If you’ve had an insurer tell you, “We don’t pay for that in your area,” for a particular repair procedure, that statement may not be entirely based on fact.
That’s among the findings of the first two quarterly “Who Pays for What?” surveys conducted earlier this year. Shops have until Oct. 31st to take the third of these surveys, developed by Collision Advice and CRASH Network. This month’s survey asks shops about billing practices (and insurer payment practices) related to aluminum repair, shop materials (such as panel bonding adhesive), and shop (or sublet) services and fees.
Shops can take the current survey until Oct. 31st by clicking here.
Every shop that completes the current survey (and provides optional contact information) will receive the survey findings at no charge.
Taken together, the first two quarterly surveys include responses from more than 1,500 repair facilities in 49 states. They show how (and where, broken down into six U.S. regions) shops are paid for 46 different, “not-included” repair operations (related to refinish, frame and mechanical procedures) by the eight largest insurance companies in the U.S.
The surveys have so far shown there can be significant regional differences in billing and reimbursement practices. For instance, 41.6 percent of shops on the West Coast say they’re “always” paid to protect disconnected air conditioning lines (to prevent entry of moisture and contaminants) when they bill for it, while inexplicably only 6.8 percent of shops in the South say they are “always” paid for this same operation.
But of all the responses to the first two surveys, which combined total more than 300,000 unique data points, there is only one of the “not-included” items, in one U.S. region, that no shop indicated it charges for. That one item: Some shops across the country (primarily in the colder Northeast) add an energy surcharge for paint booth fuel; however, none of the responding shops in the Southern region said they charge for that.
More details about the quarterly “Who Pays for What?” surveys, including reports on the findings of the previous two surveys, are available here.
