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Letter to the Editor

Who Pays for What

Comparing Insurer P-Page Reimbursements for Common non-Included Repair Operations...

The results from this year’s Who Pays for What? surveys included with the January issue of INSIGHT are in. Using this data we have compiled payment frequencies for the most common non-included P-page operations covered in the survey.

Over 150 shops have reported their experiences on P-page reimbursement as of the writing of this article.

This year’s Who Pays for What? survey shows very little difference between reimbursement frequencies overall from previous years. As the chart on page 10 details, the overall payment frequency rates by insurer varied no more than 2-4 percent above or below reported frequencies from 1997. The lone exception to this trend, however, is State Farm that has shown an almost 6 percent increase. State Farm is slowly moving away from their We don’t pay for that, it’s included in your labor rate policy of many years. Why so?

It appears that State Farm is accepting the argument that paying for P-page items reduces cost-shifting and makes for a more accurate repair estimate. If you haven’t noticed the difference in your State Farm field staff, expect the change soon as adjusters from different markets are brought in for training on State Farm’s new estimating guidelines. Insurers are getting pressure from many parts of the industry to accept the CIC Write-It-Right Guidelines concerning both P-page and general estimating practices.

Quality and P-Page Satisfaction

On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being poor and 5 excellent, in your opinion, how does each insurer's claims handling and P-page specifications provide a quality repair and claims handling experience?

The Data

Farmers continues as our survey’s most agreeable insurer, a position they’ve held for the past five years. In previous years, we cited Farmer’s willingness to pay for many non-included items as leading towards higher customer satisfaction with their base of insureds. Though they still score slightly higher than other insurers on the P-page front, we have seen a marked drop in the satisfaction survey question instituted in last year’s survey. This year, Farmer’s scored a 3.2 on a scale of 1 to 5, with one being poor and five being excellent. This year, they are tied with three other insurers, versus their leading 3.6 score a year ago.

At the other end of the spectrum, Allstate continues to receive low satisfaction marks from shops at 2.8- the same result as last year. o

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