Why Partner With Rust?
Client-Focused, Problem-Solving Approach
We deliver innovative administrative solutions to the complex challenges that stem from settlements involving numerous parties and sensitive health and financial information. For example, we designed a custom extranet site for a hospital settlement that allowed regional hospitals to easily log-in and post supplemental claims information.
The Industry’s Most Experienced Insurance and Healthcare Team
Rust has administered over 150 insurance-related settlements, more than any other administrator. Our practice area leaders, Tiffaney Allen and Kim Schmidt, have unmatched knowledge in insurance and healthcare matters. We have handled more insurance sales practice cases than any other firm, and parties to new types of settlements trust Rust to develop precedent-setting methodologies. We were the first to handle a race-based underwriting case and we are the first and only administrator to build a system that programmatically identifies loan-specific data from consumer credit reports to facilitate claims processing for credit life cases.
We Protect Your Sensitive Customer Information
Our internal data and system security practices meet or exceed today's exacting industry standards. We have received system accreditation under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and undergo an annual SAS70 Type II audit of our data security and information technology controls designed to demonstrate our substantial level of data and system security.
We Ensure Excellent Service to the Class
Quality of service to the class is an important consideration for all parties to the settlement. To ensure excellent service to the class, we select the most appropriate tools to accomplish financial and service objectives, provide extensive training to our on-site customer service representatives, use escalation procedures to ensure callers’ questions are answered, and use plain language phone scripts created by our staff experts.
The Quality and Control of In-House Operations
We can conduct all aspects of claims administration in-house, giving you higher quality results, tighter data security and streamlined communications. In addition, we employ a full-time department to oversee quality in every aspect of operations.
Expert Paid Media Notice Partner
Rust’s partner Kinsella Media designs and implements media notification programs that meet legal scrutiny and withstand collateral attack. Rust and Kinsella Media can work seamlessly together or separately to provide the best resources for media-based notice and claims administration on each case.
Selected Case Experience
Over 1 Million Calls Answered
Rust managed two phases of this $1+ billion settlement. Rust staffed hundreds of call center representatives at a time and took more than a million calls, including 23,000 on the peak day. Rust received data on more than 7 million class policies and mailed more than 6 million notices. To satisfy the parties’ needs, Rust created a system for printing large-print notices on-demand, saving millions of dollars in printing and postage fees while ensuring that class members were adequately noticed.
Customized Process to Verify Information
Rust mailed more than 66,000 notices and received more than 9,000 claim forms. As a part of the claim-filing process in this credit insurance settlement, class members authorized Rust to contact lenders or pull credit reports to verify early loan payoffs. Rust mailed more than 3,200 payments worth $1.3 million.
Unique Method for Class Member Communication
To best handle communications with both identified and unidentified class members in a large race-based underwriting settlement, Rust developed two separate methods for handling inquiries. Rust mailed customized notices that contained benefit information and a toll-free number to identified class members, and sent a non-customized notice with a different toll-free number—also published in the media campaign—for callers to inquire about potential class membership. Rust mailed more than 440,000 payments.
Complex Rolling Communication With Claimants
Rust worked with the parties, class members and their heirs in this race-based underwriting settlement to collect adequate information to resolve often decades-old claims. We established two types of notice and two toll-free telephone numbers: one with detailed information for identified class members and another with more generic information for potential class members. Rust received 220,000 claims and forwarded them on a rolling basis to the company for research into class membership. Weekly, Rust followed up on the company's direction by mailing letters sorted into dozens of unique categories to inform and assist claimants. In total, Rust mailed 80,000 correction letters and more than 270,000 response letters.
Records from 40 Hospitals and Multiple Languages
After receiving patient records from 40 hospitals, Rust identified unique patient records and mailed more than 750,000 notices. Live operators took calls in English and Spanish while Rust’s interactive voice response system accommodated those languages and Chinese. The website also included documents in Armenian. Rust mailed more than 11,000 checks worth $4.3 million.
800,000 Duplicate Records Removed
Rust received from the defendant and various third party sources potential class member lists containing more than 3.5 million names. We removed 800,000 duplicate records via a specific, agreed-upon methodology and mailed more than 2.7 million notices. Rust mailed more than 48,000 payments worth $40 million.
Problem-Solving, Innovative Approach
To meet the parties’ wish to allow personnel in 24 hospitals to view and request more information on certain claim information, Rust created an extranet site for this settlement through which they could view claim details and conduct patient research. This system allowed records to be flagged for appropriate follow-up with class members by Rust. The secure website allowed the parties convenient access to the necessary records and saved hundreds of file transfers and thousands of dollars.