Normally, each month, I tell you about MTM member ownership benefits, a workers’ comp update, or some change in the legislative or workers’ comp arena and how MTM is responding to it. I can’t remember over the last eight years ever giving you an update about MTM internal operating systems. So, this report is a first.

Like many of our members when MTM finds a good I.T. system we stick with it for many years. Our policy accounting/underwriting system gets regular updates, but it is the same basic system we have had for 12 years. The other major system we have is our claims system and we acquired it from a separate vendor from our premium accounting system. To increase functionality and obtain long-term enhancements we felt tying our premium accounting/underwriting and claims systems together would be the best way to achieve this. Another benefit would be to bring more information, more quickly to our member portal (which happens to presently reside in our premium accounting/underwriting system.)

So, my 2021 goal was to convert our claims system to the same I.T. company as our premium/ underwriting system. We planned for an April 5th conversion. We ran tests, met with the programmers and all seemed good. As I learned, more and more in I.T. systems, all is good UNTIL you press the button to convert. From there, the real life challenges begin. From my long experience, I did expect challenges and that they would last one or two weeks however, I can say that was not the case. It took much longer. Part of the delay was just the amount of data from our 45 year history. To be efficient and have one place for all of our member’s data, we needed to convert all 45 years of claims data which included 252 million lines of claims detail. The task was enormous. And of course, it did not go without a glitch. When I mentioned conversion glitches to some colleague friends, they shrugged and said I.T. conversions without glitches are NOT possible. My friends are smart.

However, I was still very embarrassed when, on one day of the conversion, the system saw all the touches we had in the file conversion and decided those were changes that required members notification. Some members received a notification about a claim that was 10 or 20 years old. We immediately put out a bulletin that these were incorrect notices, but I can reassure you that did not lessen my embarrassment.

As we worked through the conversion, we kept checking on accuracy of data conversion. After that step was completed, then it was to run a system with no updates for four weeks and make sure no additional bugs popped up. At that point, we could then start working on some system enhancements that are possible when the two programs, premium accounting/ underwriting and claims, are working together.

I do need to thank our members for their understanding during this important conversion. I also need a special shout out to the MTM claims team of Donna, Cindy, Kimberly, Debbie, and Marci who have worked through this less than smooth transition. Claims with the assistance of Marketing were the front line for MTM member and broker calls and emails.

Of course, my phone is always available to our members for questions or comments. Please call me or email me at any time.

— John