The Independent Mitigation and Cleaning/Conservation Network is officially open for business. The organization was created to link insurers with independently owned and operated mitigation, cleaning, and restoration companies across the country, while providing the necessary tools and training to assure mission success.

If you ask IMACC President Pat Harmon why he is doing this, his response will be, “Something new and different had to be done.” During his decade with the Property Loss Research Bureau as assistant vice president of educational and technical services, Harmon observed steady and profound changes in the business of claims. These included a shift from long-term, local, personal relationships between adjusters and service providers to centralized decisions and a growing need for broad-market consistencies. Local claim offices have all but vanished, except in the largest cities. Claim expenses have been reduced dramatically. In many cases, adjuster workloads have quadrupled, and average loss severity has far out paced inflation. At the same time, more than 30,000 independent agents either have closed their doors or have been absorbed by larger agencies. Fragmented local claim marketplaces are coalescing into a giant national market.

Like many of us in the business of claims, Harmon believes that there is a direct relationship between adjuster attention to individual claims and loss severity. Furthermore, while direct repair programs and preferred provider networks have helped reduce loss adjustment expenses, they were not entirely successful in the arenas of indemnity control and customer service. Provider programs that ask contractors to scope the damage, write competitively-priced estimates, hold the line by not performing work that is not loss-related, while keeping property owners happy simply do not work.

This is not news to anyone. So what is new and different about IMACC? Harmon's short answer is, “Plenty.”

From an insurer's perspective, IMACC is not attempting to fix loss-severity problems by imposing low unit prices that are subsidized with normally inclusive scope add-ons. “The market sets pricing, just as it does for insurance premiums and everything we buy or sell in this country,” Harmon noted.

Additionally, IMACC does not tax any participants by charging a percentage of the total estimate. “Such charges are no different than finders' fees and add directly to the cost of each job,” explained Harmon. “IMACC trusts that quality contractors working with quality insurers and their claim teams are quite capable of resolving losses at competitive prices. IMACC facilitates efficiencies by making sure that contractors in its network are well qualified, experienced, and competitive in their local markets.”

IMACC also offers its Claim-Cam technology, which makes it possible for adjusters to see the losses in time to affect the scope of repair, to resolve any issues with insureds as they arise, and to negotiate and problem-solve to optimal resolutions. “Of course, insurers pay nothing to make use of this remarkable technology,” said Harmon. “Any adjuster working at a web-enabled workstation can use this new tool.”

Another of IMACC's missions is to promote the unquestionable value of mitigation to insurers and property owners. “It's time to stop feeding dumpsters.” said Harmon. “Fire departments start the mitigation process by extinguishing the blaze. Imagine if a mitigation team came in right behind the firemen and started extracting all that damaging water and scrubbing the air, as they clean the walls, ceilings, and floors. Corrosive ions should be cleaned from metal parts, such as the faucets that cost $200 to $500, to keep them from quickly turning into tarnished, pitted junk.

“Aggressive content cleaning and restoration also can save insurers and property owners huge sums on nearly every loss, if done immediately,” he continued. “Often the window of opportunity for cost-effective mitigation is measured in hours, not days or weeks.”

Kirk Hansen is vice president of insurer relations for IMACC. He can be reached at kirkhansen@imacc.net.

Special Reports /

IMACC Is Up and Running

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