Xactimate in Plain English..

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Xactimate in Plain English Restoration
Claims Delegates.com
Restoration Contractors, its more important to
know how to write a detailed (complete) Xactimate
estimate than it is to know how to build a house.
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What do you do again? Its the inevitable
question that Ive had asked many times over the
years.  And its understandable.  I work in a
small niche (210billion) of the construction
world called Restoration.  That means I help
people who have suffered water and fire damage to
their homes and businesses.
Theres people who specialize in that? Yes,
there are contractors who do nothing but
restoration work.  These contractors are actually
my clients.  I help them handle the insurance
claim processing and writing damage estimates in
Xactimate.
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Exact what? Xactimate.  Its the estimating
program used by 90 of the insurance repair
industry to quantify property damage and claim
settlements.  Its also where I see peoples eyes
start to roll back in their heads.  So let me try
to simplify the concept. Insurance claims and the
property damage industry is largely controlled
by, you guessed it, insurance companies.
We call them carriers to be more precise, but
you probably dont care about that.
 What is important to note is that the carriers
have put into place myriad layers of control
systems for the sole purpose of wait for it
saving money. 
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One of these controls is the standardized, and
tacitly mandatory, use of the Xactimate
estimating platform.  While contractors are not
required to use the program, those that want to
get paid DO. One great analogy is the health care
industry.  If there was ever an industry
dominated by insurance companies, its health
care. In order to get paid by your HMO, PPO or
whatever, your doctor has to first put everything
he does for you into a matrix of codes.
 Theres an entire field of study calledMedical
Coding, and entire industries specialized in
delivering coding services. 
Every pill and procedure your doctor prescribes
has a corresponding CODE in the insurance company
database, and a corresponding price.  Without
coders, or software that codes, doctors would not
get paid by insurance companies.  The same is
true of restoration contractors. Xactimate is
essentially a construction coding piece of
software.  It gives carriers and their adjusters
the ability to quickly create damage estimates
which are uniform in pricing and format across
the nation.  Half-inch drywall (DRY1/2) and two
coats of paint (PNTP2) is the same in New York as
it is in L.A..  The pricing database contains
thousands of items from paving stones to grain
silos. (yes, really) 
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Contractors who are on the various preferred
vendor programs are required to use Xactimate to
generate their estimates.  And since most
adjusters wont deal with an estimate written in
another format, even non-program contractors use
it as well.  Show me a doctor who doesnt use a
coding billing program.
For restoration contractors, its more important
to know how to write a detailed (complete)
Xactimate estimate than it is to know how to
build a house. I know, someone out there is
yelling at their computer screen right now, but
thats just the way I see it.  Its easy to
contract out construction.  Its harder to get
paid enough, or on time.
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Why should I care? Most likely you shouldnt
care.  Only 10 of homeowners will experience a
disaster of some kind every year.  But if youre
one of those who do, it is important to
understand the basic building blocks of insurance
claims. If youve had a pipe break, or decided
that deep frying a frozen turkey in the kitchen
was a good idea, you need to know that the amount
of your claim settlement will be determined by an
Xactimate estimate. Ill pause here a moment to
let you imagine what happens when twenty pounds
of frozen bird gets dropped into five gallons of
boiling oil.  Yes, that happens. Every year Who
writes the estimate and for whom they write it is
very important.  Is the adjuster writing it?  Is
the contractor writing it?  Do you have a comfort
level with either, trusting that they
have your best interests first?  Would you like
to have a little more control over the process? I
thought so. Thats why were here.
My name is Andy McCabe.  You can call me the
Claim Doctor.
Visit us www.claimsdelegates.com
Or call 888.745.7568