What the heck is a network, anyway

[desertstars]

For those who don't bother to read past posts.

A network is a third party entity with an 800 number that an insurance company pays to process incoming telephone damage claims from their insured; disburse and delegate the jobs to repair and replacement shops; accept faxed, snail-mailed; computer-generated or hand-delivered hard-copy invoices and, for a fee, convert those invoices to an EDI (electronic data input) form with compatible software to the various insurance companies.

Those networks are less connected to the insured as I am to someone who delivers my bottled water.

The various insurance companies then issue checks to the networks who extract their fees and forward your share.

If you manage to end up with sixty dollars for a repair less a $7.50 processing fee (sans DataTranz et al if you are smart enough to use a fourth party EDI converter), you might want to take a close look at what the insurance companies are paying the networks for your $60 repair to begin with.

Networks are a workable solution for insurance companies and makes sense on the face of it in that regard.

But sure as hell not to those of us who join those networks and then wait for leads because the replacement owned networks are contractually bound to meet 15% repair to replacement ratios which are overlooked or ignored in the first place.

Desert Stars direct bills and, in fact, are seriously considering charging the insurance companies what the networks charge for a repair less the EDI conversion fee assuming those insurance companies will tell us what they pay Lynx or Safelite for our repairs.

And, we are willing to pay someone like DataTranz $2.00 to turn our comprehensible invoices into incomprehensible computer gibberish rather than investing hundreds of dollars in some propietary software or hand-held field-input computer in order to accomplish the same result.

One thing is certain.

We will not promote nor support the existence of any network that is composed of those who are in business to put us out of business.

[Ridge Runner]

GOOD STUFF !

[anythingclose]

I have read multiple times in the archives that desertstars would send two letters when he sent in an invoice direct to the insurance companies. Does anyone have copies of these letters? I am seriously considering doing this exact thing, and would love some help in this area. I am continuing to plow through the archives, but haven't been able to find this information so far.