State insurance department improves efficiency

“As we continue to whittle away at the waste and mismanagement of the past, the dollars add up and costs go down,” Gov. Matt Blunt said in a news release.

Previously, customer service in the Department of Insurance was handled by region, with files and related information routinely transferred among the central, Kansas City and St. Louis offices. Coordinating, transferring and tracking the data and files was time-consuming and demonstrated no clear benefits to the department or consumers.

Employees suggested all consumer services and hotline calls be managed centrally to reduce processing time and costs and eliminate unnecessary extra steps.

Consolidation has resulted in consumers’ questions being addressed more promptly, and the $67,584 in savings, which represents two full-time positions that were eliminated after the change.

Changes also have provided time savings for staff, allowing them to spend more time addressing consumer concerns instead of transferring information.

“Our goal was to find ways to save state dollars, yet continue to provide a high level of service to consumers,” said Dale Finke, MDI director, in the release. “We knew that consumers would not care where the consumer service representative was located in the state. The only thing that would actually matter is that their questions and concerns were answered to their satisfaction.”