US automotive and life insurance group State Farm is now testing blockchain technology to potentially speed up auto claims. The company announced the new pilot for its blockchain-based subrogation platform on its website yesterday.
State Farm Testing Blockchain Technology
According to the company’s website, the company processes just over 38,000 claims per day and has 519,000 accounts in mutual funds.
“Today, subrogation is a relatively manual, time-consuming process often requiring physical checks to be mailed on a claim-by-claim basis between insurers,” said Mike Fields, innovation executive of State Farm. “You can imagine the time and resources required to complete these transactions.”
If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you know how long the grueling process of filing claims and bringing those claims to completion can take. State Farm is trying to keep up with new technology to speed up that process and in turn, save themselves time and money.
In the cycle of the claims process, State Farm is applying blockchain to the very last part of the cycle that tends to take the longest. Subrogation is where the insurance company recovers claim costs it paid to its customer for damages from the at-fault party.
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“The blockchain solution we are working on has many potential benefits,” says Fields. “It helps us automate a manual process securely and creates a permanent transaction record of each payment which can easily be verified for accuracy. It also has the potential to decrease the amount of time for consumers to receive their deductible reimbursement.”
Insurance Companies on the Move
State Farm isn’t the only insurance company to attempt to make a transition to the blockchain. Last month, Japan-based Sompo partnered with BitPesa and the partnership focused of the “digitalization of global remittance services.” Back in September, the People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC) partnered with VeChain to improve fraud and Know Your Customer (KYC) practices.
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