Improvement Insights Blog
Six Sigma for Insurance Companies
This weekend I exhibited at the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). The risk managers were interested in our Lean Six Sigma books, training and QI Macros software, but every so often I’d offer a demo CD to someone and they’d say: “Oh, we don’t need that. we’re an Insurance company.”
Insurance companies like to pretend that they don’t take forever to do anything and make tons of mistakes while they’re at it. This is nonsense. Insurance companies desperately need Lean Six Sigma.
My wife and I recently changed from COBRA to self-pay with United Healthcare. Everything seemed to go smoothly. All of the documents showed my wife+spouse (me). However, when I went to get a prescription filled, I discovered that my coverage had been cancelled on September 29th. That’s odd, since I’m sure we’re sending our premiums.
Did I get a letter informing me of cancellation? No. Does our policy still demand payment for both of us? Yes.
Quality in Insurance stinks. It has wasted the pharmacists time, my time, my wife’s time to follow up and straighten things out. My mom had problems with Medicare supplimental insurance. No one has time to deal with the sloppiness of the insurance industry except the industry itself.
Wake up Insurance people! Your processes are so sluggish and error prone that the illusion of universal healthcare may well be a myth. The rework will burden the system beyond repair.
Don’t pretend your processes are beyond reproach. The people who think they don’t need Lean Six Sigma are the ones that need it the most.
