Subrogation Team Management

Building an Effective Subrogation Team

Subrogation teams may live inside an organization or externally as a vendor or solution provider. Regardless, subrogation teams don’t work in isolation; they sit at the intersection of finance, legal, claims, and data analytics. Effective collaboration across these functions ensures that every recoverable dollar is found and pursued.

The Right Structure

Building an effective subrogation team starts with the right structure, providing direct points of contact for seamless collaboration between strategy, operations, and technology. This enables subrogation teams to deliver with speed and agility, especially when bonded by a deeply interconnected, client-centric culture.

The Right Mindset

Anchored by this strong foundation, you also need the right team members—with the right mindset—with a steadfast goal of seeking what is in the best interest of the health plan. Too often, plans aren’t asking for enough. They’re offering courtesy reductions to avoid going back and forth and instead focus on getting negotiations wrapped up quickly. A case manager who’s working on 600 to 800 cases may want to wrap up those cases as quickly as possible. So it often seems easier to just accept a discount, even when it’s not warranted.

The Right Training and Tools

Whether outsourced or in-house, you need to trust that your subrogation team has the knowledge and tool set to identify and pursue all opportunities while protecting sensitive data. The key is to create a structured process where subrogation decisions are guided by clear best practices and where all case managers are equipped with the necessary training and tools to handle cases efficiently and consistently, regardless of complexity.

Modern subrogation technology platforms reinforce the training, providing guardrails that remove human error and protect client outcomes. Negotiation and settlement parameters are locked into the system, with automated workflows and real-time feedback to ensure accuracy and consistent best practices and results across teams.

Finally, training should not be “one and done.” Effective teams focus on continuous improvement, supported by regular audits and assessments to look for areas of improvement and ensure they are consistently following standardized practices, including those that are specific to individual clients.