after the state's legislative session ends in mid-March, according to Ben Mandell, president and co-founder of the company.
The technology just launched in mid-January. Mandell and co-founder Mark Vinson are both insurance adjusters. After seeing instances of carriers defrauding policyholders on claims in 2022, they began working on the system. Insuranceclaim123 gives people a way to corroborate how insurers have adjusted their claims, Mandell explained.
Mandell and Vinson had been working with attorneys, using technology including AI to help catch underpayments on claims. "We looked at claims that attorneys have and were helping them determine where the underpayments are," Mandell said. "In the summer, I said to Mark, 'We're doing this for attorneys. The homeowners really need this information. They certainly need to know if their claim is underpaid, because they're the last ones to know. Let's see if we can take our system and start generating reports for homeowners that would actually give them the information to know whether their claim was underpaid or not.'"
Home insurance policyholders had no way to get the information, and Florida law allows only public adjusters, or attorneys, to provide it. "But most attorneys don't understand every line on an insurance estimate," Mandell said. "And if they did, the cost to get an attorney to go over it would be thousands of dollars."
Policyholders can use Insuranceclaim123 to evaluate adjusters' reports and claims payments, at a price of $295. The system could find thousands of dollars in compensation that claimants are still entitled to, according to Mandell, but will also tell claimants if their claim has indeed been paid out fairly.
"I want people to have insurance. I want insurance companies to make money, but I want the claims paid properly, which is what's reasonable," Mandell said.
FAPIA managing director Nancy Dominguez had said AI is not a substitute for on-site adjusters and its members had not yet used the system. Dominguez's public comment spurred Mandell to seek a meeting with the group, he said.
