Transcendent Outcomes

Restoring and Enhancing Lives, Businesses and Communities

In the aftermath of any catastrophic event, fast and responsive services are needed. With our global footprint and local expertise, Crawford is uniquely equipped to handle these sudden increases in volume and complexity that put additional strain on claims infrastructure. In 2020, we deployed numerous services and solutions to help businesses respond during this global crisis, as well as a worldwide force of renowned industry experts equipped with fast, web-based mobile intake tools. This integrated approach to managing national and multinational claims on every major continent distinguishes Crawford as the unparalleled global leader in the claims management industry.

22,000+

We managed over 22,000+ COVID-19 workers compensation claims in 2020.

$51B

2020 was the most active and fifth costliest (US$51 billion) U.S. CAT season on record.

45

Overall Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 45 with 955 client scores collected.

1,400

Approximately 1,400 adjusters were added to our roster in 2020 to support new clients, as well as the historic storm season of 2020.

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Investing in our Business Interruption Claims Capabilities

As much of the world entered lockdown or faced severe restrictions due to the coronavirus, many policyholders looked to their insurance policies for business interruption coverage for loss of earnings. As some insurers argued relatively few policies covered losses related to a pandemic, legal actions were taken around the world. A selection of policy wordings were tested in court in the United Kingdom, and the case ultimately went to the UK Supreme Court, where the subsequent decision broadly supported the contention that many policies should respond to pandemic-related business interruption. This landmark ruling in favor of the insured businesses has drawn global attention and will be relied upon in other coverage cases.

Against this backdrop, Crawford Forensic Accounting Services (CFAS) is critical to effectively investigating business interruption and financial risk claims. To meet the growing demand for specialist skills to handle business interruption claims, we have recruited top talent, invested in training and developed new technology solutions to accelerate claims handling, including the development of a new business interruption portal which is speeding up the handling and investigation of business interruption claims following the court’s decision.

Benefits of a Collaborative Partnership

Last year, Northwell Health, the largest health care provider and private employer in New York, cared for over 190,000 COVID-19 patients – more than any other hospital system in the country. Northwell and it’s dedicated team members became true heroes in their delivery of care – at a time when many of the Northwell team members were themselves navigating the Covid-19 pandemic. The physicians, nurses and health care professionals at Northwell faced one of the biggest challenges to public health in years.

Northwell has built a robust and successful workforce safety program which advocates for its team members and assists in streamlining processes. With this solid platform already built Northwell and Broadspire were able to be agile and fluid. The platform was further adapted to adjust for remote work environment, telehealth capabilities and COVID-related incidents and claims. All of this was done while maintaining the full operational capability for day-to-day safety initiatives, incidents and claims management.

While the pandemic is not over yet, close collaboration in this and similar situations has helped put injured workers at ease and give them an idea of what they could expect throughout the claims process. For employees who do have to miss work, taking an early intervention advocacy approach can help shorten the time away.

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The Australian Bushfires

Beginning in 2019 and continuing into 2020, Australia experienced one of the most devastating spates of bushfire activity on record. With over 27 million acres destroyed and over 30 lives lost, economists estimate that the Australian bushfires may cost over US$80 billion in property damage and economic losses, making the bushfires Australia's costliest natural disaster in history.

In response to this monumental crisis, Crawford implemented its catastrophe response plans and worked with insurers and those impacted to handle the growing number of bushfire claims. Fortunately, despite the scale of the losses, our country-wide network of adjusters remained operational, and none of our offices were directly impacted. Given the scale of this natural disaster, we continue to work closely with claimants and insurers to mitigate losses as quickly and efficiently as possible. We have been able to capitalize on the full scope of our capabilities across loss adjusting, third-party administration and managed repair, and we are committed to helping restore and enhance all the lives, businesses and communities affected by the bushfire catastrophe.

Storms Ciara and Dennis

Last February was the wettest month on record for most of the United Kingdom, and the impact of Storms Ciara and Dennis will require a recovery which is expected to cost the insurance industry over US$313 million. These two powerful, long-lived extratropical storms occurred less than a week apart and caused widespread wind and flooding damage.

The conditions on the ground were among some of the worst our adjusters have encountered. The water levels had also been higher than encountered in recent flood events, and many properties were surrounded by mud, making access difficult for our adjusters. Because many of our adjusters, surveyors and WeGoLook® Lookers® lived in the impacted communities, we created additional specialist adjusting capacity to ensure that our adjusters could visit the vast majority of clients within three days. Responding to the aftermath of Ciara and Dennis was a complex, fast-moving challenge, but our increased adjusting capacity allowed us to handle the large volume of claims, prioritize vulnerable customers, batch claims by postcode and move adjusters to the affected areas to respond as quickly as possible.

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The Beirut Explosion

In August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut, Lebanon, exploded, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless and causing at least 207 deaths, 7,500 injuries and US$15 billion in property damage. The blast was also felt more than 150 miles away and is considered one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history.

Because this explosion involved the storage of hazardous chemicals at the Port of Beirut, Crawford played an important role in helping carriers and policyholders navigate these complex property and business interruption claims. We had teams of Crawford Global Technical ServicesTM adjusters on the ground in the immediate aftermath to ensure the right steps were taken to mitigate these complex losses. Given the scale of this disaster and its impact on the area's infrastructure, some reinsurers asked Crawford to work collaboratively with local loss adjusting companies in providing oversight and reassurance. By supporting local cedants and brokers, we were able to add resiliency and integrity to the claim process.

Carrier Data Consolidation and Management

Costly and chaotic data collection can hinder back-office efficiency and front-office ability. Therefore, when a large global carrier with an annual written premium of US$9B+ approached Broadspire with a need to manage data from 30 TPA sources, their internal policy system and predictive analytics, we engaged our consultative technology team to create a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for capturing, consolidating, analyzing and delivering information back to the carrier.

Our carrier partner has seen both immediate and long-term results that will ultimately help premium profitability and retention. In the short-term, they have been able to avoid additional staffing expenses while creating more efficiency for their back-office staff as they manage data from numerous sources. To improve data quality, we aggregated detailed claim and transactional financial data from various TPAs and then fed the aggregated financial data back downstream into the carrier’s financial systems in their own format. As the partnership has become more seasoned, the carrier has also been able to save on costly technology investments thanks to Broadspire’s constant innovation and agile architecture.