Claims Nightmare

How Does a Claims Advocate Benefit Insurance Policyholders in Cincinnati?

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Did you receive an insurance claim denial in Ohio? Perhaps your insurance claim was delayed unnecessarily?  Or perhaps what the insurance company offered you was substantially less than what you felt you deserved?  If you have ever had a cause for complaint against an insurance company, you need an insurance agency in Cincinnati that stands up for your rights as a policyholder.  Call 513-662-7000 to speak with an agency that offers the only Claims Advocacy Program™

How Does the Claims Advocacy Program™ Benefit Insurance Policyholders in Cincinnati?

A Claims Advocate simply means that we stand up for your rights as a policyholder in the event a claim is not paid to your satisfaction!  We will investigate to learn the reasons for claim settlement delays; we will proactively provide assistance to claims departments to speed up the process so that claims are paid faster.  We have tracked down uninsured motorist and collected payments for our policyholders that insurance companies refused to do because the collectible amount was too small. And finally we will actively negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf in the event you are not satisfied with the amount payable to you.* (This service also applies to not at fault accidents that you may be involved in as a client of our agency.)

Real Life Claims Advocacy™ in Action              

Jamie Bettis is a client of our agency and a business owner entrepreneur. He owns two companies, American Mobile X-Ray and Better Lawns and Landscapes

In 2010 one of his medical trucks was completely destroyed by a teenager who was texting and driving.  Fortunately the teenager was insured, but the responsible insurance company was lowballing the insurance settlement offer.  Jamie made us aware of the accident from the start.  Losing his medical truck plus a significant amount of expensive medical equipment put him in a bind to cover his workload for his business.

To make matters worse the insurance company was offering him substantially less money for the claim.  We actively negotiated with the insurance company and within five days this claim was completely settled and he was reimbursed in full. We were able to secure an additional $5000 for Jamie compared to what the insurance company was offering. We also cut in half the amount of time that it takes to settle a claim this large, putting a new medical truck back on the road and Jamie was able to avoid loss of any business due to this unfortunate event.

“Without the claims assistance from Pathway Insurance it would have taken me weeks to settle this claim on my own plus the insurance company was trying to pay as little as possible to settle the claim.  I was able to replace my medical truck, medical equipment and receive a settlement that put me back in business sooner, all thanks to Pathway Insurance because of their Claims Advocacy Program. ™ ”

Let an Agency That Stands up for Their Clients Care for Your Insurance Needs! Contact Pathway Insurance Today by Calling 513-662-7000

*There are some limitations to what we can offer with the Pathway Claims Advocacy Program. ™ For instance, we cannot provide legal advice as we are not licensed attorneys. We cannot overrule or overturn insurance company final claims decisions, especially on claim denials whereas the policyholder has engaged in some type of prohibited activity, or they did not purchase the appropriate coverage, or failed to add endorsements necessary to cover an incident that would normally be excluded from coverage. Please call 513-662-7000 for more details or questions about this service.

Bad Insurance Claims Service in Cincinnati

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Are you looking for an insurance agency in Cincinnati offering one of the strongest claims satisfaction guarantee?  Call 513-662-7000 to speak with one of our Cincinnati insurance experts. Or if you need an online car insurance quote in Cincinnati click here.

Claims Dissatisfaction with Insurance Companies Might Be Growing.

Most people probably want to avoid claims.  It can be time-consuming and frustrating.

What’s more sometimes claims are denied by insurance companies, the claim settlement could be delayed, or we receive far less than what we believe we are owed. Statistically more than 300,000 documented complaints are filed against insurance companies each year. Many people probably don’t even bother filing a complaint because they may believe that the departments of insurance have no real authority to force an insurance company to pay an individual claim. (That’s true.)

Bad Claims Service in Cincinnati Is a Problem for Policyholders.

If your insurance claim in Cincinnati is denied, if the settlement is delayed, or the amount of money received is less than what you anticipate, what steps can you take?  Our first reaction might be to contact an attorney.  If you believe that threats of contacting an attorney will sway an insurance claims adjuster you should reconsider that approach.  This strategy has little to no chance of success with most insurance claims adjusters in Cincinnati.

The reason why is because they understand that in most instances this is an empty threat by the policyholder.  Additionally claims adjusters also realize that most car accidents in Cincinnati are too small for an attorney to take on a contingency basis unless you as the claimant are willing to pay potentially thousands of dollars upfront.

How Do You Avoid Bad Claims Service in Cincinnati?

First of all you need to thoroughly understand your insurance coverage.  Insurance policies do not cover every conceivable claim situation.  Additionally insurance policies contain many restrictions and exclusions of coverage.  So in other words if your insurance claim was denied, was it because you were engaged in some type of prohibited activities by the insurance company?  If so you are probably fighting an uphill battle that you will likely lose. 

New Book Reveals: Insurance Loopholes Hidden in Plain Sight.™

Later this year a new book, published by Jack Thomas the branch manager of Pathway Insurance Services Inc. a leading independent insurance agency in Cincinnati will reveal how to decipher the major insurance loopholes that are hidden in plain sight.  This groundbreaking information presents coverage and claim scenarios if avoided by policyholders, will significantly reduce the chance of future claim denials from your insurance company. 

Want to Know How Our Agency Can Help You with Your Insurance Needs?

Contact the Cincinnati insurance professionals.  Many agents and companies only quote a price and give no advice on insurance. ™ That’s a mistake if you follow that pattern. Choose our independent insurance agency in Cincinnati to care for your needs. Call today for your free analysis.

513-662-7000

The Pathway Protection Letter™ This Is How It Can Protect You from Claim Denial.

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Are you shopping around for new car and home insurance in Cincinnati? Call our conveniently located independent insurance agency in Cincinnati @ 513-662-7000 or click here to receive insurance quotes in all 50 states.

Cincinnati Insurance companies advertise nonstop 24 hours per day.  What is their message?

Save up to 15% on your car insurance in Cincinnati.
Discounts up to 40% on your insurance in Cincinnati.
Save up to 45% on automobile insurance in Cincinnati.

Where is the message… “We always pay our insurance claims no matter what”? 

You will not find that message from any insurance company. 

Why?  Because insurance companies in Cincinnati deny claims on a regular basis for policyholders.

Across the country hundreds of thousands of consumers file complaints against insurance companies each year for claim denials. Would you assume the reason is because insurance companies are greedy profit driven machines who only want to take as much money as possible from their Cincinnati insurance policyholders and payout as little as they can?

That’s not the reason.

It’s because of a lack of knowledge about what insurance covers, but more importantly what it doesn’t cover.  Insurance is a big mystery to most people.  It’s misunderstood, it’s misinterpreted, it’s misapplied and then the claim might be denied. ™

The Pathway Protection Letter™ can provide you the educational information that you need to understand your insurance policies better.

It does you absolutely no good to save money on insurance, when later it cost you money because you did not get the proper insurance advice.  You can learn more about the Pathway Protection Letter™ by clicking on our next article.

The Pathway Protection Letter™ is only available through our independent insurance agency in Cincinnati.

To discuss your insurance needs including how the Pathway Protection Letter™ can benefit you please contact:

Pathway Insurance

513-662-7000

My Personal Claims Nightmare in Cincinnati Ohio

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Angry man at car accident scene uid 1342122Have you ever had to fight an insurance company to pay a claim? 

Unfortunately I did (as an insurance agent) and I almost lost that fight.

How can my personal experience help you as a client of Pathway Insurance?

First of all what I learned from this experience has given me the necessary motivation to make sure that something like this never happens to one of my personal clients. 

Additionally it gave me the essential knowledge that many insurance agents lack on how to maneuver through the claims system to achieve more favorable results for clients when it seems like the claim is not being handled properly or taking longer than necessary.

In fact this service can be so valuable to you that even if our rates were higher than one of our competitors, you could be making a mistake by changing to that company. (Unless they offer a similar satisfaction guarantee which is our promise to you to do everything within our power to assist you with claims if there were a problem.)

When I first entered the Insurance business over two decades ago I exclusively sold life insurance and investments and purchased my car and home insurance from a local Farmers Insurance agent in Western Hills.

How did my personal claims nightmare begin?   It started when I decided to obtain insurance quotes from other local insurance agencies including GEICO insurance.  GEICO predominantly sells car insurance directly to the public without local insurance agents.  Like most folks I wanted to make sure I wasn’t paying more than I should for my insurance.  (Read the article on why you might want to reconsider buying your insurance directly from a company.)

I found a company that offered incredibly cheap car insurance rates in Cincinnati and I saved about $200 compared to my previous premium. 

Within the first 6 months one driver on my policy was involved in two accidents.  The first accident was not reported to the insurance company since it was relatively minor.  The second accident totaled the vehicle and that’s when my trouble began.

The claims adjustor noticing the previous damage from that unreported accident I mentioned immediately charged us for 2 collision deductibles!

It was never our intention to turn a claim in for this minor dent, yet we were penalized for it.  The next bit of bad news is that the adjustor was underestimating our loss by more than $1,500 compared to the true value of that vehicle.

I called the agent whom I purchased my car and home insurance Gangster holding his hat uid 1072089policy looking for his help and his answer to me was:

“I don’t handle claims you need to work directly with the company.”

(Because I was a licensed insurance agent I assumed that my agent would help me, how wrong that proved to be.)

I called the insurance company relentlessly over an extended period of time, essentially hitting a stone wall.  I finally decided to make one final attempt to settle this claim without seeking the aid of an attorney. (That was my next step)

I wrote a 5 page letter addressed to the President of the Insurance Company and mailed a copy to every single claims office in the United States explaining why I felt the claim was not being settled fairly and what steps I would take to remedy the situation.  My strategy did pay off as the individual claims offices forwarded my letter to their legal department.

A Vice president working for the company called to let me know he was getting letters faxed to him from all over the country and they wished to settle my claim immediately…Evidently I had become a royal pain in their back side sorting through all the letters I sent to them.

He then said, “If we agree to your terms will you  be satisfied with that?” I indicated that I would and he faxed a release letter for me to sign agreeing to the indicated amount in my letter.

I won.  Or had I?  Within 2 days I obtained my claims settlement check but the sheer amount of time I invested in settling the claim was not worth the extra $1,500 I obtained. I spent more than 100 hours of my time fighting the insurance company.  I spent hundreds of dollars in postage.  Breaking it down I made on average about $13 per hour for my time, but in reality that was money I should have been given in the first place.

Believe me you can find better ways to spend your time. 

The agent I purchased my insurance from should have offered assistance.  If he would have offered to at least make a few phone calls in my behalf I would have been satisfied that he tried to help.  However like most agents he did not lift a finger to lend at hand. 

I was swimming in the water all alone without a lifevest and had to settle the claim myself.  (Is that how you want to be treated when you have a claim?)

By the way I dropped that agent like a hot potato!  If you have ever had a bad claims experience and your agent didn’t help you why should you patronize bad behavior?  Click here  and allow our agency to handle your insurance needs. 

It has been said that what we experience in life shapes our personality and demeanor.  I vowed to never allow something like this happen to a client.

Wouldn’t it be better for you to allow an agency like ours to care for your insurance needs?  Someone who will become a strong advocate for you if you have a problem?   

If you are not a client of our agency why not take an opportunity for us to at least provide some initial insurance quotes to you?  Click here.

If you have a question about our claims services please feel free to contact me directly by calling 513-662-7000 or sending a quick email to jack@pathwayinsurance.net