The jury may be out on whether an open or closed provider panel enables group legal plans to operate more efficiently, but even in this litigious society one thing is certain: most Working Americans do not have an established relationship with a lawyer like they do other service professionals.

"It’s not like a family doctor or dentist," observes Brett Merl, president and CEO of the Legal Club of America (LCA). "We fear attorneys."

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (PPL) used to allow members to choose their own attorney, but learned over time that people lacked established relationships with attorneys or weren’t sure who to call.

"When they did make a choice, sometimes they made a poor choice," reports Leslie Fisher, PPL’s vice president of attorney resources. "Since we had no direct relationship with the attorney, we couldn’t impose the high service standards and compliance guidelines we have in place today" under the closed-panel model.  

Still, some group legal plan providers believe freedom of choice is a price that most consumers are willing to pay. "Our members can choose to see any attorney they wish," says Kendra Kelly, director of marketing of ARAG, noting the importance of choice across the entire spectrum of employee benefits.

Marcia Bowers, sales and marketing director for Hyatt Legal Plans, a MetLife Company, calls affordable access to a pre-qualified attorney “the fundamental value of a legal plan because most people do not have their own attorney.”

Indeed, roughly 97% of the carrier’s members have chosen among more than 11,000 attorneys in Hyatt Legal’s network, whose requirements mandate that they practice law for at least seven years, carry malpractice insurance coverage and adhere to a 10-point code of professional excellence.

There’s also an out-of-network option that enables employees to use any attorney they’d like anywhere in the world.

The fact is that an open panel will be far more costly than a closed panel, particularly if the model features an insurance product rather than discounts, as well as usual-and-customary charges in a given region, opines LCA’s Merl.

For example, the hourly charge could be $600 in California versus $400 in Texas or $250 in Wisconsin. "How do you offer the same care for all employees in a multi-state environment?" he asks.

"It’s a big challenge. There’s no such thing as continuity," whereas a closed panel with non-insurance discounts offers employers fear greater control over both their costs and level of service, he adds.

ARAG tightly manages its open-panel relationships with attorneys, all of whom must meet certain professional licensing and state regulatory requirements before they’re credentialed as part of the carrier’s national network.

The attorneys also must agree to provide various hours of covered services and carry malpractice insurance. In addition, ARAG has a team of attorneys that manages these relationships and provides professional education as well as makes office visits and monitors member satisfaction.

PPL’s Provider Law Firm system and quality control monitoring uses proprietary, state-of-the-art technology with an 80-member IT department to manage a large volume of service requests (2.3 million were made last year).

The arrangement features a high speed data connection between the corporate office and member firms (one per U.S. state and four Canadian Provinces, except in Florida, where there are two such firms operating).

Another key factor involves intensive customer-service training that stresses the need for attorneys to be more compassionate and better listeners – an outcome that legal plan providers, employers, brokers and members can agree on, regardless of how the service is delivered.

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