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National Farmers Union Reports Immediate Efficiency Gains

Aurora, CO and Atlanta, GA - National Farmers Union Property and Casualty Company ("National Farmers Union"), a provider of property and liability insurance to customers in rural areas nationwide rated A- by A.M. Best, and Bridium, a leading technology provider and custom services company for the insurance industry, have announced the full deployment of Claims3, an Internet-based application for multi-line claims processing.

According to Chris Kircher, senior vice president of Claims for National Farmers Union, "We selected Bridium's Claims3 solution for a number of reasons including its superior functionality, robust platform, capability to interface with our existing infrastructure, ease of use, ability to allow remote access to off-site users, and the fact that we could implement it quickly.

"Already, in the early stages since its deployment, Claims3 has exceeded our expectations. The learning curve of our 90-person claims department was shorter than expected. They quickly found it to be user-friendly and extremely easy to navigate. In fact, our outsourced workers' compensation claims department, which works with a number of claims processing systems, tells us Claims3 is one of the easiest claims processing applications to navigate and work with," Kircher added.

Bridium serves as National Farmers Union's exclusive application service provider (ASP) and remotely hosts its claims administration and processing systems. The company's data is housed at Bridium's highly secured data center. Using industry standard encryption technologies, data is transferred real-time via the Internet from the user's personal computer. In addition, Claims3 is integrated with National Farmers Union's internal policy management and accounts payable systems, as well as third-party vendors that include:

• Lynx, its 24-hour call center for claims reporting,
  
• GAB, a TPA which handles National Farmers Union's workers' compensation claims in select jurisdictions, and
  
• Tymetrics, a legal bill review service.

Bridium also brought additional third-party services already integrated to Claims3 including:

• ISO ClaimSearch,
  
• MRB Reporting Bureau, police report retrieval service, and
  
• INFORM Applications, an integrated reporting solution.

"Claims3's integration with our existing systems and third-party services vendors has been a major accomplishment," noted Kircher. Claims3 replaced an AS 400 claims handling system, which National Farmers Union could not update adequately to keep pace with its business needs and growth. Bridium's Business Solutions team customized its "rules-based" Claims3 application to meet National Farmers Union's particular claims handling needs to include such features as:

• Rules-based Workflow and Diary,
  
• Letter tool with integrated distribution via e-mail or fax,
  
• Integrated Salvage and Subrogation processes, and
  
• Integrated Document Management.

"Throughout the implementation, Bridium worked very closely with National Farmers Union's claims department to identify their unique requirements and specific areas of customization to accommodate their proprietary business processes," explained Phil Niverson, vice president of Business Solutions at Bridium. "National Farmers Union can easily configure the application to meet future needs. Claims3 has further positioned National Farmers Union as an industry leader in claims processing."

About Claims3
Claims3 allows organizations to achieve greater claims processing efficiency by providing core claims processing workflow tools, including diary, notes, letters, subrogation, salvage, imaging, document management, and the administration of workers' compensation benefits and compliance reporting. Claims3 also supports the integration with client back-end systems and third-party vendors to facilitate the ordering and receiving of police and ISO reports, fraud detection, communication with independent appraisers, and the exchange of medical bill data with adjudication providers.

About Bridium
Bridium, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded in 1989, is a leading technology firm offering proprietary solutions and custom services for the insurance and medical management industry. Bridium's offerings include a full claims processing application for all property & casualty lines of business, jurisdictional reporting for first and subsequent workers compensation reports of injury and medical bills, and a complete medical case management application. Bridium also provides custom development of claims applications, integration of legacy systems, workflow automation, and document imaging and management solutions. Bridium currently provides automation and support services to over 500 clients in the claims and medical management industry.

Source: Bridium