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[Ed. note: Recommended] An Interview with Jamie Yoder

ITL's Paul Carroll interviews Jamie Yoder, President and General Manager of Sapiens North America, on operational efficiency and the role of generative AI in the insurance industry.

Jamie Yoder jokes that driverless vehicles are no big deal. The Amish had them decades ago, he says. A farmer would get drunk and fall asleep on the bench at the front of his cart, and his horse would eventually start trotting and take him home.

Jamie would know. Even though he now runs the North America operations of a major provider of software products and tools and has made a career out of digital technology, he grew up in an Amish community.

I've heard that joke a few times because I've known Jamie since 1996, when we met via Diamond Technology Partners, where we were partners. I've heard a few other stories, too, because Jamie has been my go-to on lots of insurance-related subjects as he became the insurance practice leader at PwC (which bought Diamond in 2010) and then the president at Snapsheet, an insurtech that has been an innovator in claims management, even before taking on his senior role at Sapiens.

Paul Carroll, editor-in-chief, Insurance Thought Leadership

‘Intelligent Automation’ Helps Insurers Streamline Auto Claims Payouts

In the auto claims industry, the payments tech stack is complex, and the total cost of ownership is expensive.

As Michael Boeke, vice president of payments product management at CCC Intelligent Solutions, told PYMNTS in an interview, “payments can look pretty different depending on where a carrier is in terms of their digital journey.”

Carriers that are just beginning their digital journeys are still sending huge volumes of paper checks, he explained, compared to those that are further along in their digital transformation.

“The carriers that are sending out a lot of paper checks are still relying on legacy vendors, banks and payments providers, and they’re likely incurring some hidden costs caused by their systems not being well connected to the rest of their claims lifecycle,” Boeke said.

As he told PYMNTS with a nod toward what’s to come: “Real-time payments are starting to gain steam here — where you can start to get instantaneous bank-to-bank payment transfers — and we’re going to see more of that in our B2B payments in the future.”

California's insurance carrier exits – what's the impact on claims?

The withdrawal of large insurance carriers like Allstate and State Farm from California’s insurance market will have a significant impact on claims, at least one claims services provider has told Insurance Business.  

Remaining carriers must shoulder huge nat-cat risks in the state, which often sees enormous claims from wildfire damage. Robbie Arnold (pictured), managing director at Charles Taylor, a global claims services provider, said he expects insurance companies to respond by tightening their underwriting and raising premiums.

“When you have a lot of carriers pulling out [of the market], it puts a lot of pressure on the existing companies to try to offset that risk with underwriting,” said Arnold. “So, they’ll start putting these large deductibles or special coverage limitations.”

Claims adjusters must strike a balance between advocating for policyholders and respecting policy limitations set by insurers, avoiding “adversarial situations” during the claims process.

“As claims professionals, we have to adjust to these new guidelines and communicate with the insureds what these policies represent,” Arnold added. “The balance is to try not to create adversarial situations.

“We want to be on the side of the policyholders, we’re trying to interpret policy, we’re trying to calculate damages and quantify the extent of the losses and give that information back to the carrier so that insureds can recover as soon as possible, especially from a property standpoint.”

Insurance Business Magazine