INDUSTRY PULSE

©istockphoto.com/art12321r

HD0717.qxp_Layout 1 6/9/17 1:12 PM Page 16

16

DEAR HAMMER & DOLLY: Editor’s note: Hammer & Dolly Publisher Thomas Greco recently received a letter from GEICO in response to Tom Slear’s article, “Insurers and Scanning: A ‘Very Big Disrupter,’” in our June 2017 issue. The passage in question precedes the letter for our readers’ reference:

Joe Lacy, GEICO’s director of performance review – “I manage the folks who go out and audit our adjusters,” he says – insists that GEICO feels pre- and post-repair scans are needed and will pay for them. “We are not going to argue,” he says. “All the manufacturers say it’s necessary. We’ve made the commitment. We are going to do it. How do you argue with manufacturing? It’s a requirement.” Within GEICO, the problem isn’t resistance, but inertia. In all large corporations, there’s perfunctory communication and real communication. The former is the plethora of emails and memos that employees barely read and rarely follow. The latter is the notes and guidance from direct supervisors that indicate clearly what action needs to be taken. The former travels quickly but has little effect. The latter travels slowly and oftentimes inaccurately, yet it’s what ultimately moves organizations in one direction or another. GEICO employs some 3,000 adjusters. Lacy would like to say they are all on the same page, but he knows better. The approach from a GEICO adjuster should be: If the scan makes sense, then GEICO will pay for it. “If the shop can do [a scan] in-house – fine,” he says. “If subbed out, we’ll pay the rate as long as it is competitive. I understand this is a mechanical procedure, and those rates are solid.”

July 2017

H&D