01
The phone
Status traffic is the single largest draw on a claims team's day. Claimants want to know whether a check has gone out, employers want to know what is owed, providers want to know whether a treatment was authorized. Each call is short, each call is predictable, and each call interrupts an adjuster mid file.
Outbound is worse, because it is the work that quietly does not happen. Wage statements, records requests and follow-up calls sit at the bottom of a worklist while the claim ages around them.