Modernizing Insurance Claims Processing: From Mainframe Green Screens to Web Workflows

Your insurance claims processing engine is likely a multi-billion dollar liability masquerading as an asset. While your competitors launch AI-driven adjudication platforms in months, your organization is likely trapped in a cycle of "technical debt interest" payments, maintaining 30-year-old COBOL logic and green-screen terminal emulators that no one under the age of 50 understands.

The statistics are sobering: 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timeline, often resulting in "Frankensystems" that are more complex than the originals. In the insurance sector, where 67% of legacy systems lack any form of current documentation, the risk of a "Big Bang" rewrite isn't just a budget concern—it’s an existential threat to the business.

TL;DR: Modernizing insurance claims systems shouldn't involve manual code archaeology; by using Visual Reverse Engineering to record real user workflows, enterprises can extract business logic and UI components into modern React architectures with 70% average time savings.

The Black Box Problem: Why Claims Modernization Stalls#

Insurance claims processing is the most complex workflow in the enterprise. A single claim might touch state-specific regulations, complex subrogation logic, and legacy actuarial tables. When you attempt to modernize these systems using traditional manual methods, you encounter the "Documentation Gap."

With $3.6 trillion in global technical debt, most insurance carriers are flying blind. Manual reverse engineering—where architects sit with claims adjusters to document every keystroke—takes an average of 40 hours per screen. For an enterprise claims suite with 500+ screens, you are looking at years of discovery before a single line of modern code is written.

The Cost of Discovery#

⚠️ Warning: Attempting a "Big Bang" rewrite of a core claims engine without a verified source of truth usually results in missing "edge case" business logic that was never documented but is critical for regulatory compliance.

From Green Screens to React: The Visual Reverse Engineering Path#

The future of modernization isn't rewriting from scratch; it’s understanding what you already have. Replay shifts the "source of truth" from decaying COBOL files to the actual workflows performed by your claims adjusters.

By recording a session of a claims adjuster processing a First Notice of Loss (FNOL) or an adjudication task, Replay captures the intent, the data flow, and the business logic. It then translates these visual interactions into documented React components and API contracts.

Modernization Strategies Compared#

The Replay Technical Stack for Insurance#

To modernize a claims workflow, Replay utilizes a four-pillar approach that replaces manual archaeology with AI-driven automation.

1. Library (Design System)#

Instead of manually building a new UI, Replay extracts the functional elements from your legacy screens and maps them to a modern, accessible Design System. This ensures that the "muscle memory" of your adjusters is preserved while the underlying technology is updated to React.

2. Flows (Architecture)#

Replay maps the sequence of events. In insurance, the order of operations matters for compliance. Replay’s "Flows" feature visualizes the state machine of a claim, ensuring that mandatory fields and regulatory checks are preserved in the transition to a web-based workflow.

3. Blueprints (The Editor)#

Blueprints allow architects to refine the extracted components. This is where technical debt is audited and removed. If a legacy screen has 15 redundant fields used for a defunct 1990s regulation, they are flagged and removed here.

4. AI Automation Suite#

The AI suite generates the "connective tissue." It produces API contracts (Swagger/OpenAPI), E2E tests (Cypress/Playwright), and the actual React code.

typescript
// Example: React component generated by Replay from a Legacy Terminal Screen
// Logic preserved: State-based validation for California Claims (Reg-14)

import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { ClaimHeader, ValidationAlert } from '@insurance-ds/core';

export function AdjudicationWorkflow({ claimId, stateCode }) {
  const [claimData, setClaimData] = useState(null);
  const [isCompliant, setIsCompliant] = useState(true);

  // Business logic extracted from legacy 'Screen 402'
  const validateStateRegulations = (data) => {
    if (stateCode === 'CA' && !data.adjusterLicenseNumber) {
      return false; // Preserved legacy compliance rule
    }
    return true;
  };

  return (
    <div className="modern-claims-container">
      <ClaimHeader id={claimId} />
      {/* Replay-generated form based on visual recording */}
      <ModernForm 
        initialData={claimData} 
        onValidate={validateStateRegulations}
      />
      {!isCompliant && <ValidationAlert message="Missing CA Adjuster Credentials" />}
    </div>
  );
}

💡 Pro Tip: Use Replay's "Flows" feature to identify dead-end screens in your legacy app. Our audits typically find that 20-30% of legacy insurance screens are no longer used by staff but are still being maintained by IT.

Step-by-Step: Modernizing an FNOL Workflow#

Step 1: Recording the Source of Truth#

An experienced claims handler performs a standard First Notice of Loss entry. Replay records the DOM changes (or pixel changes in terminal environments), network calls, and state transitions. This creates a "Video as Source of Truth."

Step 2: Component Extraction#

Replay's AI identifies UI patterns—tables, input fields, search bars—and matches them to your target React library. This reduces the time per screen from 40 hours of manual coding to 4 hours of automated generation and refinement.

Step 3: Business Logic Mapping#

The system identifies the "hidden" logic. For example, if a field becomes "Read Only" after a specific status change, Replay captures that state logic.

yaml
# Replay-Generated API Contract for Claims Adjudication
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
  title: Claims Legacy Bridge
  version: 1.0.0
paths:
  /claims/{claimId}/adjudicate:
    post:
      summary: Extracted from Legacy Transaction TX-990
      parameters:
        - name: claimId
          in: path
          required: true
          schema:
            type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Success
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ClaimResponse'

Step 4: Technical Debt Audit#

Before the code is finalized, Replay performs a Technical Debt Audit. It identifies redundant API calls and deprecated data structures, allowing you to clean the codebase during the migration rather than promising to do it "later" (which we all know never happens).

💰 ROI Insight: For a mid-sized insurance carrier with 200 legacy screens, Replay saves approximately 7,200 man-hours in the development phase alone, representing a $1.2M+ reduction in direct labor costs.

Addressing the "Regulated Environment" Elephant#

Insurance is a high-stakes, highly regulated industry. You cannot simply upload your claims data to a public cloud for processing.

Replay is built for these constraints:

• •SOC2 & HIPAA Ready: Compliance is baked into the platform.
• •On-Premise Availability: For carriers with strict data residency requirements, Replay can run entirely within your VPC or firewalled environment.
• •No PII Leakage: Our extraction process focuses on the structure and logic of the application, not the sensitive claimant data.

The Future: Documentation That Doesn't Rot#

The biggest failure of legacy systems wasn't the code—it was the loss of knowledge. When the developers left, the documentation stayed in their heads.

Replay solves this by creating Living Documentation. Because the documentation is tied to the visual workflows, it stays updated as the system evolves. If a workflow changes, you record it, and the documentation/code updates accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How does Replay handle mainframe/green screens?#

Replay uses visual recognition and terminal protocol analysis to map green-screen fields to modern web elements. We don't just "scrape" the screen; we understand the underlying transactional logic that triggers when a user hits "Enter" on a 3270 emulator.

What about business logic preservation?#

This is our core strength. By recording real user sessions, we capture the "as-is" state of the business logic, including the undocumented workarounds adjusters use. Replay extracts these as functional requirements and automated test cases, ensuring the modern version behaves exactly like the legacy version where it matters most.

How long does a typical pilot take?#

We typically move from a legacy screen to a fully documented, functional React component in less than 48 hours. A full pilot for a complex workflow like "Claims Adjudication" usually takes 2 weeks.

Does this replace my developers?#

No. Replay replaces the "grunt work" of manual documentation and boilerplate coding. It allows your Senior Architects and Developers to focus on high-value tasks—like optimizing the claims process and integrating AI—rather than spending months trying to figure out what a COBOL sub-routine from 1988 does.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy screen extracted live during the call.