When a mid-sized managing general agency in the Midwest found itself drowning in manual claims work, the team knew something had to change. Lakeview Managing General Agency, based in Columbus, Ohio, writes roughly $48 million in annual premium across commercial auto, general liability, and workers' compensation lines. With a claims staff of eleven — including four in-house adjusters — they were processing between 180 and 220 claims per month. By late 2023, that volume had become unmanageable.
The Challenge: A Claims Operation Built on Email and Goodwill
Lakeview's claims workflow was built almost entirely on manual touchpoints. When a new loss came in, an intake coordinator would answer the call, fill out a paper FNOL form, and then manually route the file to the appropriate adjuster by email. From there, document collection was a persistent game of follow-up — calling body shops for repair estimates, emailing medical providers for records, and chasing policyholders for photographs.
The numbers told the story clearly. Average claims cycle time was sitting at 34 days. The team was spending an estimated 22 hours per week just on inbound status calls from policyholders asking where their claim stood. Two of Lakeview's four adjusters reported spending more time on administrative follow-up than on actual coverage analysis and reserving decisions.
"We were good at adjusting claims. We were not good at managing the paperwork and the phone calls around them. There's a difference, and it was costing us." — Lakeview Claims Director
The backlog had grown to 67 open claims sitting beyond 30 days with no documented activity. Three of those had crossed 60 days without a reserve update, creating a compliance exposure the agency's E&O carrier had flagged during an audit. Lakeview needed a structured solution — not just a better spreadsheet.
The Solution: Replacing Manual Touchpoints with Structured AI Workflows
Lakeview implemented ClaimRelay in January 2024. The onboarding team mapped the agency's existing claim types and SLA requirements, then configured AI agents to handle the repetitive, high-volume tasks that were consuming staff time.
Structured FNOL Intake Across Every Channel
ClaimRelay's intake layer replaced Lakeview's phone-only FNOL process with multi-channel capture — phone, web portal, and email. Every new loss was automatically assigned a claim number, routed to the correct adjuster based on line of business and territory, and cross-referenced against the policy record for coverage verification. What had taken 25 minutes of manual intake work now completed in under three minutes.
Automated Document Collection and Tracking
Document chasing was one of Lakeview's biggest drains. ClaimRelay's document collection agents sent structured requests to repair facilities, medical providers, and policyholders automatically — with built-in follow-up sequences triggered at 48 hours, five days, and ten days if documents remained outstanding. Every request was timestamped and SLA-tracked, giving adjusters a real-time view of what was missing and why a file was stalled.
Proactive Policyholder Status Updates
Instead of waiting for policyholders to call in, ClaimRelay sent automated status notifications at every meaningful milestone: claim receipt, adjuster assignment, inspection scheduled, documents received, reserve set, and payment issued. Policyholders knew where their claim stood without picking up the phone.
Reserve Flagging and Aging Claim Escalations
ClaimRelay's reserve management module monitored every open file for activity gaps and reserve adequacy. Any claim approaching 30 days without a documented action triggered an automatic supervisor alert. Large-loss files above a pre-set threshold were escalated for secondary review before the reserve was finalized. The compliance exposure that had surfaced in Lakeview's audit was directly addressed by this workflow layer.
The Results: Six Months After Go-Live
By June 2024, Lakeview had six months of data to evaluate. The results across their claims operation were measurable and consistent.
- Claims cycle time dropped from 34 days to 16.3 days — a 52% reduction that brought Lakeview in line with regional carrier benchmarks for their lines of business.
- Inbound status calls fell by 41% — from roughly 22 staff hours per week to under 13, freeing adjusters to focus on coverage decisions rather than fielding "where's my claim" calls.
- Staff time saved: 310 hours per month across intake, document follow-up, and policyholder communication tasks that were previously handled manually.
- Active backlog over 30 days fell from 67 claims to 9 — and zero claims crossed 60 days without a documented reserve action during the entire six-month period.
- Document collection turnaround improved by 38%, with structured automated follow-up replacing ad hoc adjuster emails and phone calls.
The revenue impact was meaningful but indirect. With faster cycle times, Lakeview's adjusters closed files more quickly, reducing the reserves held open on their books at any given point. The claims director estimated that accelerated closures freed approximately $340,000 in held reserves over the six-month period — capital the agency could deploy elsewhere in the business.
The E&O compliance concern was fully resolved. Lakeview's next audit found zero claims with missing reserve documentation beyond 30 days.
What Made the Difference
The shift at Lakeview wasn't about replacing their claims staff — it was about removing the administrative drag that kept experienced adjusters from doing their actual jobs. ClaimRelay handled the structured, repeatable work: intake routing, document requests, status updates, and escalation triggers. The adjusters handled coverage analysis, negotiations, and complex file decisions.
That division of labor is what most agencies are missing. When a claims adjuster spends 40% of their day on document chasing and status calls, the agency is paying adjuster rates for coordinator-level work. ClaimRelay rebalanced that equation.
If your agency also manages medical billing tied to workers' compensation claims, BillingBeam's AI-powered medical billing automation can close the loop between claims settlement and provider payment workflows — reducing manual reconciliation on that side of the process as well.
Is Your Claims Operation Ready for This Shift?
Lakeview's situation — strong adjusting talent hampered by manual workflows — is common across independent agencies, MGAs, and regional carriers. If your team is spending more time managing paperwork than managing claims, that's a workflow problem, not a staffing problem.
ClaimRelay is built specifically for the operational reality of insurance agencies, TPAs, and regional carriers that need structured claims management without the complexity of an enterprise system rebuild. The platform meets your team where your claims actually live — and builds the automation around them.