asTech’s recent agreement with GEICO isn’t the company’s first noteworthy connection to the insurance industry and it’s not the only example of vendors agreeing to pricing with insurance carriers on scans and calibrations. 

In February asTech, a Repairify brand, announced Craig Edmonds as its new president. Between 1987 and 2023 Edmonds held executive leadership roles at Progressive Insurance and Allstate. 

“Craig will oversee the ongoing evolution of asTech’s proprietary and market leading All-In-One technology platforms, lead development of key strategic partnerships and establish business strategies to further accelerate the ongoing growth of asTech,” a press release from the company states. 

Five months after Edmonds start with the company, GEICO announced its agreement to standardize pricing for its repair scans in an email to its Auto Repair Xpress (ARX) program shops. In the announcement GEICO says shop’s using asTech Rules Engine will be eligible for an OEM or OEM-compatible scan, if they follow the patented and proprietary asTech Rules Engine process in selecting the appropriate scan for the vehicle. 

The “OEM-compatible scan” appears to be determined by asTech’s Rules Engine, not by OEMs, based on data from tens of thousands of asTech scans to determine equivalent results from an aftermarket solution to that of an OEM tool.

GEICO continues in their email that shops utilizing asTech’s All-In-One will receive prioritized access and special pricing. It notes the pricing structure will not address every scanning and calibration operation and “some negotiations may still need to be supported by good documentation.” 

“Shops not using the asTech® All-In-One device may need to supply additional documentation to justify procedures or pricing that deviates from those provided,” the email states. 

GEICO also states their “position on the necessity of scanning a vehicle remains unchanged and that all claims will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”

asTech did not respond to a Repairer Driven News (RDN) question about whether Edmonds previous relationship with the insurance industry influenced asTech’s business direction or agreement with GEICO. 

The company also didn’t answer questions about if there was a contract for the agreement, if it reached out to GEICO first or if it is discussing or planning to discuss similar agreements with other insurance companies. 

From 2020 through 2023 Edmonds served as Vice President of Auto for Allstate, which included nationwide responsibility for Allstate Auto Physical Damage claim operations.

In 2022, it was announced that Allstate added asTech as a “preferred diagnostic scanning provider” for collision centers participating in its Good Hands Repair Network (GHRN). The announcement was made by Repairify, a portfolio company of Kinderhook, which also owns multiple automotive platforms, including the recent purchase of Kaizen Auto Care, a regional collision provider that promotes its “high-quality customer service and repairs to customers, fostering strong partnership with its insurance carriers.” 

The Allstate announcement noted that the partnership provides “preferred pricing” for asTech devices, diagnostic services and capabilities to GHRN shops. It included preferred pricing on remote OEM and OEM compatible diagnostic scanning, as well as remote ADAS calibration and programming.

Many in the independent collision repair industry have raised concerns that asTech’s recent agreement opens the door for insurers to standardize pricing or establish prevailing market prices for scanning and calibrations. 

GEICO’s email also seemed to hint this. 

“Over the past several years, and with the advent of new technologies in vehicles, the frequency of the need to diagnose, program, and calibrate vehicles has increased to ensure all advanced systems are functioning correctly after repairs,” states the email, which was provided to Repairer Driven News by a reader.  “As dealers, sublet vendors, and in-house calibration and scanning systems have worked hard to ensure these needs are met, a variety of price points have emerged and the complexity of tracking price points depending on vendor and calibration type has created some challenges in estimating.” 

“To address these challenges, GEICO is happy to announce that we have reached an agreement with asTech® to standardize pricing and reduce friction for diagnostic, programming, and calibration operations.”

GEICO and Allstate aren’t the only examples of insurance carriers attempting to receive agreed pricing. 

A California automotive diagnostics and calibrations center, iTech Automotive, has a service sheet that notes ADAS calibration and program prices specific for Mercury Insurance. 

The pricing has three levels with the first tier including failed diagnostic trouble shooting, aim millimeter wave radar, aim blind spot monitor, calibrating seat weight sensor, calibrating steering angle sensor, VSA sensor neutral position memorization and module initialization. 

Key differences in the agreements are that iTech Automotive is a local calibration services provider offering mobile services in three different California counties, rather than a national leading provider of remote diagnostics solutions and services in the collision industry.

In most cases, however, the body shop rather than the insurance company is typically the direct customer of a calibration center or mobile service. So it is still representative of concerns expressed about vendors making direct pricing agreements with bill-payers around a direct customer.

There’s also still some uncertainty on what the standardized pricing model changes regarding items included under asTech’s model. 

During a Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting last week, Michael Bradshaw, vice president of K&M collision in North Carolina, noted that the new asTech’s pricing sheet for scans include operations such as seat weight and steering angle calibrations, which are often considered additional operations by other scan tools. 

Jason Vilardi, asTech insurance and estimatics vice president, responded during the meeting that those were already included in AsTech’s post scan diagnostics and that it wasn’t a change made with the agreement. He did say there would be some changes to services, including removing some operations. 

However, an emailed invoicing update sent to asTech customers Thursday noted changes would be made to its diagnostic post scan on Aug. 5. 

“For our OEM post-scans, our diagnostic fee will include fault code clearing, seat weight, and steering angle operations,” the email said. “Your shop will now receive an invoice for all other initializations and resets. This includes Lift Gate Initialization, Active Head Restraint Reset, Grille Shutter Initialization, etc.” 

Some in the industry have been posting email responses throughout social media platforms and online industry groups that they’ve been receiving from asTech in response to questions in the past week. 

Kristen Felder , owner of Collision Hub, posted a response that outlines AsTech lowering a subscription cost for collision repair facilities because of the agreement. 

“The deal with them helped reduce the need to fight for reimbursement when performing scanning and calibrations on GEICO pay cars,” the email written by a Repairify employee says. “The good news is it reduced the cost of our tool and subscription pricing significantly, therefore creating much more room for profit on non GEICO cars.” 

Felder responded Friday to RDN by saying, “Basically, sure you won’t make money on GEICO but you can charge other insurers whatever, which is how AsTech plans to grow. Make shops feel like they have to have it. Make other insurers jealous of GEICO.” 

RDN asked to speak with an AsTech representative at CIC July 10 but was given an email to contact the company’s public relations department. RDN sent a list of questions to the company July 15. AsTech responded July 16 asking for possible to times to speak with a reporter, which the reporter provided. After not receiving a response, the reporter followed-up on July 18 giving additional times to speak on Friday, July 19. AsTech did not respond by the end of day Friday prior to the publication deadline. 

The email to the company mentioned that while AsTech claims the agreement will cause less friction between insurers and the collision industry, individual collision repair businesses have been vocal about concerns it could cause more friction. 

AsTech was also asked if an agreement, such as the one with GEICO, could give a carrier leverage over the company’s ability to set costs in the future, in return impacting the quality of the company’s services. 

During the CIC meeting, Mike Anderson, owner of Collision Advice, raised concerns about GEICO making a decision based on the tool’s recommendation on whether an OEM or aftermarket tool could be used for the scan. 

“So they’re determining that,” Anderson said. “Not the shop, not the consumer, not the OEM certification program, but their software device. So if that’s accurate, I have concerns over that because it’s pulling the collision repair specialist or expert out of that equation.”

Vilardi said GEICO’s endorsement is based on the work they’ve done to prove their recommendations on which scan tool is sufficient. He said this includes running hundreds of thousands of scans over 23,000 different vehicles, makes, models, and trims while comparing OEM and aftermarket tools.

Shops are not required to use a particular tool, Vilardi said.

In a February 2023 interview Chris Chesney, Repairify’s vice president of training and organizational development, said insurance carriers initially pushed back on OEM scan tools regardless of whether they were scanning locally or remotely.

He said that’s now changing.

The conversation was in regard to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) survey finding that crash prevention tools are making roads safer – and repairs more complicated.

“As the industry has become more educated and aware of the fact that the factory tool is the gold standard and not every aftermarket tool will work on every vehicle, the adoption of OEM scans has become more common,” he told RDN in the February 2023 conversation. “However there is still the desire of the carrier to reduce costs and the goal of the shop to provide a safe and proper repair.”

Repairify has invested money into determining which scan tools work on which year, make, and model trim combinations to provide both carriers and technicians with confidence in the process, he said at the time.

RDN reached out to several insurers at the time of that article —including IIHS members American Family, Farmers, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Progressive, State Farm, and Allstate — to ask whether they believed their claims processes were affecting outcomes.

Just two companies responded, with State Farm saying: “We have nothing to share with Repairer Driven News” and Nationwide deferring comment to the Insurance Information Institute, which did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

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