In late January, the global third party administrator Crawford & Company announced a bevy of promotions and a new global operating structure designed to deliver more streamlined service to its clients.

Notably, Mike Hoberman was appointed CEO of U.S. operations, reporting to interim Crawford President and CEO Bruce Swain.

The restructuring centralizes operations under two regional entities: a US-focused division and an international division. The goal of the changes is to give global and U.S. clients access to all of Crawford’s services with less overlap between divisions.

The Risk & Insurance Brand Studio recently caught up with Jeffrey Sickles, who was promoted to President, Crawford TPA: Broadspire. Sickles is now leading that business across the U.S.

“The significant difference is that we took all of the U.S. businesses and moved them under a U.S. CEO,” Sickles said. “This includes our Broadspire business, our loss adjusting business, our property business and our platform business, which is more tech-focused. Together, these form Crawford’s unified U.S. business,” Sickles said.

“Crawford now positions itself as a unified U.S. third-party claims administrator,” Sickles said. “Clients don’t need to sit down with different parts of the organization; we’re all just one.”

“We view it as a U.S. operation with different business units, but we’re collaborative more than competitive. We look for ways to align together, identify where we cross paths and find opportunities to become more efficient,” he added.

Rather than having to coordinate and manage multiple contacts, clients now have a single relationship with Crawford & Company. The company directs the appropriate expertise — whether property specialists, workers’ compensation professionals, or technology platform resources — as needed.

“It’s easier for clients to look at us as one organization with many different services,” Sickles said.

Jeffrey Sickles, President, Crawford TPA: Broadspire

“If you need property people, we’ll connect you with experienced property specialists. If you need workers’ comp, we’ll connect you with experienced professionals in that area. If you want to use Contractor Connection for property claims management, we’ll send claims through that tool.”

The change also impacts how Sickles interacts with other executives throughout the Crawford & Company organization.

“The leaders have focused on bringing everything we do together, so we’re working much closer now,” Sickles said.

“We now have weekly meetings in which we discuss where we have overlap and how we can go to market better.”

Among the changes Crawford TPA: Broadspire is implementing in 2026, transparency stands out as particularly significant. The company operates a fifteen-year-old bonus program called QOPS that incentivizes adjusters on core best practices monthly. Performance data flows through a command center where results are visible in real time.

The company is now building a platform allowing clients, carriers, and brokers to log in and view performance at multiple levels — by program, by team, and by individual adjuster. Clients can see real-time data without requiring periodic audits or hiring external audit firms.

“They can see exactly how that adjuster is doing,” Sickles said. “They can check performance on a Monday or a Thursday. They may be able to reduce the need for certain types of audits Because they can access real-time performance data.”

This level of visibility addresses a persistent challenge in the industry. Service providers can make claims about performance, but verification historically required time-consuming audits. Real-time transparency fundamentally changes that dynamic.

“We’re demonstrating our commitment to transparency,” Sickles said.

Delivering Value Through Consistency and Technology

Despite the restructuring, many constants remain.

“What we haven’t changed is what we’ve been focused on for the last thirty-six months,” Sickles said. “Our focus remains on delivering high-quality claim service, and maintaining a strong commitment to best practices, continuing our pursuit of the best customer service for our clients, and for injured workers.”

The commitment is reflected in performance metrics. Client retention remains strong, and quality outcomes continue improving.

“Our carrier partners assess us on claim outcomes and claim performance, and our scores have shown improvement over recent periods,” Sickles noted.

“Additionally, from a financial standpoint, Crawford TPA: Broadspire has reported year over year financial improvement over the last three years.”

Technology plays an increasingly important role in delivering these results, but Sickles emphasizes that technological advancement does not translate to a diminishment of human experience and talent.

“Technology, when used correctly, serves a specific purpose,” he said. “Our goal with technology — and everyone uses the buzzword AI — is not to replace the adjuster. This is still a very human touch business, and we know for a fact that our clients do not want technology to replace our adjusters.”

Instead, Crawford TPA: Broadspire focuses technology on two specific objectives: improving adjuster efficiency and enhancing claim outcomes earlier in the claim lifecycle.

On the topic of improving adjuster efficiency, Sickles delved into some of the operational burdens adjusters face. “Jurisdictions continue to add more requirements, regulations, and forms,” he said. “Non-compliance with regulatory requirements may result in penalties, depending on the jurisdiction.”

Technology is intended to support more efficient processes that can handle the repetitive, compliance-oriented tasks that can be such a burden to adjusters, while also supporting their decision making, which potentially improve outcomes for injured workers.

“In the last twelve months, and I know in the very near future, we’re going to be able to remove some of those mundane but necessary things from the adjuster’s experience and use technology and artificial intelligence to do those things,” Sickles said. “I think we’re going to make life for our adjusters much more bearable so they can actually deliver a better product.”

Technology can also function as a second set of eyes in the role of an early warning system. “Technology is expected to play an important role in identifying potential opportunities earlier in the lifecycle of a file,” Sickles explained.

“Whether that opportunity is for an adjuster to intervene, for a field case manager to react, or for a vendor partner to step in, the idea is to identify opportunities to address potential issues earlier in the claims lifecycle,” he said.

Crawford TPA: Broadspire operates between ten and twelve predictive models that run daily, analyzing adjuster notes, first notice of loss information, diaries, payment registers, and documents. These models identify opportunities for subrogation, medical management resources, and SIU investigations — then present findings directly to adjusters with specific reasoning.

“If the adjuster agrees with the model, all they have to do is hit submit,” Sickles said. “It automatically refers the file to the appropriate team and alerts them as to why the file was flagged. From an adjuster’s perspective, we’re supporting them in managing their workload more efficiently.”

This approach extends to complex documents. Using internal tools, adjusters can upload hundreds of pages of medical records. The system summarizes findings, identifies missing documents, flags conflicting information, and highlights unreadable records — work that previously consumed hours of adjuster time.

“For an adjuster to be able to put that into a tool is a significant step forward from where we were even three years ago,” Sickles said.

Promoting Internally

Supporting this transition is Crawford & Company’s commitment to promoting from within.

“We’ve consistently maintained a systematic structure where, if someone gets promoted, we know exactly who will step in behind them,” Sickles explained. “The biggest benefit is that everything we’ve worked on for the past three or four years continues with the same people involved.”

This stability benefits clients directly. Familiar relationships continue even as titles change. “Our clients don’t need to learn a lot of new faces because they’ve already worked with them in different capacities,” Sickles said.

As the claims administration industry continues evolving, the approaches Crawford & Company is implementing — unified service delivery, technology that amplifies adjuster capability, and transparent performance visibility — reflect emerging best practices across the sector. The emphasis remains on fundamental principles: expert people, genuine transparency, and technology in the service of better outcomes.

To learn more, visit https://www.choosebroadspire.com/.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with Crawford TPA: Broadspire. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.