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Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America

ABA11 Winner / How to Enter

Company: Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America, Cleveland, OH
Company Description: Family Heritage Insurance is an industry leading supplemental insurance company providing Protection, Service and Security to American families. Protection provided by our products, Service delivered by our committed Sales Professionals and our dedicated Home Office Associates.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Family Heritage Life Insurance Claims Department Customer Service Team

    Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2010 year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        Family Heritage offers insurance that provides benefits for catastrophic
illness, accidents and death.  When a policyholder contacts the company to
inform us of a claim, we know that the person is already under a great deal of
strain.  Perhaps they or a loved one has just been diagnosed with cancer. 
Possibly, they have had an accident or even lost a loved one.  The last thing
in the world that they need is impersonal answering machines or red tape.

        Family Heritage’s philosophy is to provide the best experience possible for its
customers who are already feeling the stress of an uncomfortable situation.  We
treat all customers as VIPs and provide concierge-level service to them by
taking as much administrative burden off of them as possible.

        Our claims examiners will work directly with healthcare providers to obtain the
bills and medical records that are needed to pay a claim.  And then, once we
receive the necessary documentation, our goal is to pay the claim as quickly as
possible because we know that our claimants are already starting to incur
expenses and frequently are off work because of the illness or accident. 
Claims are completed within two days of receipt of the documents and then the
money is wired directly into the customer’s checking account.  We are not aware
of any other company that provides this level of service and we are quite proud
of being able to provide the best experience possible.

        For customer interface, Family Heritage prides itself in letting claimants
speak with a live person. There is no phone menu that they are asked to
navigate in order to reach a representative for help.  This level of service
requires discipline and commitment, which are traits shown by everyone in
Claims.  It is also something that will surprise our policyholders, as many are
used to dealing with larger insurance companies where speaking with a live
person is uncommon.

        Members of the Claims Department at Family Heritage are selected based upon
their personalities as well as their skills.  It is very important that they
treat our customers and claimants as they would like to be treated.  The
concept of treating all customers as if they were family is part of the initial
training and is continually reinforced throughout their careers.  We want all
employees to realize that “exceptional customer service” is the company’s
standard. As claim testimonials are received at Family Heritage, they are
emailed to all employees.  This allows employees to understand how their
activities impact the lives of our customers. 

        Family Heritage has created a culture of family and an environment where
customer service flourishes.  The mission statement of Family Heritage guides
everything that we do, from product design to investment policy to service
delivery.  It is especially relevant to the service aspects of the business.

        “To provide financial security and peace of mind
to families when the unexpected occurs”

 

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

        Customer Service Claims Case Study

        A grieving family submitted a claim related to the death of their young child
after a long battle with cancer.  Because of the amount of the bills, the
family was forced to rely on government assistance to pay some of the medical
costs.  To reimburse some of these costs, the government wanted to attach the
Family Heritage claim payment that was going to be sent to the family, the
value of which was several hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

        Family Heritage could have paid the claim to the government and let the family
fight with the government for the benefits.  Instead, because a hallmark of our
company is helping families in times of need, Family Heritage engaged legal
counsel at its own cost to consider its options.  Through counsel, Family
Heritage entered into negotiations with the government to try to reach a
resolution more favorable to our insured.  Unable to get the government to
budge, Family Heritage commenced a legal action which resulted in a successful
result for the family. 

        Customer Service Claims Case Study

        A policyholder passed away and his wife was not familiar with the policy. Her
father also recently passed away and she was traveling back and forth and was
not sure how to handle or submit the claims for her deceased husband and
father. She explained the situation to an examiner explaining she couldn’t
communicate with the hospital and going forward she could only communicate by e-
mail. The examiner decided to open a claim for her without receiving the
required claim form or some form of documentation to open a claim and began to
work on how to build the claim based on the information the spouse provided.
The examiner called the hospitals to verify if there was any billing and
medical records. The examiner then sent the spouse several authorization forms
for her to complete by e-mail to submit to the hospital to release the
information required. The examiner was able to communicate with the
policyholder while she was traveling back and forth from California to
Tennessee and after a few weeks the examiner was able to process several claims
for the two policies. The spouse was very grateful because she was in the midst
of planning two funerals and had to take care of her mother. It was difficult
for her to obtain information from several hospitals and they were all located
in different states.

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

        Ms. Salvaggio joined Capitol American Life Insurance Company in 1989.  During
her career with Capitol, she supervised various departments, including Policy
Owner Services, Agency and Underwriting.

        In 1996 Ms. Salvaggio joined Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America,
where she has managed several departments including Customer Service,
Underwriting, Billing & Collections, and Corporate Services, and Claims.  She
has been managing the Claims Department for twelve years where the focus of
providing exceptional customer service to our policy holders is a top priority.