Basically, an insurance claim is the actual application for benefits provided by an insurance company due to circumstances that are generally under the insurance claim policies. Policy holders must first file an insurance claim before any money can be disbursed to the hospital or repair shop or other contracted service. The insurance company may or may not approve the claim, based on their own assessment of the circumstances.
From this concept, before granting any accident claims to the claimant, the insurance company conducts a thorough investigation in accordance to their insurance policies. And once the result becomes favorable with the client, they would eventually give that claim. The only thing is, it takes some time before the actual claim is given. And the time table from the date a claim was filed and it was released could have a big gap for some insurance companies.