Top 5 Advanced Ways to Harness eForms For FROI

The first report of injury (FROI) is the critical first stage in the workers’ compensation insurance process. It’s often the first contact the employer has with the insurance company, and often defines how the case will be handled going forward. Because of this, it’s critical that insurance companies send FROI forms that are easy and intuitive for employers to fill out. Here, we’ll dive into ways to optimize the business-critical FROI report with smart eForms.

What Makes an FROI Report Effective?

Employers who are forced to fill out an FNOI report are usually grappling with a suddenly injured or disabled employee. Fears of lawsuits, lost employee productivity, and concern for the employee’s wellbeing are all potential sources of stress. As a result, it’s important for FROI reports to:

• Be easy to submit via any channel: Insurance companies often require employers to submit the FROI soon after the injury, such as within 24 hours. It’s critical that they be able to fill out the form quickly and easily, especially from a mobile phone in case a computer isn’t readily available.
• Come with live agent guidance: Fortunately, it’s not everyday that employers have to fill out an FROI report. A friendly and knowledgeable agent should be available to answer any questions over the phone given that this isn’t a regular occurrence.
• Ask the right questions: Dynamic eForms should hide or reveal questions based on employers’ responses to previous questions. This saves significant time and eliminates confusion.
• Leverage autofill: The form should arrive to the employer pre-populated with already-known information, such as the company’s name and address. In other words, if it’s in the CRM, it should be in the form.
• Be secure: Since FROI reports contain sensitive Personal Identifiable (PI) information, it’s essential to allow employers to return the FROI through a secure and encrypted session.

Improve FROI Reports with Expanded eForm Functionality

While some insurers have moved on from basic electronic forms such as PDFs, they still suffer from challenges of high error rates (NIGO documents) and prolonged cycle times. This is commonly a result of repeated questions, clunky formatting, and lack of integrations with related tools. The best eForm vendors give far more value through functionality that is designed to eliminate these issues. The next-generation of eForms allows insurance providers to deliver personalized and intuitive FROI reports. Here are a few of the top ways insurance companies can improve their FROI reports with next-level eForm functionalities:

1. Auto-Filled Fields: For Giving the Employer a Head Start

All customers want to feel seen. Imagine the relief an employer feels who receives the FROI report already filled out with their company’s name, address, class codes, and other basic information. All this information is already in the CRM, and smart eForms can use data synchronization to extract it and auto-fill fields. This cements customer loyalty at a sensitive time, and speeds up the FROI process.

2. Conditional Logic: For a Personalized FROI Experience

Claims agents needn’t fiddle around with endless variations of FROI forms, figuring out which to send. A form embedded with conditional logic can hide or reveal fields depending on the customer’s response. For example, an employer who ticks off “workplace accident” may be shown a different set of questions than a customer who ticks off “illness “ Conditional fields rely on if/and logic, and can be used to gain more information about the incident without burdening policyholders with irrelevant questions. For instance, if the employer indicates that the injury caused hospitalization, then show the field “Date of Hospitalization.” Conditional logic can also be used to trigger next steps in the process. This works well when the form is part of a larger unified platform including document collection, video/photo evidence collection, and so on.

3. Multiple Field Types: For Multiple Question Types

FROI reports typically include questions about the employee’s wages, work schedule, injury date, cause of injury, and a description of the injury. Some of these questions are better answered by free text, others by numbered items or a dropdown.

4. Segmented View of Sections: For Longer FROI Reports

Some insurance providers may prefer to offer in-depth FROI reports to gather as much information upfront. Smart eForms allow a segmented view of sections and pages so that policyholders can easily make progress without endless scrolling.

5. Automated Workflows: To Keep the Ball Rolling

As mentioned earlier, FROI forms are more effective when they’re part of a wider automated workflow. Insurance companies can adopt a single platform that includes ID verification, eSignatures, and photo and document collection. Depending on how the policyholder answers questions on the FROI report, the system can automatically trigger requests for supporting photo and video evidence, photo ID, employer payroll reports, W-2s, and more. This saves the claims agent manual effort, and ensures that no piece of supporting documentation is forgotten.

The Bottom Line: Advanced eForms Expedite the FROI Process

Insurance providers that tap into next-level features in eForms can extract so much more from their FROI reports — while employees time and effort. The best eForm providers allow insurance companies to fully customize and automate their FROI reports. With smart eForms, we can glide through the often-fraught first stage of the workers’ compensation cycle with ease.