These days, CFOs and CEOs scrutinize claim payments and processing more heavily than ever before. As a result, risk managers invariably feel mounting pressure to be more proactive and efficient when evaluating the performance of insurance carriers.

Are claims being handled as quickly and accurately as possible? Is there room for improvement in terms of how information is relayed and coordinated among various parties? How can companies make processes and data more transparent? These are but a few questions risk managers ask themselves, given this increasing accountability to upper management.

Although the methods employed to gauge claim performance vary among managers, many agree on some basic criteria. For example, Greenwich Associates identified three core assessment considerations when it independently surveyed 683 U.S. corporate risk managers in its 2010 Large Corporate Insurance Study. To identify top-performing carriers, the international research firm examined claims' coordination with brokers; claim-processing responsiveness; and willingness to pay claims.