How CURE Auto Insurance Uses Legal Billing Software to Improve Claims Operations
Executive Summary:
Running a claims defense operation requires technology teams to manage software updates, troubleshoot technical issues and coordinate across departments. At CURE Auto Insurance, Assistant Vice President of IT Enterprise Solutions Rebecca Shaffer also oversees how legal billing software and time tracking software support the company’s in-house legal team.
When software is at the center of a claims defense operation, keeping systems running smoothly can mean solving problems that users may never see.
Rebecca Shaffer is the Assistant Vice President of IT Enterprise Solutions at CURE Auto Insurance. This means she works directly with developers to implement any software solutions needed for the company.
Her role involves communicating website requirements to developers and documenting processes so that developers can build what the operation team is expecting. Currently, she is focusing on ensuring the operation needs of the company are met through technology.
Dealing With Software Issues
Shaffer said that after any company releases a software update, small problems or bugs may appear that weren’t caught during testing. Companies including Apple or Google release “hot fixes” or patches to release these problems. This is because it is impossible to test everything a user might do with a piece of software before it is released.
Shaffer’s team completes a thorough post-production review of every update. CURE’s operations team can also report issues that arise in regular daily use. One issue that Shaffer said occurred very infrequently involved insurance ID cards, which contain customer information. In a small number of cases, these ID cards are not generated.
Because the issue occurs so infrequently, the company chose to not use the time of employees to work on generating individual solutions. Instead, they developed a bot to ensure an ID card was generated for every insurance policy created.
Employee Time Tracking Software
Shaffer said that using an online time tracking software gave CURE the flexibility to ask their in-house law team to track their billable hours. She described using the software as being simple: attorneys can pull from a dropdown and enter the work they did. Then, the admin can choose which claims they want to group into an invoice and can easily allocate money toward the claims.
“They need a system that is straightforward and simple, so that they can easily track their billable time,” Shaffer said. “Now, at CURE, we have also used Enter Your Hours a little bit differently, so that they also can track their non-billable time, and that’s important for the attorney managers and directors who ensure that their team is filling up their time properly.”
Shaffer pointed out that billing software for a law firm was important because diligent tracking can help ensure all work is accounted for. According to the Illinois State Bar Association, this software can help ensure time is managed effectively.
“I think the success is when the attorneys are well disciplined and they always have Enter Your Hours open on another screen,” Shaffer said. “That’s what the ideal process should be: is that they always have Enter Your Hours open on another tab or on another monitor, so that as soon as they know they’ve completed a task that needs to be billable, they just swap right over to that screen or that monitor, and they can quickly enter their time.”
Regular Tasks and Management
Shaffer said her “day-to-day life is incredibly different”. However, she enjoys the surprise of new projects to work on and being able to delegate tasks based on each challenge. However, there are some projects she can regularly expect.
- Managing projects and deciding who is involved, coordinating the work across teams
- Bringing together different teams like legal, development, and compliance to make sure projects are ready to launch
- Solving technical problems and troubleshooting
- Analyzing specific data when teams need information
- Tracking the testing team’s progress and ensuring they stay on track with products
- Acting as a resource when her teams get stuck and ensuring the team creates solutions
“I enjoy seeing how far CURE has come in the past 15 years,” Shaffer said.
For organizations looking for legal billing software and time and billing software, Enter Your Hours offers a free 30-day trial to explore its billing and time-tracking features.