General Liability Third Party Claims Administration

The City of Huntington Beach, a coastal Orange County city of roughly 200,000 residents, is seeking a qualified third party administrator to run its self-insured general liability claims program. The City retains the first $1,000,000 of each loss under the California Tort Claims Act, and its Human Resources Department's Risk Management Division manages the program and keeps final authority over accepting or denying claims and over settlement. The City averages about 165 claims per fiscal year and currently has 46 open claims, and the selected firm must manage a transition from the incumbent administrator. The administrator would handle the full claim lifecycle for third-party claims against the City, its officers, agents and employees. That includes logging new claim files quickly, contacting claimants or their attorneys within 48 hours, taking statements, investigating, assessing liability within thirty days, reviewing reserves at least every 90 days, negotiating settlements for City approval, and pursuing subrogation and property recovery. The firm must provide at least one dedicated principal claims examiner and three designated claims examiners, 24-hour on-call response, translators for non-English-speaking claimants, Index Bureau searches, and reporting to the City's primary and excess carriers. A detailed Monthly Status Report on every claim, including litigated claims, is required.