Report Writing the Provencher Way: Part 2 - Report Handling

Report Handling

As you are reading this, if you have not yet been fully trained in our claim system, W5, and don’t have access  to  our  report  template, you should reach out to our staff in the National Claims Center to gain access to those templates. You must have Microsoft Word loaded on your computer in order to use this template.

First and foremost in the reporting process at Provencher & Company, is documenting the claim file with the date of contact and date of inspection date. Both should be done within twenty-four (24) hours of receiving the assignment, even if the inspection date is in the future. If you are unable to establish contact with the insured, the file should be noted in the way of T&E to record the attempt (daily claims) or a note of the file (CAT claims). The only time the first contact & date of inspection area of the claim file should be left blank, is if contact has not been established and then the file should reflect the attempts. The management team cannot address any potential issues or defend you handling to the client, if the file is not documented.

With regard to written reports:

Please email your reports to reports@provencherclaims.com in Word format. This allows us to make any necessary cosmetic changes without having to send the report back to you to make the changes.   If, however, your report is deficient in content, or we see technical gaps or inconsistencies upon review - it will be returned for revision.

Additionally, all enclosures listed in the report should be attached to the same email if possible. Attachments should be in PDF format and labeled in such a fashion to be easily identified as the enclosures listed in your report.

Never send a report directly to a client without our prior approval.  Our internal audit system is designed to catch any errors before the report goes to our clients.  If the need arises wherein you have to communicate directly with a client via email, always use your Provencher email account.  Help us to help you look good; we are in this together!

Technical Content Cautions

Provencher & Company, LLC adjusters are the best of the best in our industry. There are, however, times we can fall into certain report writing traps due to the fact that we are busy and moving on to the next claim. We must take the time to look back at the prior reports we have written on the same claim to avoid repetition, conflicting messages, etc.  Here are some of the most common traps that our file audits have uncovered:

• Captions identify a topic. Rambling verbiage that changes topics within a caption is confusing and throws doubt on your thought process. Information relative to subrogation should be covered in the Subrogation caption, not buried under the Adjustment caption or discussed in the Cause of Loss Caption.

• Do not repeat, reproduce or duplicate captions and information from prior reports, except by reference (see First Report). For example, as coverage is always addressed in the first report, do not include a caption for Coverage in reports two, three and four unless there is new information – omit the caption! The exception to this is the Reserve Caption.

• Current reserves should be documented on every report. 

• Large losses often require loss management by the adjuster. You may be managing a team of experts and adjusters rather than doing all the work yourself.  If you hire experts for cause & origin or damages, let them do the work they were hired for. Let their report(s) stand on their own. Do not reiterate or interpret expert reports! It is unnecessary and creates fodder for plaintiff’s attorneys.

Coming next week....

Part 3: The Report Content

Did you miss the beginning of this series? Find them here:
     Report Writing the Provencher Way: Part 1 - Introduction

 Contributed by:

      Julie Rock-Chatellier