Tracy McQuilkin
By Tracy McQuilkin
This past weekend I went and saw the latest installment of the Pirates of Caribbean films, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Before seeing the movie, I experienced a bit of hesitation because a majority of the main characters that have made the franchise such a success and that I have grown to love were not going to be appearing. I mean how can you have a Pirates of the Caribbean movie without the infamous, Will Turner?! I overcame the lack of familiar characters and saw it anyways. Despite the major character changes, I proudly state...
By Tracy McQuilkin
A family prepares for months before taking home a new born baby. They are constantly doing research, stocking up on baby products, and keeping a watchful eye on the health of the baby through regular doctors’ visits. At the end of April, Answers Systems will be adding street coupons to the ContractPro® family. For several months now, Answers Systems has been doing the essential research, providing adequate support, and conducting diagnostic tests to ensure feature enhancements allow street coupons to be just another type of contract through ContractPro®. Up until this April Release, Answers Systems has processed street coupon claims...
By Tracy McQuilkin
In order to accurately process a claim we not only need a valid contract in ContractPro but we also require specific information on the actual claims themselves. If the information is missing from a claim we receive we place the claim on hold until the information is received. Below are some of the fields we must have, note depending on the claim type the fields vary. If you would like the full SOP for these requirements please contact your Answers Systems Account Manager.
To ensure your customers are submitting the following when requesting rebates for Contracted deviated or HQ...
By Tracy McQuilkin
I believe the story goes, “and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in the hope that St. Nick with a sleigh full of claims would soon be there.” Alright, so that’s not exactly how the story goes, but here at Answers Systems Santa will be bringing claims this time a year and lots of them.
During the month of December, the claim settlement team is hit the hardest. Clients are trying to get their claims paid before year’s end. Even if a client has a different fiscal calendar, they still like to see low numbers...
Tracy McQuilkin
Data acquisition and cleansing in the process of rebate settlement can be a challenge. Each day in the Settlement Department here at Answers Systems, we work with thousands upon thousands of fields of data. The data we capture is only as good as the data we receive. Many times in the course of data acquisition, we get partial or illegible information. We do our best to cleanse it and capture it, but there are times when we run into roadblocks.
Sometimes during the rebate settlement process, we have to place a claim on “pending” status or “on hold” to...
by Tracy McQuilkin
A claim moves through our system like a train on its track until a “pending” or “on hold” stops the claim. Some claims have to take extended stops in their journey toward claim settlement.
Pendings and On Holds not only stop the claim train progress, but many times stop it for a long period of time. Pendings are claims where the contract we have on file does not match to what is requested on the claim we received. Pendings require more work for many people. Just think if the customer had the same copy of the contract we...
by Tracy McQuilkin
When performing rebate settlement for our foodservice manufacturer clients, we often get the following question regarding pendings:
Why can’t we just override the pending and pay it?
Short answer: we can, but we don't recommend doing this.
When you override a pending, all you are doing is fixing that one claim instead of addressing the root cause of the claim in error. Why not take a few extra minutes in your contract management process and either update the contract in the ContractPro® solution, or ensure that your customer has the correct contract terms on file in their system?
If you update the contract...
by Tracy McQuilkin
Distributors deduct because they do not get paid quickly enough. The biggest cause of claims not getting paid on time is because of "pendings."
A status of "pending" occurs when the contract we have on file does not match the claim we received. Why is that? Why are customers given different contracts than what are input into the ContractPro® application? Those ContractPro® clients that have fewer pendings have fewer deductions. Pendings and deductions go hand and hand.
Did you know when a claim is paid by deduction an additional six hands have to touch that claim? To change this we need to make...
We are always looking for ways to do things better, more accurately, and more timely within the Settlement department. We are working on testing an enhancement for claim verification that will do all of these things. Our current process for e-claims works pretty well to resolve contracts/trade spending agreements. We are going to use this same process on paper claims.
by Tracy McQuilkin
Need some ideas on planning your next operator coupon? Here are some tips to help you make settling those incoming claims a little easier and effective:
Be specific on the guidelines
For example Buy One Get One, do you mean buy two cases and get the price of the second purchase in the form of a rebate check, or do you mean buy one case and you will ship them a second case free?
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