SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2013) - Mitchell, a leading provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the Property & Casualty (P&C) claims and Collision Repair industries, today announced the availability of its Industry Trends Report (ITR) for the fourth quarter of 2013. Providing deep analysis of alternate parts use and actual cash value trends in auto physical damage, along with education on eBilling and ePayment trends, technology solutions and implementation strategies, the latest ITR offers valuable data to insurance carriers and payers, collision repair centers and key constituents in the P&C market.
The Auto Physical Damage edition
Mitchell Vice President of Industry Relations Greg Horn builds on the last ITR article that looked at the drivers of severity for repairable estimates. The Auto Physical Damage edition of the report dives deeper into the model-specific data, analyzing whether vehicle age and the correlating increase of alternate parts availability affects repairable estimate cost.
"A look at the average repairable estimate cost for a three-year-old Camry shows a spike in the cost of the overall repair from 2010 onwards," said Horn. "My first assumption was that the cost of the repair would be driven by more complex vehicles that have more expensive components." Detailed analysis revealed that alternate parts use was found to keep costs down but continued to fluctuate while labor cost increased.
For the first time, the Mitchell ITR includes a section from J.D. Power that analyzes actual cash value trends for vehicles in the United States and Canada. They report that more lease trade-ins and gently used vehicles will enter the market, providing some relief to the high values seen in the used car market.
The Casualty edition
Healthcare regulations, at the federal and the state level, drive change in many areas including the electronic exchange of health information. As such, the newest casualty edition of the ITR focuses on beneficial technologies such as eBilling and ePayment, two solutions that allow P&C payers to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. The feature article provides background on the regulatory landscape affecting eBilling, the benefits to P&C carriers and payers, and proper methods for electronic payment preparation and implementation.
A bonus article by Ryan North, Senior Director of Information Systems, highlights DevOps, emphasizing the importance of internal collaboration between product delivery and operations teams to ensure customers receive the best possible experience.
"DevOps breaks down barriers between DEV and OPS teams, reduces the friction between them and helps to ensure that the right value is delivered to customer quickly, sustainably and with the least amount of risk. Embracing mindsets like DevOps will lead to measurably better outcomes and customer delight -- a goal that everyone can align with," said North.
Mitchell's quarterly publication has served the auto physical damage and casualty industries for more than a decade and provides deep visibility into data-driven trends in the P&C market. The complete report is available at www.mitchell.com/industry-trends-report. First published in April 2001, Mitchell's ITR now reaches more than 33,000 collision and casualty industry professionals.
Mitchell also offers a webinar, Industry Trends Live, on the Auto Physical Damage edition of the report. Greg Horn will provide a deeper look into the trends, information and studies highlighted in this quarter's ITR on December 4, 2013. To sign up for webinar, visit http://go.mitchell.com/register.
For continuous collision repair and property casualty industry updates and perspectives, follow Mitchell on Twitter @MitchellClaims and @MitchellRepair.
About Mitchell
Mitchell is uniquely positioned to simplify, enhance and accelerate claims handling processes across the P&C industry through deep workflow solutions that include unparalleled access to data, advanced analytics and decision support tools. Our expert workflow and adjusting solutions advance the claims management process by enabling automotive physical damage, bodily injury and workers' compensation clients to process claims more accurately, consistently, and cost-effectively.
Mitchell's solutions provide an expert level of decision support and connectivity within the claims organization and with industry partners to achieve optimal outcomes. Mitchell's comprehensive solution portfolio and robust SaaS infrastructure enables tens of millions of electronic transactions to be processed each month for over 300 insurance companies, including the majority of the top 25 insurance carriers, and over 30,000 collision repair facilities. With an expanding global footprint, Mitchell products are currently utilized in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Mitchell is headquartered in San Diego, California, and has 2,000 employees. For more information, please visit www.mitchell.com.