Much of President Obama's focus these past several months has been on healthcare reform and the idea that we can cut wasted spending with greater efficiencies to healthcare. One of the ways to improve efficiencies, he proposed, is through improved processing and the use of technology.
As I was sitting in my doctor's examination room last week, it struck me as he took notes on his wireless laptop, that aside from my doctor not conducting house calls, little difference exists between what his workflow is and what independent agents do. There's not a lot of difference between a doctor compiling patient information and how you gather information on personal property or business "aches and pains." While the doctor is concerned with a patient's personal health, you're concerned with a client's financial health.
This particular doctor is one of several that I see on an annual basis, and he is the only one who is even remotely as well equipped as the average insurance agent. Not only does he use wireless laptops throughout his practice, but he also checks medications with my insurance company while in the examining room to see if a generic is preferred before issuing me the prescription. He then automatically sends the slip to the printer so an assistant is handing me the prescription by the time I leave.
Not only does he leverage this platform extensively, he has helped to develop it and is a partner in the company marketing it to other physician practices throughout the area.
Healthcare versus financial care
How different is this workflow from what agents do when they visit a client's office to gather information? It's not. Rather than you compiling information right there only to have someone else transfer it when you get back to the office into your agency management system, you're hopefully capturing it for the first and only time onto your laptop, directly into one of the handful of cloud- or Web-based applications that give you access from anywhere.
Most information is captured electronically, especially in the personal lines arena and more is happening on the commercial lines side. Industry data standards from ACORD help enormously as more systems around the world are built upon their common data elements, messages and architecture. This commitment to industry standards is improving how data is shared, eliminating data entry errors and reducing the differences between companies down to what matters most–products offered, prices charged and service rendered. It's not about the transmission of the information, but rather about what is done with the information once it gets where it's going.
Accelerating pace of change
Unfortunately, technology always has been and probably always will be the source of promises that are achieved at its own pace. For many, the pace of technology change is remarkable. For some, change for change's sake is meaningless.
To paraphrase "Moore's law," the speed and power of the current computers will double every 18 months while the cost for that power is cut in half. Futurists such as Vernor Vinge, Bruce Sterling and Ray Kurzweil believe that the exponential improvement described by Moore's law will ultimately lead to a period where progress in technology occurs almost instantly. At least at that pace, some might say there won't even be time enough for a market bubble to occur, Internet or otherwise. That's the good news.
Agents have been told to better leverage technology, to keep up with the latest system upgrades and to tap the power of the new social media, as if we were behind the technology curve–when in reality the insurance industry is ahead of other fields.
So when you think about your own use of technology and how to best integrate it into your agency or what to expect from new hires and what new clients will expect from you, think about what you expect from your own providers, storefronts or online. What do you expect to be able to do online with your bank? What about your investments or utilities? Do you pay your family's bills online? Can you change your phone's rate plan online, at your convenience?
And what about your medical and dental records? Where are they, and how are they stored? How easy is it to access them? As your clients' insurance and financial advisor, you have a very good overall picture of their financial make up and goals to best guide them. What about your doctor(s)? Who has that same very good overall picture of you and your family's health? Is there a sharing of medical information between practitioners?
As far as I see, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in healthcare reform. Regardless of which side of the aisle you sit on, I think we all must agree that there are numerous efficiencies that can be gained just through the better use of technology. At the same time, take heart in the fact that the insurance industry may not be paving the way on the use of technology, but it is certainly ahead of the horse-and-buggy Amish crowd.
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