Fed up with insurance hassles? Saving money and getting friendly service isn't a myth in the insurance world. Alaska's RBMS offers both.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa
• Position: Brief Article

Mike O'Connor was fed up with his company's health care coverage--again. He'd had it with providers' indifference toward his company and their ineptness in handling his employees' claims, when they bothered to respond at all.

"They were so sorry I almost hate to bring them up," he said. "We've had three different third-party administrators from three different states and none of them took any personal concern about Peak."

As president of Peak Oilfield Service Co., O'Connor needed to find better health care coverage for more than 600 employees and their families. A little more than a year ago, he started asking around for a provider that offered some semblance of customer service.

One company's name kept coming up: Risk and Benefit Management Services. RBMS, he heard, would allow his company to write its own policy and when anyone in the Peak family had a question about coverage, all they would need to do is call their designated agent, who knows their coverage plan.

O'Connor was skeptical, but he made the call. And today, he's glad he did.

WHO THEY ARE

RBMS is an Alaskan-owned and-operated third-party administrator whose clients include 10 of the state's largest Alaskan-owned 49 businesses, three Alaska Native regional corporations and a quarter of the state's school districts.

RBMS President and CEO Kent Davis started the work in the summer of 1992, with Co-owner Greg Kershaw joining the company three years later. The pair bought out a third investor in March 2001.

When Kershaw joined the company in 1995, RBMS had about 20 clients, covering about 3,000 people. Early clients included Matanuska Maid Dairy and Avis Rent-A-Car, Davis said.

Today, the provider has more than 45 clients and covers more than 35,000 people. New clients include First National Bank Alaska, CIRI Inc. and Peak Oilfield Services.

RBMS's 30 employees specialize in the administration of self-funded employee benefit plans. A company writes its own coverage plan, pays premiums into an account and RBMS handles the rest--the paperwork, the reports and the claims payments.

Self-funding often saves money--sometimes as much as 10 percent--mostly in administrative costs, Davis said. Because it is an independent company, RBMS has the luxury of shopping around for the best insurance carriers. And because they are local, RBMS can quickly process claims--within 10 working days.

But the company's best-selling point has always been its customer service, Kershaw said, especially its...