Fast Response

Benefit: You never have to wait in limbo wondering what the next step might be.

A situation with one of our clients quickly became a source of added stress and caused a great deal of anxiety for one of their employees.  The employee was awaiting approval from the health insurance carrier for a hospital admission on a behavioral health issue for his disabled child.

We received a call from the Vice President of Human Resources because she wanted a resolution, and she wanted it fast – by noon that same day actually.  In reviewing the situation, it appeared that the approval from the carrier would be forthcoming – eventually, once the request made it through normal channels.  So it was the “eventually” that we had to eliminate.  And we knew that someone, a very concerned parent, was waiting for and expecting only one answer.

We immediately assured our client that we would do everything in our power to resolve this issue.  We also promised her that we would keep her in-the-loop and updated as to our progress.  We were dealing with a very large, national carrier that would be determined to follow their established protocols.  Our first call to the carrier put the wheels in motion and told us that we would need to escalate the matter.  But we had direction and we gave our first and immediate update to our client.

Knowing who to call, we proceeded to the next level which indicated that some internal inquiry and research of the issue by the carrier would be required – they had to locate the request in their system and review the circumstances associated with it.  Again, we called the client with an update.

Once the carrier and we had the information necessary, we made the call to the person at director-level at the carrier.  We were told that, although non-standard in nature (in carrier talk means it may be denied at the first request and additional information would be required), the approval request would be granted – immediately.

Our client was informed of the approval before our noon deadline.   Just as importantly though, she was kept abreast of the situation every step of the way.  And she, in turn, was able to communicate, with a great deal of confidence, to her anxiety-ridden employee that the situation was being handled in the best possible way.  And since we weren’t dealing directly with the employee, the Vice President and the Human Resources department came off as the heroes – everybody won.

Our customers describe our responsiveness:

“I always feel that I’m her only client, because she’s just so attentive.”

Paula Gendreau, Business Manager, Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech

“She’s very responsive, unlike others – and we deal with a lot of consultants in a lot of different areas and attorneys in other arenas that we have responsibility for.  She is absolutely one of the tops in terms of getting back to us when we have a question or we need something researched.  She does so very expeditiously.  We never have to wonder… when she is going to get back to us.”

Ray Marshall, Executive Director, Narragansett Bay Commission