Most people work a number of different jobs as part of theircareer track before they find the insurance industry, but thewinner of this year's Claims Luminary of the Year Award is an anomaly.Brandon Kay of Generali Global Assistance (formerly CSA TravelProtection) actually chose to start his professional career in theinsurance industry.

Kay and his roommate had been friends since middle school whenhis friend started working at CSA. “I had never heard of travelinsurance before, but I liked the idea of helping people who weretraveling and something happened,” says Kay. CSA was hiring and Kayasked his roommate if it would be alright if he applied for a jobthere as well. Kay put in an application and CSA hired him andanother friend of theirs.

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One of the aspects that really appealed to him was theopportunity to help people. “A lot of time they are filing claimsdue to really sad situations,” he shares. “I love being given theopportunity to help people in any way I can when they are in needof it the most.”

The Claims Luminary Award recognizes a claims leader who has made significantcontributions within their claims organizationm and thatdescription sums up what Kay and his team do every day.

“I pride myself on our customer service,” he explains.“Everything today is technology and when you lose the face-to-faceaspect you lose that personal perspective. I keep in mind that it'sa person at the other end of the claim.”

Within the company, he is known as a customer advocate and iswilling to share his knowledge with colleagues and customers alike.His actions and innovations have improved efficiency within thecompany while earning high praise from his customers.

One of the processes Kay implemented arose out of the company'sdecision to apply the LEAN Six Sigma methodology, which promotes acollaborative team approach to improve performance and reduce wastewithin an organization. Kay supervises seven people and everyonedeals with multiple coverage issues. He and his team were selectedto lead a pilot program that gave more autonomy and authority toclaims handlers as part of managing the claims process, allowingthem to adjudicate claims faster up to a certain level. The pilotwas extremely successful and has since been expanded to includeother teams within the company.

Kay also spent a considerable amount of time working toimplement auto-adjudication to the claims department. Because thecompany offers a number of different types of coverage, it wasimportant to find a way to process claims faster and make theprocess easier for policyholders.

He helped to devise a method to fast-track the claims socustomers could be paid more quickly based on some predeterminedcriteria. Since the company has a large number of repeat customers,improving the process really matters to them. The changes allowedthe company to resolve over 15,000 claims within an average of 48hours.

Brandon Kay and Patti Harman, editor-in-chief of Claimsmagazine. (Photo: Daniel Gray Photography)

Technology's impact

Kay started working for CSA over seven years ago and has seen anumber of significant changes in that period. “When I firststarted, all of our files were paper files,” he remembers. “You'dhave 70 claims files on your desk with colored tabs, so whensomeone called you had to physically pull their file out and lookfor it. Now everything is electronic and technology is really changing things.”

While not everyone appreciates these innovations, Kay candefinitely see the benefits of digitizing the files. “The move frompaper to technology has been huge. Some people still prefer paper,but others want to do everything online. E-claims should makeeverything faster and easier.”

Brandon Kay (Daniel Gray Photography)

Kay says anything that improves the customer experience ishelpful.

“The culture they've built in the company is very customerfocused,” explains Kay. “We take all of the feedback and use whatwe can to change the process and make it better. It's a greatculture.”

While Kay knew that he had been nominated for the award, it wasstill a surprise to learn that he had actually won. “I was sohonored that our entire team was recognized for this,” says Kay. “Iwas taught to treat claims like people. When I found out I won, Iwas more excited to share it with everyone and have all of usrecognized for trying to improve the claims experience. I was veryproud that we won.”

Each claim is important to Kay and his team. He remembers onecustomer who was overseas and needed to be flown back because hehad broken his leg. On the way to the airport, the client trippedand broke his other leg.

“They had put him in a soft cast for the first broken leg and hefell. I thought he was pulling my leg at first when he said he hadbroken the other leg!” recounted Kay.

Every aspect of the claims experience requires Kay and his teamto provide stellar service for their customers. And it's achallenge they are more than equipped to meet. Kay says, “We can'thelp everyone, but everyone can help someone. If everyone had thatattitude, it would definitely make the world a better place. And wereally focus on that at CSA.”

Patricia L. Harman ([email protected]) is editor-in-chief ofClaims magazine.

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