THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATOR/CLAIMS COUNSEL ANALYSIS
ICA has extensive experience in coordinating the retention of third-party administrators and national advisory counsel, in assisting Clients with managing and controlling the relationship, in establishing guidelines to be followed and in critiquing the service intermittently to compare the productivity of the service with other service providers.
The costs associated with general liability claims, when administered by third-party administrators or national advisory counsel, if left unmonitored, can balloon beyond control, leading to rate and cost increases to the Client. This would therefore defeat the purpose of adopting a high deductible or self-insured retention program, developed to retain a portion of the risk if the monitoring of the third parties go unaudited.
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See Below for How It Works:
Assist in evaluating the feasibility of moving from a first dollar liability coverage program to a self-insured retention plan with a TPA or national counsel to handle the claims, through ICA’s Third Party Claims Management and Audit Service.
Prepare a Request for Proposal for dissemination to various pre-approved TPAs and national counsel firms, setting out specific reporting procedures, cost controls, billing structures, management of local counsel, investigators or expert witnesses and establishing performance requirements.
Recommend various service providers with proven track records and meet with the Client and the service providers to interview and discuss the potential working relationship.
Evaluate the proposals, analyzing and comparing costs and performance levels, level and quality of assigned personnel, and recommend the selection of the service provider(s) to the Client. Once a service provider is retained, ICA will conduct an introductory meeting to set the groundwork on how the relationship will flow, and outline specific reporting instructions, billing guidelines, settlement authority and establish the local counsel retention guidelines.
ICA will then determine at the time of retention when and how often the service provider will be audited and critiqued by ICA, preferably at 6 months, one year and two year intervals. The service provider must agree to make claims and billing files available for analysis and audit. An ICA audit will uncover any overbilling practices, lack of control or management of local counsel, lack of control over legal billings, mismanaged litigation strategy, any superfluous motions, extensive research and preparation, failure to abide by any procedures outlined at time of retention, or any other performance discrepancy or irregularity.
ICA will meet with the Client to discuss its findings, then with consultation among the Client, service provider and ICA, determine how to improve or amend any areas requiring attention.