Crawford Rolls Out Claims Advantage Service to Branch Offices

Atlanta-based Crawford & Company has rolled out its Crawford Claims Advantage to all of its Integrated Services branch offices. Crawford Claims Advantage is a new proprietary web-based application powered by e-Triage that incorporates structured interviews into the workers’ compensation claims process.

The company claims Crawford Claims Advantage will help reduce cost and severity of workers’ compensation claims. It applies internationally recognized evidence-based research to identify specific risk factors that directly impact the recovery process and formulates a best-practices approach for medical treatment customized to the injured worker. The version that has been implemented in Crawford’s Integrated Services branches also includes a new template for creating the Strategic Plans of Action. These Plans of Action are goal-oriented and quickly identify and manage issues that delay claim closure. Plans of Action also document the rationale behind every recommended action and provide evidenced-based research to substantiate those actions.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD), the largest school district in Texas, and the seventh largest in the U.S., was one of the first Crawford clients to implement the Crawford Claims Advantage.

“It is impossible to fully understand the claim without assessing the social-psychological background of the employee that directly affects the employee’s motivation to return to work,” Tom Dolan, HISD workers’ compensation manager said. “The results speak for themselves. This, plus the job setting and physician support, provides the essential components to provide a meaningful plan of action. Crawford Claims Advantage offers that structured mechanism to achieve ‘best claims practice’ resulting in a reduction in job absence and claims cost. Our continued success can in large measure be credited to Crawford Claims Advantage. Not just keeping track of the evolution of a claim but truly managing the process.”

Crawford Claims Advantage is part of a new service-delivery model that the company introduced earlier this year. The new model standardizes the workers’ compensation claims-reporting process and delivers comprehensive, consistent, and goal-oriented solutions.

Crawford & Company is a large independent provider of claims management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities, with a global network of more than 700 offices in 63 countries.