Don't fall for it people..They're charging you 2% to get paid in 4 or 5 days versus approx.21 days. That's worse than having a credit card with a 30% interest rate.

Agreed. Direct billing most companies pay from 3 - 15 days. There are a few that pay us in 3 days. They are the best companies to work with. Try direct billing and find out which ones are really good companies.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If they can charge 25 to get paid properly, then allot larger percentage should go for late pays, just like all other businesses charge. Simple.

Is there a chance we can all here what companies you bill direct,

Or is this taboo. I here all the time about direct billing but

no one seems to want to help us all defeat the TPA,s by billing direct.

If we could all share info together and stick together we can win this.

Sooner or later there will be no more TPA.

Mr. Smart I'll attempt to help you with what you seek. First off don't ask what companies I direct bill, the better question is what Insurance company that you cannot direct bill and then WHY can't you. The answer will get you started.

There is no taboo, but what there is is this: relationship and respect. I have built my relationships thru 30 years of doing business with them. If I were to divulge my relationships, well let's just say they would not like that and I would lose trust. Please understand, Ins Co's do NOT want the independent shops doing what some of us are doing. WHY? because they lose control. It's pretty simple, and so is the process.

Direct billing is building relationships, with tenacity, and strong convictions of how you do business. And done RESPECTFULLY.

The very first step is you have to be free from all networks. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you are part of or are a participating shop, sorry you lose, they already have you by the short hairs, game over, find a new career. It is only a matter of time and they will squeeze you right out of business.

For the first time I will try to make the basic formula:

Vehicle owner is your customer, not TPA, or Ins Co. You have the right to set your price. SIDENOTE (if your cash price is way less than what you charge others, well you can some explaining to do, but some of us can show the differences and why.) My cash price is allot higher than what networks want us to accept.

Proper assignment of proceeds, add a good letter of intent to collect, mix with backing up your right to collect with either arbitration or small claims court. Stick to your price, prove why your price is fair and reasonable, be tenacious and don't back down. you will win every time.

No MAGIC bullet, no secret formula. You have to believe in yourself, your business and be willing to fight for it.

If it was easy every dumb stick could do it. sorry, anyone could do it.

So: Take 1 customer, mix with quality service. Next determine form of payment. cash, check, charge, Ins Policy, whatever. Charge accordingly to YOUR specifications. Add signed assignment or invoice and send to proper place for payment. Add letter of intent to collect, follow through, get paid, go out and make more happy customers. Repeat over and over again and never give up, make a good profit, pay taxes and help the economy. add a few good people along the way and help them reach their dreams too.

follow this simple formula, and expect success. Always put doing the highest quality before anything else, and you will not fail.

Glass 101 Lesson for today Over.
I sincerely hope this helps.

Great post!

Thanks davey! Just had to lay it out!

1 More thought smartglass. why is it so many seem to be waiting for some easy way? You can't wait for others to do what you need to do for yourself. UNDERSTAND????????? If you are waiting for all indies to come together and conquer, well crap in one hand and wish in another and see which one fills up first.

Network control and ins co control can be overcome, but it comes from each and every true independent shop doing their part, and NOT sitting on the sidelines waiting for other to do the work. DO YOUR PART and stop looking for the magic answers. The formula is simple, you just have to be willing to do it.

OUT!

Exactly. Right on.

I would like to express my gratitude for the good feed back you

were able to explain. I get it.

Thanks again

what?,
If your customer picks the insurance pay method, do you make the first notice of loss before doing the work. If so, do you call the TPA or the company in house claims center? Do you fax or mail or email your invoices?
Sounds like you have a pretty good method. What percent of invoices are short paid?

JB I will get back to you on your questions when I have a little time, way too busy today to respond right now. swamped, back to WORK!

I'm assuming you are direct billing local agents.

Eff You. Gotta bigger problem with A u t o G l a s s N o w raping the cash business. Doomed, I say! The boat will sink! "Where's Gulliver!!!" Baaah, hahahahah!

Ok finally have a little time to respond. First before I forget LASKO, The days of billing agents is long gone. They are not responsible for the bill. PERIOD. Once in a great while an agent will say send it over here and we will handle it, most of the time it gets lost in translation. As far as real reality,,,,, ah,,,stop sniffin the primers dude, you are going to hurt yourself!

So let's get to your questions JB. Do I make the first notice of loss, before doing work. Well, when my customer comes to me to do repairs technically is the very first notice of loss, because the customer is the entity contracting me to do the repairs. Just because someone says you must get authorization,, ah really? only if they are contracting you to do the repairs. AND THEY ARE NOT! Just because they say something doesn't make it so. Only if you fall for it. Do I verify coverage? YES. Do they like to be notified? YES I BELIEVE SO. I will verify through the agent, or the insurance company claims dept, and many times BOTH. Depends on the level of trust I have in the relationship. When contacting either I am not looking for their PERMISSION to work on my customers vehicle, that is already taken care of by the customer. All I need from them is to verify coverage. PERIOD! If they stone wall me, the agent can help, or the customer can bring in his policy and we can easily see what they have, and what they have paid for. Pretty simple.

I never call the network unless I know I can accept the price they are willing to pay. So if it is a chip repair, and I know what they will pay and I can accept that I will, for simplicity sake call it in or have the customer call, or like today I called the agent and had them call it in. I have no problem working with any network so long as they will pay what I require. And I don't have to be a participant to do so. I will take the easy road when possible, why NOT? But when they won't play fair then game over, I play be my rules and I win every time. So Yes I call the in house claims center. Most of them are willing to work with you if you know how to handle the situation. And most the time they give me the best fax # to send it over to. Once you verify coverage you can politely ask how they would like it sent over to them. The good ones will give a fax # and contact person to go directly to.

Do I fax, mail or email, Invoices,,, All of the above. You have to learn by doing. some, faxing is fine, some like e-mail. some I send certified mail so they have to sign for it, and they can't come back later and say we never got the invoice. They pull that crap too. It all depends on your trust level with that relationship. Remember, RELATIONSHIPS!

Lastly, percentages of short pays. It is quite surprising. The majority of direct billings I do, are paid in 3-5 days some at up to 15 days. Most of them understand and pay my bill. There are a few real stubborn companies that continue to send the invoice to a network, then they alter the invoice, which by "state dept of revenue" standards is FRAUD, and tax evasion. It is amazing that for a 100.00 to 200.00 short pay they will spend several thousand just to lose in arbitration and small claims court. More and more insurance companies are finding out they cannot win legally and they are trying some very creative TRICKS to stop what they can't stop. Basically, I never saw ANY short pays until about 2010. I have about 20 short pays currently going to arbitration at this time and they are from 2011 to current. So in short it is a very small percentage of short pays that I have to fight. I also know a few special options that I have developed to make it very worth my while.

So short pays are maybe 1% or way less. And I always take the opportunity to create a better working relationship as We go through this process.

Last thing to remember: what was "fair and reasonable" in 2005 when NAGS rebalanced is still fair and reasonable today. If you don't think so, PLEASE tell me what costs of doing business have gone down since 2005?

Auto Glass 101 session 2 over. Have a good weekend, I will, as I am booked solid all next week! UFTA!

This smells like larry, looks like larry the bachman, he has been really losing it lately. He really needs some help. anyone who knows him should step up and get him some treatment.

I would never use the R word... was not me , and whoever is posting as me PLEASE STOP..

Hallmark moments ...