Let’s face it: insurance companies manage a lot of recorded files. From adjusters recording claimants to interviews with eyewitnesses to conversations with medical, legal, and insurance professionals, the amount of verbal records can be overwhelming, especially when your claims team processes hundreds of claims a month.

Imagine how much time adjustors and back offices waste putting interviewee’s responses and statements into words. For big incidents, such as three or more cars in an accident, these transcriptions can get out of hand quick.

That’s where a transcription service comes in. Transcription providers can turn verbal files into accurate documents in no time. But what exactly can these companies transcribe, and why are insurance companies turning to them? Let’s take a closer look and see.

How Can Transcription Services Help Insurance Companies? 

Transcription services take audio and video files and turn them into written documents. They produce a clear record of verbal interactions that adjustors, underwriters, legal teams, and back offices can reference later. And since insurance companies deal with loadsof verbal files, it can take a major burden off your claims team. 

Which files can transcription services transcribe? Well, here are some of the most common.

• In-person or phone interviews with claimants, eyewitnesses, suspects, and other victims involved in an insurance claim.
• Interviews and conversations with medical or legal professionals who are assisting a claim. 
• Field notes, recorded statements, and summary reports, especially those from an adjustor who is observing firsthand damage to property or possible fraudulent activities.
• Meetings and conversations with insurance professionals who are helping with a claim. 
• Depositions.

Insurance companies who outsource these files to transcription services often keep their operations moving much faster. They can handle numerous interviews, statements, and summary reports without worrying about transcribing them later, helping their teams stay focused on the claims themselves.

Which Insurance Companies Can Use Transcription Services? 

Anyof them. It doesn’t matter if you handle property and casualty, life insurance, health insurance, or even business insurance. Transcription services can make your back office and claims process run smoother.

One thing to keep in mind: some types of insurances require their third-parties to follow certain compliance laws. For example, if your insurance company deals with medical and health insurance policies, you want your transcription service to be HIPAA compliant. Always ask your transcription service what compliance they adhere to.

Why Should Insurance Companies Use Transcription Services?

Most insurance companies simply don’t have the time to transcribe large amounts of audio files, not to mention do it accurately, which is why many insurance companies are turning to transcription services for help. Here are five benefits insurance companies enjoy when they outsource their transcriptions. 

1. Accurate Transcriptions 

What really sets professional transcriptionists apart is accuracy. Non-professionals often succumb to listening fatigue, which results in more errors. Professionals, on the other hand, train themselves to listen to numerous files, understand the nuances of speech, and write them in clear sentences. 

Most transcription services offer at least 99% accuracy on all transcriptions. This takes immense pressure off your claims team, especially when files have poor quality or speakers have complicated accents.

2. Helps Fraud Investigations

Insurance fraud is a serious liability. In 2020, the FBI found that the total cost of insurance fraud (not including health insurance) costs more than $40 billion per year. To put that number in perspective, $40 billion is higher than the GDP of forty-five different countries. Yeah—let that sink in for a moment. 

Because of the constant threat of fraud, having written transcriptions is crucial. It’s much easier to spot inconsistencies and discrepancies in a claimant’s statement when you have a written text to analyze, especially when you’re comparing several statements or interviews in a single claim. 

Transcription services can even go a step further and provide you with verbatim transcriptions. These transcriptions include every “hmm,” “um,” word fumble, hesitation, and other suspicious or revelatory cues that occur in a conversation. This can help your team analyze the exact meaning of an interviewee’s words.

3. Simplifies The Claims Process

The claims process is arguably the heart of an insurance company. When claims run smoothly, clients will be happy, adjustors will be happy, and your company will profit from a better reputation. 

Written transcriptions keeps the workflow moving faster. For one, written documents are easier to distribute and reference than recordings. Finding keywords or details in a digital file is simple with a “search and find” tool. Audio couldn’t even dream of offering such a feature. 

In addition, listening to files can lead to different interpretations, resulting in different decisions, not always the right ones. Transcriptions, on the other hand, allow everyone on the claims team to refer to the same information. 

4. Foreign Language Translations

Often your claims team will deal with claimants or witnesses who don’t speak or understand English. You still need to get a recorded statement, even if it’s in their own language, and without a translator or multilingual staff, you’ll have to outsource the translation. 

Fortunately, several transcription services will translate these audio files into English. Like other transcription services, they can provide you with a complete written document of what the claimant or witness said. 

5. Gives Legal Teams an Acceptable File 

Finally, transcription services can prepare transcriptions in a legally acceptable format. They’ll make sure to follow compliance, which makes the legal process go faster.

This helps tremendously if a claim goes to an Arbitration Forum. The Arbitration Forum currently doesn’t accept audio or video files as evidence, so you’ll need to transcribe those files anyway. Having them already transcribed puts you one step ahead, helping your legal team concentrate their efforts on putting the case together. 

What Should You Look For in a Transcription Services Company? 

Many insurance companies simply can’t afford to hire a full-time professional transcriptionist, especially since the sheer amount of claims would require more than one. Outsourcing, then, is more cost-efficient. 

But how do you know a transcription provider is dependable, reliable, and efficient? As you’re looking at different companies, here are some qualities to look out for. 

1. Data Security 

Your transcribed documents will have sensitive information that you don’t want in the hands of the wrong people. And with insurance companies becoming a big target for data breaches, you want your transcription service to have top-of-the-line security. 

Don’t settle for anything less than full security. Make sure your transcription provider uses encryption technology, as well as guarantees that the information on your files is secure. 

2. Accuracy Guaranteed 

For insurance companies, anything less than 99% accuracy guaranteed is not good enough. After all, what’s the point in using a transcription service if your transcriptions are littered with errors? 

3. Turnaround Time 

Along with 99% accuracy, another trait of a tried-and-true company is their turnaround time. Before you sign up with any company, ask how fast they’ll get your files back. Because you want your claims process to move as quickly as it can, you want to be sure your transcription company can work under pressure without taking shortcuts or making errors. 

Ready to Transcribe Your Files? 

If you’re sick of wasting time transcribing statements, summary reports, and interviews, Rev can help. We pride ourselves on offering quick and reliable transcription services with 99% accuracy guaranteed. We can tackle the transcriptions so your claims team can focus more on the claims themselves. Send us your audio or video files, and we’ll get start immediately!