Group Medical Services (GMS) is committed to providing our Brokers with state-of-the-art applications to manage their GMS book of business. GMS uses web best practices to develop new interfaces for the broker in secure portals to easily manage the broker relationships and GMS contracts. These web services allow real-time secure access to their customers’ information and also allow the broker to manage the customers’ profile information seamlessly. The processes are directly modeled on how the broker does business.
GMS recognizes that changes need to be made in the world we all live in. The Broker can now make changes to all pending Travel policies immediately or request an expedited change for in-force policies with the simple click of one button. This change to the approach has enabled brokers to now service their clients over the phone to change Travel and VTC policies without delay and save hours of broker time in the heaviest travel season. Previously, the broker was required to complete these changes with the customer service agents at GMS while the customer waited on hold or in the office.
The broker has been extremely appreciative of this change to GMS policy supported by technology. GMS’ commitment to provide back office insurance sales and support to for our advisor partner network continues to drive innovative solutions for the advisor community. Brokers and Advisors, regardless of size, can utilize the secure environment for co-branding, client management, policy sales and support all without cost as part of our partnership network.
In addition, GMS provides an API for broker IT departments to use web services to provide quote and purchase services to their clients in their web interfaces. This allows seamless integration from their front end branded web interfaces to GMS back office pricing and customer information systems. With this technology, even the small brokers can compete for the web space of the larger firms. GMS also provides a “web-linking” service that allows all brokers to offload the final sale of the policy to GMS’ back office secure environment. The customer is directed to a specific web link provided by their broker to complete and pay for the policy quoted by their broker effectively allowing GMS to handle the close on behalf of the broker.
GMS commitment to brokers doesn’t stop at the Broker Portal or the web integration. GMS has provided brokers a Learning Management System for GMS TravelStar® and Visitors to Canada products that conforms to the Continuing Education Credits as certified by Advocis and all provincial bodies. GMS provides this LMS to ensure that broker education is not a barrier to their success and is provided at no charge to all GMS Licensed Agents. This access allows brokers to complete their training requirements when it fits into their busy schedules without losing valuable time with the customer.
GMS has extended the same infrastructure to deliver new value to the end customer to complete claims online, check claim history and status, claims direct deposit and manage their profiles. The direct deposit has resulted in our benchmark claim handling grade of service to less than 2 days from claim to deposit. Claim adjudication and payment is much more streamlined from a customer point of view, providing the ability to get to their information quickly on their schedule in a format that is easy to use, intuitive and responsive.
Benefits
GMS has built the portal to auto-populate all the customer data from their existing client dashboard saving 10 minutes per policy depending on the amount of information provided by the customer. Brokers can now update information rather than start over each time.
- Broker time saving: 10 min/application (or 100 minutes/day/broker in travel season)
Travel Changes are now completed much quicker and without delay or waiting for a broker agent at GMS.
- Broker time saving: 15 min/change (estimate 10 changes per day in Travel season = 150 minutes/day/broker)
Turnaround time on most customer claims submitted through the portal has been reduced to 2 days from claim to deposit. For claims submitted on paper, the adjudication, cheque printing and customer deposit takes well over 2 weeks from end to end when the mail system timings are taken into account. The service time improvements are dramatic.
This new online claims submission provides the base for GMS to move to a paperless claims process internally, and to create straight-through processing on some claims the in near future. These will further reduce claims handling time and improve efficiencies.
About Group Medical Services (GMS)
GMS is Canada’s expert in health and travel insurance, providing a complete range of health and travel insurance to individuals and groups. Based in Regina, Saskatchewan, GMS has provided Canadians with friendly, personalized service for over 60 years. For more, visit www.gms.ca.
SOURCE: Group Medical Services
