Fire Departments assisting insurance innovation

“InsurTech”, the combination of “insurance” and “technology” emerged around 2010 following the wave of “FinTech”.  As an old industry, technologists began to see the field of insurance as ripe for innovation. In the first decade, a lot of InsurTech companies were consumer facing, those designed to give users faster, easier access to insurance, for example, or algorithms to help customers compile their best coverage. In the case of Lemonade, the entire insurance model was reimagined, taking a flat fee for their services and donating the remaining funds not dispersed in claims, to charity. 

Eager to befriend the wave of innovation, but hesitant to change, insurance has been slow to adopt technology and new models for their own, internal processes – until recently. One trend in InsurTech that has been accelerated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, is aimed to assist adjusters with fast, efficient and touch-free claims processing. Big-name insurance providers are turning to things like accident data, artificial intelligence, and  “FNOL”, or “First Notice of Loss” to increase speed and efficiency and even determine liability in an auto accident. While many of these innovations use telematics and sensors to collect data, they also rely on individuals to upload pictures and contact their insurance providers. 

innovaPad has been collecting objective, third-party accident scene data for over seven years by giving fire departments an app to collect accident data in real time. With that information, innovaPad is able to file a claim against the negligent driver and return a portion of emergency response cost to the fire department. In doing so, innovaPad not only assists fire departments with critically needed funds so that they can continue to provide necessary community services; but innovaPad is also an asset to the insurance carriers, by providing them a perspective and scene detail unable to be accessed elsewhere. Often, the innovaPad agents are the first to report an accident, providing pictures, scene information and a third party account of the accident to the insurance adjusters. This is one reason why innovaPad is so successful at cost recovery.

innovaPad is the only cost recovery company with a proprietary app for on-scene data collection. We customize solutions for our departments and offer a library of mobile online forms used by the fire industry free of charge for our cost recovery customers, as our way to give back to those who give so much of themselves for their communities.