In View of Past Misdeeds, Unum is Playing it Smart

September 21st, 2009. By Hunter West

It’s time to give credit where credit is due: for a corporation oft-painted as a villain, Unum Provident is one smart company. 

Unum Provident has been dragged through the mud in recent years over various charges and allegations that the company goes out of its way to deny legitimate disability claims. A claim, after all, is a drag on an insurer’s bottom line. The fewer claims an insurer is required to process, the less money it has to pay out while premium revenue remains a constant. 

Thus, there are basically three ways to improve the performance of an insurance company: sell more policies; reduce the number of claims, or any combination of the two. 

All you hear about are the horror stories from policyholders who have allegedly been cut down at the knees by a seemingly uncaring and unfeeling insurer. However, any corporation will tell you that the road to profitability is paved with cost reductions. There isn’t an insurer worth its’ salt that doesn’t cast a wary eye every time a claim is made against a short-term disability (STD), or long-term disability (LTD) policy. Unum Provident is no different. 

If insurers have been cast as villains, so too are a handful of policyholders who really do try to take advantage and pull a fast one on their insurer by making a claim for disability when they are, indeed quite healthy. 

Be that as it may, Unum Provident—easily a global leader in the provision of insurance products—is doing a lot of things right, in spite of what its critics are saying. You can’t have 11 profitable quarters in a row without some degree of savvy. 

Here’s what Unum Provident is doing well… 

1. Target the Small Guy to Sell Insurance

First, as Unum CEO Thomas Watjen recently revealed, the company is shifting its focus to selling disability insurance to employers with fewer than 2000 employees. Unum had identified a pattern that suggested employees who work for smaller firms tend to have fewer instances of employee absenteeism and thus, fewer claims for STD or LTD. 

2. Help the Big Guys set up Return-to-Work Programs

Unum has also taken a leadership role in addressing the various shortcomings of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal program that is complicated by a patchwork of 66 different laws at the state level that has only served to broaden the definition of protected events. 

With employers focusing on lost (employee) time and the negative impact in terms of lost productivity and health care costs, Unum is right there in the fray, helping to develop strategy. The goal is to help employers better manage their workforce when it comes to sick days. In an interview with Bruce Shutan, a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, UnumProvident’s VP of return-to-work development Dr. Ken Mitchell said, “employers are asking for support in managing lost time that is generated by injury and illness, as well as lost time created through entitlement programs, when the workforce is changing and health care costs keep rising.” 

According to Mitchell, UnumProvident’s customer experience shows employers that aggressively and efficiently tackle absence management and offer return-to-work programs often achieve a 20 percent reduction in lost work days in the first year when they move away from an unmanaged environment. Other gains may include a 10, to 15 percent reduction in lost-time costs as well as a decrease in long-term disability claims. 

That last sentence may well suggest the real reason why Unum is at the table: the potential for a decrease in clams. But even if Unum is viewed as having its own agenda, the corporation’s involvement in helping employers better manage employee absenteeism is a legitimate way of serving its own interests at the same time. 

3. Get Everybody on the Wellness Bandwagon

Unum also knows that a healthy employee takes fewer sick days and is less likely to trigger a disability claim. To this end Unum is setting an example with its own employees by way of providing an on-site fitness facility at its Chattanooga, Tennessee headquarters. There is a cost-employees pay $22 per month for the privilege. However the spacious and well-equipped 3000 square-foot facility is open 24 hours a day and provides an opportunity for wellness to employees who might otherwise not have the time to put in the grunt work at an off-site facility. 

Progressive, forward-thinking corporations have for some time recognized the value of contributing towards the wellness of their employees, and Unum appears to be among that group. 

Will Unum continue to cast a wary eye to any policyholder making a claim? Of course. Will some policyholders continue to feel mistreated, or frustration when a legitimate claim is denied? Probably. Will Unum ever manage to erase its prior reputation as an unscrupulous and uncaring insurer at the receiving end of many a bad-faith-insurance lawsuit? Maybe not. 

But few can deny that in 2009, Unum is getting a lot of stuff right. 

Tags: Unum, UnumProvident

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