Insurance Company Embraces Digital Payments for Efficient Claim Reimbursement
Reimbursement efficiencies improved by over 800% when this pet insurance company started using Dwolla to program their payments.
For one insurance company, the old adage “work smarter, not harder” became the driving force behind improving its reimbursement claims processes, which involves sending tens of thousands of reimbursements each month.
The company has helped keep furry family members healthy and protected by offering coverage through customizable accident and illness insurance plans for dog and cat owners since the mid-2000s. Pet owners can visit their website to receive a quote, and after selecting a policy to fit their needs, they can download the mobile app to manage their account, live chat with pet professionals 24/7 and navigate claims.
After visiting a veterinarian, specialist or emergency clinic, policyholders can submit their claim by email, mail, fax or direct upload within the mobile application. Once a claim is approved for reimbursement, the system alerts the insurance company and triggers the customers’ preferred reimbursement process – either paper check or ACH direct deposit transfer. Prior to working with Dwolla, the method for processing reimbursements via direct deposit took nearly four hours each day, in addition to processing paper checks.
Claims approved for reimbursement in the early afternoon would not be processed for payment until the next business day—at the earliest—because the pet insurance team members had to spend time on other aspects of their jobs.
“If we had 300 requests for payments come in, we had to do data entry 300 times, and as we continued to grow, that became a very inefficient process,” says the Senior Controller at the pet insurance company. “It was always kind of known that we needed a better solution, so we started evaluating businesses to help.”
Since integrating with Dwolla in 2017, the company has been able to offer its customers reimbursements directly to a bank account with an ACH transfer in an easy, secure manner. Almost half of their total reimbursements are issued via an electronic ACH payment. Policyholders are being reimbursed five days sooner when compared to using a check—which takes nearly a week to receive after being issued—and the company is saving thousands of dollars each month.
Since 2018, the pet insurance company has paid out more than $126 million in claims.
Embracing a Digital Transformation
As the pet insurance company started searching for a more efficient reimbursement solution, the search became a collaborative effort across its accounting, engineering and strategic teams.
The key components they were looking for in an integration included:
- ACH processing capabilities
- Reliable technology
- Cost efficiency
The team ruled out building their own payment integration directly with their banking partner because of the data storage and management aspect—something they were not comfortable doing.
“We needed someone who could securely handle that information,” the Senior Controller says.
Ease of Implementation with Dwolla
A Full Stack Developer at the company said, “It was easy to integrate our API with the Dwolla API. The documentation was straightforward and super easy to test. The user experience with the integration components was a big deal for me. It was easy to navigate and I could find what I needed.”
The Full Stack Developer also said the Dwolla Sandbox, developer documentation, and code samples were helpful when building the integration—and still are today. He values the ability to test new features and functionality before entering them into production.
This pet insurance company onboards thousands of policyholders on a monthly basis. Implementing ACH payments has allowed their customers to claim reimbursements five days sooner than with a paper check.
The Senior Controller says adoption of direct deposit with ACH transfers continues to increase among their customers, providing even higher cost savings for the organization.
