In our video interview, Clint Marlow, director of claims innovation for Allstate Insurance, details the how changing vehicle construction and technology is influencing the claim process, how claim technology will impact the industry and recent trends in frequency and claim costs.
While changing vehicle construction techniques and technology is having an impact on collision repair center investments in facilities, equipment and training, it is also having an impact on the automobile insurance industry. From the need to help insurance customers understand the impact of vehicle technology could have on the repair process, to the costs associated with embedded vehicle technology
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As an independent provider of diagnostic.services to body shops we have always felt that a proper repair of any car with srs, abs, traction control and of course the newer “safety” features should be required. A correct estimate of repairs, the faster turnaround and less supplements should be a no brainer.. The problems arise when a shop buys a mid line scan tool.
Most general universal scan tools do a lot of great things. Factory OEM tools do much more. Neither is the only part of the basis for Pre or Post scans and programming. We have access to the OEM repair sites and in addition have ProDemand by Mitchell, AllData and Identifix at our disposal. We know that the manufacturer generally writes manuals for parts that fail or wear out. Few if any deal with the results of a collision. Sources like Identifix help an EXPERIENCED tech provide a proper repair. Inexperienced techs using a generic scanner to try to calibrate a new car usually leads to wasted time Insurers seem to be in the area that we only want pre scans on cars that we know need them. The whole purpose of a pre scan it to find and identify problem that are not obvious. I currently am dealing with an Insurer that is denying a claim for seatbelt deployment (they were shown the deployed parts) on the basis that a pre scan was not done. Since Porsche has not published a position statement and the insurer in question has not embraced pre scan we are faced with a new reality. An insurer may try to deny repair (in this case rear seatbelts on a Cayenne) by implying that the shop, the vendor and the sublet labor service are padding a repair.
The same insurer (different adjuster) refused billing of a pre scan on Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, FCA products and GM products with the reasoning that even though the manufacturer has deemed it part of a proper repair the insurance company does not accept that reasoning.
If an insurer does not realize that this type of program prevents the repair of cars that need additional repair that would be total losses Or that it speeds up the ordering of needed parts instead of waiting until the date of delivery to find out that it needs a major part (steering rack, steering column, srs control, abs control, wire harness et al) Then that insurer is actually costing his shareholders money not making them money.
Our current position on remote diagnostics is one of skepticism. An “ASE Master Tech” using a tool 1000 miles away that has 10 calls waiting will not now that the code for the passenger seat belt was not a failed belt but a dirty connection in the kick panel or an damaged connector lock. These services are expensive and many time result in the car being referred to the dealer for repair after charging for a bad diagnosis. The remote servicer will be swamped on Monday morning by several thousand shops needing scans on the 5 to 15 cars that are coming in that morning. Assuming that one tenth of the shops in American buy in to a service like this and one tenth of them actually use it to pre scan the cars as they arrive would require the prescan of somewhere between 2 to 10 thousand cars. At the current state of the remote scanning industry a car takes between 30 and 60 minutes with a power supply hooked up and the key on before this ASE tech can do the scan. At that rate (like an old jr high math question) when does the 10th car in the shop get a pre scan?
All of this points to the need for a solution that works on the local scale. I think the remote providers are realizing this and trying to come up with a solution.
Bob Harris
Auto Fidelity Group / AIRBAG!!