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State Farm, Opus agree on pilot program to track calibration reports at Select Service repair shops

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State Farm notified its Select Service repair facilities Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement with Opus IVS for a pilot program in Colorado and Michigan. 

“The purpose of the test is to assist in accurately identifying necessary calibration operations to repair vehicles in a safe and quality manner,” an email to Select Service shops says.

Opus IVS is the “preferred provider” to supply Select Service shops with accurate information on which types of calibration operations are necessary based on estimated vehicle repairs, the email says. 

Brian Herron, Opus IVS president, said Tuesday that pricing is not a part of the agreement. 

“We don’t have anything to do with what they charge shops and the pricing,” Herron said. “Opus’ goal is help the parties align with what OEs need to be done.” 

Opus’ ADAS MAP allows shops to upload an estimate, Herron said. 

“It scrubs the estimate and it shows them what calibrations need to be performed,” He said. 

ADAS Map uses bill data and OE information to decide what procedures are needed, he said. For example, it could say a radar calibration is needed after a bumper is replaced. 

The tool also gives repair shops links to references of how it came to its conclusion, he said. 

Herron said the vender agreement with State Farm allows the insurer to see Opus reports when shops use the tool. 

“The shops have the ability to opt in or opt out of that,” Herron said. 

However, he said State Farm is expecting shops in their Select Service network within the identified states to do these reports and submit them, at least during the pilot period. 

“Shops always can deviate from the workflow,” Herron said. “They can perform work that we didn’t find on the report and submit documentation to support that.” 

Herron said Opus works hard to make the report accurate but he said nothing is 100% perfect. The company does have a support team that can review any concerns shops have. 

“It really is just about helping identify calibrations that need to be done; hopefully, encouraging shops and insurers to do these calibrations so we have cars that work the way they should,” Herron said. “It is really important to me, personally, and Opus.” 

He added that the focus is on calibrations based off of manufacturer recommendations. 

State Farm did not answer questions from Repairer Driven News (RDN) about the agreement. This included asking if State Farm had a cost structure planned for calibrations. 

RDN also asked what State Farm planned to do with the data and what shops should do if it finds an OEM recommendation does not match an Opus recommendation.

In at least one version of State Farm’s Select Service Agreement the terms expressed for vehicle scanning say the provider will utilize specific vendor tools for scanning, calibration, hardware and software if requested by the insurer. It also says that the shop will document the estimate in a manner specificed by State Farm and that the insurer agrees to give the provider a reasonable timeframe in which to obtain the desgnated vendor hardware and software should this become a condition oft he agreement.

This agreement comes hot on the heels of industry debate surrounding an announcement from GEICO in July to a standardized pricing with asTech. asTech’s Rules Engine provides recommendations for aftermarket scans that it thinks are sufficient replacements for an OEM scan. 

Shops have been concerned that it appears GEICO will prioritize the aftermarket scan recommendations by asTech. 

“We will base consideration for pre-/post-scans on the recommendations from the patented and proprietary asTech Rules Engine,” GEICO said in a July email to Auto Repair Express (ARX) network shops. “The Rules Engine uses data from tens of thousands of scans to determine when a remote OEM scan is needed or when a local OEM-compatible scan can be used, which has been verified to yield equivalent results to that of an OEM tool. GEICO shops using the asTech Rules Engine will be eligible for an OEM or OEM-compatible scan if they correctly follow the Rules Engine process in selecting the appropriate scan for the vehicle.” 

GEICO added 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.” 

The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) announced last week that it sent a list of questions to Repairify and GEICO after collecting feedback and inquires from industry members in the weeks following GEICO’s July announcement. 

Click here to review the full letter and 16 questions SCRS sent to GEICO. Click here to review the full letter and 25 questions SCRS sent to Repairify. 

GEICO did not provide any further details in response to SCRS questions, according to an SCRS email. As of SCRS’ release, asTech had also not yet responded directly to SCRS with answers to the questions. To see the full release click here.

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Photo courtesy of youngvet/iStock

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