4 Ways to Avoid Accounts Receivable Battles
Restoration professionals must provide services for customers even as insurers are writing the checks, but this situation can become complicated. Restoration professionals must first understand that insurance carriers often engage in price negotiation and payment delays to ensure that the money they hold can be reinvested and earn additional money from those investments. To reduce delays, restoration firms should engage in transparent pricing by providing at least a good faith estimate or rate sheet in advance of providing the service and engage in open communication between the interested parties so that work can be agreed upon in advance and a documented communication trail can be kept. Additionally, clear, concise, and informative (CCI) estimating offers a written damage assessment, proper line item logic and order, and comment lines. The estimate serves a few purposes in a restoration project, one of which is a claim settlement. The insurance adjuster must use the estimate to support the check he/she is writing. Finally, restoration firms should always include supporting documentation, such as moisture readings, daily site reports, employee rosters, and subcontractor bills.