If you treat injured workers, there’s no good reason to wait months or weeks for reimbursement.

Catherine Montgomery

For the first four months of 2024, daisyData shows that claims administrators paid our provider clients’ bills on average in fewer than nine working days. This is mainly because daisyBill software sends more than 92% of bills electronically; the remaining bills are faxed or emailed, with just 0.5% mailed on physical paper.  

But of course, some claims administrators pay faster than others.

We praise the 10 claims administrators with the quickest payment times and reveal others that could use a little more pep in their step.

Top 10 fastest-paying claims

The list reflects claims administrators to which daisyBill providers sent at least 1,000 bills between Jan. 1, 2024, and April 30, 2024.

First among our speediest payers was Alaska National Insurance. This insurer strapped the huskies to the sleds and put a little extra “mush” into their efforts, paying our providers in fewer than five business days. Who’s a good boy? Alaska National, that’s who.

That acknowledged, even the slowest among our fastest payers remitted reimbursement on average in just over six working days. Every entity in the list has made it easier for doctors to continue treating injured workers, something that can’t be said of every payer in the game:

• Alaska National Insurance, 2,022 bills, 4.7 days.
• Employers Compensation Insurance Co., 3,960 bills, 5.5 days.
• Travelers, 13,947 bills, 5.6 days.
• CorVel, 23,587 bills, 5.7 days.
• Beta Healthcare Group Risk Management Authority, 1,440 bills, 5.7 days.
• Sentry Insurance, 4,794 bills, 5.8 days.
• Omaha National Group, 1,090 bills, six days.
• CopperPoint Mutual, 1,265 bills, six days.
• Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., 36,896 bills, 6.1 days.
• Self-Insured Schools of California, 1,486 bills, 6.1 days.

Slowest-paying claims

These 10 claims administrators were the slowest to reimburse daisyBill providers in the first months of 2024. However, on average, all but one still managed to remit payment in less than one month.

The slowest of the slowest was Affirmative. Providers who billed Affirmative waited an indefensible average of 47 working days for payment.

The fastest of the slowest was the City of San Diego, which reimbursed daisyBill providers in an average of 10.9 working days. That’s not enough to escape the “bottom 10” list, but it’s certainly a more than respectable average:

• City of San Diego, 1,861 bills, 10.9 days.
• Keenan & Associates, 7,164 bills, 11 days.
• Next Level Administrators, 5,256 bills, 11.3 days.
• Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc., 9,976 bills, 12.6 days.
• Tristar Risk Management, 2,996 bills, 12.7 days.
• PMA Cos., 1,347 bills, 12.9 days.
• Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, 4,683 bills, 14.2 days.
• Cottingham & Butler Claims Services Inc., 1,541 bills, 15.8 days.
• Acclamation Insurance Management Services, 2,308 bills, 19.8 days.
• Affirmative, 1,075 bills, 47 days.

Top 10 by bill count volume

With notable exceptions like Gallagher Bassett and CorVel, some of our fastest and slowest claims administrators get a relatively small number of bills from daisyBill clients. Below are the 10 claims administrators to which daisyBill clients sent the most bills.

Note that none of the admins took longer than nine days to pay up. In fact, the slowest of the big 10, Intercare, remitted payment in nine days on average. Not bad!

The fastest of our biggest bill recipients was Travelers, with an average payment time of 5.6 days, though it must be noted it was a photo finish; CorVel was behind by only a 10th of a day at 5.7 days:

• Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc., 103,832 bills, 7.1 days.
• Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., 36,896 bills, 6.1 days.
• State Compensation Insurance Fund, 34,861 bills, 8.5 days.
• CorVel, 23,587 bills, 5.7 days.
• Intercare Holdings Insurance Services Inc., 22,559 bills, nine days.
• Liberty Mutual Insurance, 17,220 bills, 6.9 days.
• AmTrust North America Inc., 14,472 bills, 8.3 days.
• Travelers, 13,947 bills, 5.6 days.
• Zurich Insurance North America, 13,660 bills, 8.8 days.
• Insurance Co. of the West, 12,942 bills, 8.3 days.

Our claims administrator directory (a free resource for the workers’ comp community) reports data collected from more than 6,000 daisyBill providers, including payment speeds and other metrics for more than 700 claims administrators on a rolling 365-day time frame.

It reveals vital information about each claims administrator, including contact telephone numbers, bill review vendor details, e-billing compliance data and other essential information.

The bottom line is that despite the inevitable technical hiccups, shoddy regulatory enforcement and general shenanigans, this workers’ comp e-billing thing works — provided you’re using the right software.

Catherine Montgomery is the co-founder and CEO of daisyBill, a provider of workers' comp end-to-end revenue cycle management software. This post appears with permission.