Broadspire Celebrates Five Years with Crawford

Broadspire celebrates its fifth anniversary with Crawford this month.

Broadspire is a third-party administrator that provides workers compensation and liability claim management and related medical management services. It is based in Atlanta, Ga., with 85 locations throughout the United States. Crawford & Company, Broadspire’s parent, is the world's largest independent provider of claims management solutions to the risk management and insurance industry as well as self-insured entities, with an expansive global network serving clients in more than 70 countries.

According to Crawford President and CEO Jeffrey Bowman, the Broadspire brand was formed when Crawford & Co. acquired it in 2006 and merged it with Crawford Integrated Services. The acquisition more than doubled the company’s workers compensation business. It is now a $1 billion company.

The acquisition kept the Broadspire name but rebranded Crawford’s risk and healthcare management operations.

Bowman said his company’s goal was to combine the best of two TPAs into a single, industry-leading organization. “Five years later, I’m happy to say that we have accomplished that, and much more. As the world’s largest independent provider of claims management solutions, Crawford and its global infrastructure help ensure that clients receive consistent service, data analytics and practical solutions,” he said.

The company’s list of accomplishments is long.

For example, Broadspire’s COO in medical services, Danielle Lisenbey, was recently named a LexisNexis workers compensation notable person for 2010 for her exceptional leadership.

Lisenbey is responsible for the daily operations of Broadspire’s medical bill review (MBR), utilization management, telephonic case management and field case management teams and the physician review and medical unit. Her career with Broadspire began in 1991 as an operations supervisor for the MBR unit, and she progressed through that organization, serving at various times as manager, director and vice president.

Her success in MBR operations prompted the promotion to her current position in 2007. She holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and technology from Western Illinois University. She is a member of The Society of Manufacturing Engineers and The National Association of Women Executives.

Among the company’s recent innovations include:

1. The Broadspire Original Landmark Design (BOLD^SM) PPO network that analyzes medical data and outcomes.

2. Their Chronic Pain Management Program helps clients deal with pain through a proprietary system of candidate identification, triage, plan development and follow-up. They can maximize employees’ functionality, reduce dependence on medication and return people to work faster.

3. A durable medical equipment (DME) formulary that applies the cost management principles of a pharmacy formulary to DME, meeting the medical needs of an injured worker while at the same time ensuring a measurable reduction in the cost of equipment and supplies.

4. A comprehensive chronic pain management program that uses an interdisciplinary approach to maximize an injured worker’s quality of life, reduce medication dependence and control costs.

5. Broadspire@Home^SM assists patients with getting the medical support they need, avoiding protracted hospital stays and saving thousands of dollars in healthcare costs.

6. The company has also hosted a number of technology changes since joining with Crawford, including investments in claims and risk management information systems (RMIS) that allow them to handle claims more efficiently and use analytics to improve clients’ business results.

7. RiskTech® is Broadspire’s new claims system. It captures information to improve claims management effectiveness.By moving workers compensation and liability claims professionals to a single claim system, Broadspire is able to streamline processes, improve data flow and produce optimal loss cost results.

8. The company also enhanced e-Triage®, their proprietary web-based application that addresses the biosocial aspects of claims.

9. Dmitri® is Broadspire’s next-generation risk management system. It provides clients with total access to information. It allows clients to access data from any web browser in real time.

According to Broadspire president and CEO Ken Martino, the future holds many things for his company, including:

1. Creating more functionality and delivering more features in the technology that serves customers.

2. Investment in analytical capabilities to offer more benchmarking data and an even greater number of tools.

3. New services that return healthy employees to productivity and help employers control the cost of their workers compensation programs.

4. An expanded global footprint to serve international customers.

5. More education for their 2,000 employees.

Author Rebecca Shafer, JD, President of Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is a national expert in the field of workers compensation. She is the author of the #1 selling book on cost containment, Manage Your Workers Compensation: Reduce Costs 20-50% www.WCManual.com.

Contact: RShafer@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com.

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