Digital Platforms

  • RESEARCH RATES AUTO INSURANCE WEB SITESNew research released by Change Sciences Group Inc., a White Plaines, N.Y.-based online financial services benchmarking firm, shows that a handful of auto insurance Web sites are working hard to demystify rates, discounts and claims in an effort to win consumer trust and new business. The research, covering 24 sites, identifies a number of trends relevant to carriers and consumers alike, from allowing consumers to compare their rates with other carriers to presenting some information about the things that affect a person's rate. Sites still have a long way to go when it comes to online execution: Only 40% of sites allow a consumer to follow through on a quote and buy the policy online, and 65% of the sites that do allow consumers to buy online don't make the process as easy as it could be. The top 10 sites, according to Change Sciences are:

    April 1
  • E-Z DATA LEVERAGES LATEST WINDOWS TECHNOLOGYClient Data System 6, the newest version of the E-Z Data Inc.'s Windows-based solution for practice and relationship management, addresses specific requests from E-Z Data's current corporate customers, and leverages the latest in Windows technology. Version 6 was designed to provide users with more benefits including control over icon size and desktop look and feel, easier query processing and superior performance, refreshed reports, improved integration with Microsoft Office Outlook for an easier, more intuitive calendar, password requirements and expiration, secure contact fields, database encryption, and private form letters for greater security, a complete HIPAA compliance system that helps prevent HIPAA-protected individuals from receiving unprotected mailings.

    April 1
  • Insurance Networking News recently interviewed Debbi Marquette on the topic of regulatory compliance. Marquette is a former insurance company compliance officer with 25 years of experience. Currently, she is director of compliance solutions at InSystems, a Markham, Ont., provider of document management and compliance software.INN: What are the most crucial issues in compliance today?

    April 1
  • Since the business of insurance is risk management, it's not surprising that the majority of insurers have standards of practice for monitoring, managing and mitigating risk. What's more surprising, is that enterprise risk management (ERM)-identifying, prioritizing, quantifying, mitigating and financing risks from all sources across an enterprise-seems to be catching on fairly quickly.That's a conclusion of a recent survey by New York-based Ernst & Young's Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services (IAAS), which found that 67% of insurers have a formal ERM committee. Of that 67%, 33% formed their ERM committee within the last three years. Another 21% of respondents say their organizations are considering establishing such a committee.

    April 1
  • POLICY PROCESSINGThe Cumberland Insurance Group, a Bridgeton, N.J., multi-line carrier, has placed Mount Arlington, N.J.-based AGO Insurance Software Inc.'s Commercial Multi-Peril Policy System in its production environment. The Windows program will be used to streamline the policy cycle process for CMI.

    April 1
  • According to the coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud is an $80-billion crime wave. Unfortunately, most insurance carriers have neither the processes nor technology they need to stop fraud.Even so, as fraud schemes become more sophisticated, insurance carriers must examine an even wider array of data to identify fraud trends and detect fraudulent claims. To do this, they must institute a set of technology best practices and techniques to automatically detect fraud and abuse early in the claims process.

    April 1
  • Seoul, Korea - In what is being called the largest deal of its kind for the financial services industry in Korea, Kyobo Life Insurance has contracted IBM to operate and manage its IT infrastructure.Under the terms of the 10-year agreement which has a total contract value of approximately 340 million U.S. dollars, IBM will provide IT strategy consulting services to help develop and advance Kyobo's IT vision and strategy. IBM will also manage the company's servers, storage systems, network and desktop computers and operate its data and disaster recovery centers. Additionally, IBM will provide IT skills development and IT management training services, called 'IT University', for Kyobo's employees.

    March 31
  • Washington - The American Academy of Actuaries disclosed that a future large terrorist attack in New York City could result in $778 billion in insured losses.Speaking at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) public hearing on "Terrorism Insurance Matters," Michael McCarter, chairperson of the Academy Terrorism Risk Insurance Subgroup, provided potential property/casualty, and group life insurance losses as a result of various types of terrorist attacks. His group estimated potential insured losses from a conventional truck bomb terrorist attack, as well as medium and large chemical, nuclear, biological or radiological (CNBR) events caused by terrorism.

    March 31
  • Bowling Green, Ohio - Sky Financial Group Inc. has hired Zahid Afzal as executive vice president/chief technology officer. He will report directly to Les Starr, corporate executive vice president of technology and operations.Afzal comes to Sky from Bank of America, where he was a senior vice president and chief information officer of the consumer banking division. While at Bank of America, Afzal directed the consumer banking information technology initiatives and successfully implemented several programs, which reduced expenses while growing the business organically and through mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Bank of America, Afzal was the chief information officer for Broadslate Networks and a senior technology executive for Citicorp.

    March 31
  • New York and Emeryville, Calif. - After the completion of a successful 18-month pilot, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and RelayHealth Corp. are expanding the RelayHealth webVisit service to all members of Empire's HMO plan.Beginning July 1, 2006 more than 400,000 HMO members will have access to RelayHealth's Web-enabled doctor visits. As part of the expansion agreement, Empire will also make RelayHealth available to all of its national Administrative Services Only (ASO) accounts as a new benefit.

    March 30
  • Chicago - The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry will report deterioration in profitability in 2005 because insured catastrophe losses reached record levels in 2005, according to Fitch Ratings.The decrease in profitability is largely due to the destruction from Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating insured loss event in history, and Hurricanes Rita and Wilma, each of which will rank among the top 10 historical insured loss events.

    March 28
  • New York City - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has launched a comprehensive public education program to assist consumers with information about insurance issues.Under the banner of "Insure U," the campaign has two objectives: to help consumers get smart about insurance as their needs change at different life stages, and to educate them about how to avoid being scammed by fake insurance companies. The program includes an online education site and public service announcements in English and Spanish.

    March 28
  • Okemos, Mich. - Sircon Corp. and Efficient Forms LLC, Littleton, Colo., have formed an exclusive partnership designed to build on each other's products and customer bases to create an online platform for agent hiring, contracting and licensing for insurance agents, carriers and regulators. The partnership is a step toward creating a single online community where insurance carriers and their distribution partners can collaborate through an integrated, coordinated network, according to the two companies."This combination provides online capabilities that can transform processes between insurance carriers and their distributors," says Gary Gummig, vice president of business development at Sircon. "By integrating online services that will automate transactions and workflow, and virtually eliminate paperwork, this creates opportunity for unprecedented process breakthroughs."

    March 27
  • Redwood City, Calif. - When asked about the importance of securing data and the confidence in how well data is secured using encryption technology, there was a significant split among respondents to a recent survey conducted by Ingrian Networks Inc. Fifty-four percent of financial services IT executives agreed or strongly agreed that encrypting "data at rest" is a high priority for their organization, while 39% disagreed or strongly disagreed that it is a high priority."The financial services industry is at a crossroads when it comes to security in general and enterprise encryption strategies in particular," says Lane F. Cooper, director, InfoTech and author of the study.

    March 27
  • Bettendorf, Iowa and Edison, N.J. - Fraud Resource Group, a business, insurance and identity fraud investigative and consulting firm, is using StrikeForce Technologies' products to launch a Web-based identity validation and authentication service, called the Trusted Customer program, which is designed to help prevent fraudsters from setting up fraudulent accounts and stealing high-value vehicles, goods and rental equipment.Construction equipment theft is a $1 billion annual problem, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and only 10% to 15% of stolen equipment is ever recovered, according to the National Equipment Register. Fraudsters, posing as customers and contractors, use false credentials and stolen credit card data to "rent" vehicles, tools, and construction equipment. The rental stores lose equipment and potential income until a replacement arrives, and the legitimate credit card holder is left to dispute the charge.

    March 24
  • Newark, Calif. - Increases to hurricane landfall frequencies in the U.S. hurricane model from Risk Management Solutions (RMS) will increase modeled annualized insurance losses by 40% on average across the Gulf Coast, Florida and the Southeast, according to RMS. And modeled annualized insurance losses in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastal regions will increase by 25% to 30%, relative to those derived using long-term 1900-2005 historical average hurricane frequencies.This new view of risk is driven by an increase of more than 30% in the modeled frequency of major (Saffir-Simpson Category 3-5) hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. to account for current elevated levels of hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin, which are expected to persist for at least the next five years. When compared with a pre-2004 historical baseline, as has been previously employed for quantifying insurance risk, the increases in modeled annualized losses are closer to 50% in the Gulf, Florida, and the Southeast.

    March 23
  • Jersey City, N.J. and Oakland, Calif. - ISO and InsureWorx have formed an alliance to integrate ISO's Workers Compensation Information Services (WCIS) solution modules with the policy and claims administration software applications from InsureWorx.Under the agreement, customers of ISO's workers' compensation products and the InsureWorx PowerComp offering will be able to access and exchange policy and claims data seamlessly between the two companies' applications. This combination of InsureWorx's workflow processing software with ISO's data management and analytic tools is designed to provide workers' compensation carriers with a more comprehensive end-to-end solution.

    March 23
  • Warren, N.J. - Property/casualty insurance and risk management increasingly play a role in financial planning, according to a survey by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.Fifty-seven percent of the 102 financial planners surveyed indicated that they evaluate their clients' asset protection through property/casualty insurance. An even higher number, 72%, said they determine if their clients have an appropriate level of liability insurance.

    March 22
  • Chicago - Aon Re Inc. has studied the results of companies that have implemented more sophisticated customer segmentation strategies over the past few years. The results of the study show that while the overall returns for the personal lines property industry still lag the cost of capital, "we are starting to see differentiating results between insurers," says Randall Brubaker, Aon Re Services senior vice president. "This differentiation has been somewhat masked by the increased frequency of hurricanes during the past two years but the underlying progress is evident."According to Brubaker, "It is clear that the core disciplines and customer segmentation tactics that are commonly utilized with personal lines automobile have improved the financial results of the non-catastrophe personal lines property business. The next phase of improvements in personal lines property will include substantial improvements to the disciplines and tactics associated with customer level segmentation on catastrophe risk. The current more active hurricane period has only accelerated the need to implement more sophisticated catastrophe-based customer level segmentation strategies."

    March 22
  • Boston - Results from a study conducted by HighRoads, a provider of benefits lifecycle management (BLM) solutions, show that employers can use competitive auctions to provide health benefits more affordably. Its first annual price elasticity survey shows that using a transparent bidding environment reduces contract costs by more than 15%, on average.The survey is based on the outcomes of nearly 50 request-for-proposal (RFP) processes by companies with 5,000 employees or more. On average, vendors revised bids two to three times to win a company's business, reducing fees by 7% to 21% for fully insured and self-insured medical, dental, life, disability and other benefits plans.

    March 21
  • Edison, N.J. - More than 90% of insurance agents want 24/7, Web-based access to the information technology (IT) systems of U.S. insurance carriers, according to a survey of independent producers conducted by research firm Celent LLC.Technology tools that improve efficiency, communication and customer service also are highly desired by insurance producers, said the majority of the 215 producers surveyed by Celent for MajescoMastek, a software solutions provider to the insurance industry.

    March 21
  • New York - At more than $40 billion in insured losses, Hurricane Katrina is the costliest hurricane on record. Insurers have tallied most of the property damage and business interruption losses, but Katrina's financial effects will continue to be felt for a very long time.Floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina bathed New Orleans and surrounding areas in a "toxic soup" of infectious organisms and hazardous chemicals. Ruptured oil tanks and pipelines covered portions of the area and nearby waters with an estimated 8 million gallons of oil. A resulting large number of environmental-related lawsuits have been filed, potentially exposing the insurance industry to billions of dollars in addition losses.

    March 21
  • Bejing, China - IBM and Taikang Life Insurance Co. Ltd., China's fifth largest life insurance company, are launching a collaborative research project to help solve some of the information management challenges facing the worldwide insurance industry today.Taikang Life will use the worldwide resources from IBM's China, Almaden and Tokyo labs to improve the performance and usability of business intelligence applications embedded in the insurer's federated database systems.

    March 20
  • Hartford, Conn. -ING, a global financial services leader, has begun offering its defined contribution clients many of the regulatory documents related to their retirement plan accounts in electronic form. Clients can choose to receive account statements and disclosure documents such as prospectuses, prospectus supplements and annual and semi-annual reports via ING's secure site."ING is committed to making it easier for customers to manage their financial information," says Jim Pedrick, senior vice president, worksite and institutional marketing, ING. "Many of our customers have told us they prefer not to get as much paper mail from us. It's a question of volume, and many also have an environmental concern. By offering e-delivery, our customers can now choose to receive regulatory documents from us electronically."

    March 20
  • Nashville, Tenn. - Obesity as a major cause of death in the U.S. may still be in dispute, but one thing is certain: It costs American employers millions of dollars each year in higher employee health costs.In the wake of recent studies disputing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's earlier finding that obesity causes 400,000 deaths a year, a new study published in the March Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine finds obesity is responsible for 2.1% of all diagnosed medical claims dollars for men and 2.8% for women. Of ten lifestyle health risks considered, obesity was by far the most costly--accounting for approximately 14% of lifestyle-related health costs for men and 25% for women.

    March 20
  • Hartford, Conn. - Aetna has enhanced its suite of consumer tools and information designed to enable members to more easily track and manage their health care expenses. Aetna members now can download their claims information to their personal computer via Aetna Navigator, Aetna's password-protected member Web site, enabling them to manage the information in a data file or spreadsheet. The option to keep claims information in a personal file is particularly relevant at tax time, when consumers often need to create a record of their medical expenses for tax deduction purposes."While Aetna members have long had the opportunity to view their claims activity on our Web site, this enhancement allows them to electronically 'grab' the information, save it in a file or spreadsheet, and sort it to best suit their individual needs," says Christine B. Skelly, head of health-related financial solutions for Aetna.

    March 16
  • Armonk, N.Y. - IBM has signed an agreement to acquire Language Analysis Systems Inc. (LAS), a privately held company based in Herndon, Va., that develops multicultural name recognition technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.This acquisition furthers IBM's companywide initiative aimed at helping clients address emerging business challenges and better compete in the global economy through access to accurate, reliable and trustworthy information.

    March 16
  • Boston - Each year in conjunction with the IASA Annual Educational Conference & Business Show, IASA's Executive Education Program presents two executive roundtable events designed specifically for chief financial officers and chief information officers.In 2006, the CFO and CIO roundtables will take place on Tuesday, June 6, at the Sheraton Copley Place Hotel in Boston, and the programs will focus on helping insurance company financial and technology executives "Navigate a Changing Landscape."

    March 15
  • Arlington, Va. - The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), ERM Institute International Ltd (ERM-II), and the CAS/SOA Risk Management Section are jointly launching a major research project titled, "ERM Analysis of Property-Casualty Insurance Companies.""We are going to establish a new theoretical foundation for enterprise risk management, with practical guidance for ERM implementation," says Dr. Shaun Wang, executive director of ERM Institute International, and lead researcher for the project.

    March 14
  • Geneva, Ill. - Professional liability insurer Insight Insurance Services Inc. has launched an upgraded and redesigned Web site with improved functionality designed to enable independent insurance agents to interact easily and quickly with company and better serve their clients.The new site, at www.insightinsurance.com, includes more tools and features to deliver downloadable forms and applications and facilitate paperless policies. The Web site is structured for easy navigation to Insight's three specific areas of professional liability expertise: architects and engineers, accounting professionals and insurance agents.

    March 14
  • Chicago - Most of the insurance industry's discussion post-Hurricane Katrina has focused on the significant rating agency model changes and the compounding effect of catastrophe model changes. But a new study by Aon Re Global tells the investor side of the story."Investors clearly understand the differences between insurers and reinsurers and have set differing tolerances for each," says Stephen Mildenhall, Aon Re Services executive vice president and author of the study. "Our study confirms that investors expect higher earnings and capital volatility from reinsurers than they expect from insurers."

    March 14
  • Boston - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) voted unanimously at its quarterly meeting in Orlando, Fla. to establish a task force to examine the impact of climate change on the U.S. insurance industry and on insurance consumers.The task force will look at how a warming climate may affect the availability and affordability of insurance for consumers and the financial health of insurance companies. The task force will also consider actions necessary to enable state regulators and insurers to mitigate and otherwise respond to these problems.

    March 13
  • Mountain View, Calif. - Close to 40% of the financial services and banking industry sector suffered the most Trojan attacks, outranking peer industries as the most exposed to probes and enumeration attempts.This is one of the findings of joint research conducted by Counterpane Internet Security Inc., a provider of networked information protection, and MessageLabs, a provider of messaging security and management services.

    March 13
  • Branchville, N.J. - Selective Insurance Group Inc. has appointed Richard F. Connell senior executive vice president and chief information officer of Selective Insurance Group, Inc.,and Selective Insurance Company of America.In this position, Connell is responsible for Selective's technology strategy, automation system development and e-business technology, data processing operations, and voice and data communications.

    March 10
  • Columbia, S.C. - BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina won a bronze World Wide Web Health Award for its online precertification, a feature on the company's Web sites that allows hospitals and physicians a quicker, simpler way to obtain authorizations.The World Wide Web Health Awards recognize the best health-related Web sites for consumers and professionals. The Health Information Resource Center (HIRC), a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials, organizes the program.

    March 10
  • Wakefield, Mass. - Darwin Partners Inc., a provider of a range of IT services to Fortune 1000 companies, and Suzsoft Co. Ltd., a China-based provider of outsourced application development, quality assurance, and localization services, have announced plans to merge.Founded in 2001, Suzsoft is privately held and has grown rapidly to become a leading IT outsourcing platform in China specializing in several industry verticals, including financial services, health care, technology, insurance and telecommunications.

    March 9
  • Armonk, N.Y. - The IBM Chief Finance Officers Study of 900 senior finance executives worldwide reveals only 14% of insurance respondents rate themselves highly effective in supporting the CEOs efforts to grow the company.The study, developed in co-operation with The Economist Intelligence Unit, finds that at a huge cost to the future competitiveness of companies, almost 50% of executives report finance staff are tied up in transactional activities such as processing accounts and tax transactions, with only a quarter of staff focused on decision support--performance and growth focused activities. Furthermore, respondents state 64% of Insurance finance organizations do not have robust processes and activities in place to support growth.

    March 8
  • Boulder, Colo. - Carriers may need to prepare for a storm that has the capability to affect GPS systems and create blackouts. Using a computer model of solar dynamics, scientists at the Boulder, Colo.-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are predicting the next sunspot cycle to be 30% to 50% stronger than the last one and begin as much as a year late. Predicting the sun's cycles accurately, years in advance, will help societies plan for active bouts of solar storms, which can slow satellite orbits, disrupt communications and bring down power systems.

    March 7
  • Washington - The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA), a Washington, D.C.-based national association that represents member insurance agents and their employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance, but specialize in coverage of automobiles, homes and businesses, has reaffirmed its opposition to any proposals that call for a so-called "optional" federal charter for insurers.

    March 7
  • Glastonbury, Conn. - Open Solutions Inc., a provider of integrated, enterprisewide data processing technologies for banks and credit unions, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of the Information Services group of New Jersey-based The BISYS Group Inc., a provider of outsourced solutions to investment firms, insurance companies and banks.Open Solutions believes that this transaction will enable it to expand its product offerings, further increase its presence in the financial services marketplace and extend its client base to include the healthcare, insurance and corporate finance industries. Under terms of the completed agreement, Open Solutions purchased the Information Services group for a total cash consideration of approximately $470 million, subject to adjustment.

    March 6
  • Brookfield, Wis. - Fiserv Inc. has acquired certain assets of CT Insurance Services and CCH Wall Street, two product lines of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. The acquisitions, which include Xchange, Securities Registration and Producer Licensing software from CT Insurance Services and the Financial Training product line from CCH Wall Street, will add online application capabilities for insurance licensing and securities registration, along with NASD exam preparation courses to Fiserv's suite of products. Terms of the asset purchase were not disclosed.CT Insurance Services is a provider of enterprisewide systems for insurance licensing and securities registration. The Web-based systems from CT Insurance Services capture data at the origination point, enabling the filer to prepare and submit licensing and registration filings electronically. The Financial Training solutions from CCH Wall Street provide NASD Exam Preparation, including an interactive virtual learning environment, and innovative in-person and self-study solutions.

    March 3
  • Denver - InsureMe, an insurance marketing company delivering leads to agents, has unveiled the InsureMe Agent Blog, which is designed to provide industry information to insurance professionals.A Web log, or "blog," is a self-published journal, made accessible to the public via the Internet. Unlike corporate Web sites, blogs are generally less formal and more interactive; the author posts an article and readers can respond with comments and questions.

    March 2
  • CONTRACTOR MANAGEMENTBlue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, a Jacksonville-based health plan provider, has selected Beeline.com Inc. to automate and streamline the company's IT contractor staffing processes. Jacksonville Beach, Fla.-based Beeline automates the life cycle of contractor engagements, including job order creation and distribution, screening, supplier management, time capture, invoicing and reporting.

    March 1
  • Today, various high-tech systems, such as GPS and online map services, help people navigate the physical world, taking the guesswork out of the task of getting from point A to point B.People can now go online, type in some address criteria and a map is generated instantly, detailing critical intersections, which way to go and when to turn. What the claims world needs is an analogous system-one that helps the claims adjuster navigate the complex terrain of business and regulatory requirements.

    March 1
  • Rapid growth. It's a "problem" most companies would welcome. Yet, along with accelerated growth comes a bevy of new challenges. At Geico and its affiliated companies, for example, when written premiums grew from $4.1 billion in 1998 to $4.9 billion in 1999, the company had to process twice as many agent licenses with state insurance departments-just to keep enough agents on the phones selling auto policies."In one year, we jumped from about 27,000 active licenses and 48,000 appointments to 55,000 licenses and 115,000 appointments," says Dan Corridon, director of licensing administration at Government Employees Insurance Co. (Geico), the Chevy Chase, Md.-based direct insurer. "We needed a system that was going to do more for us than what we were using."

    March 1
  • Shortly after I returned from IsoTech last November, I received one of those forwarded "chain" e-mails. Unlike most chain e-mails I receive, I actually read this one, and, surprisingly, it pertained to a controversial topic that came up at ISOTech during the roundtable session, titled "The Next 'Killer Technology' in Insurance."Panelist Kevin Kelly, managing director, U.S. insurance industry, Microsoft Corp., said he thought sensing technologies were the next killer technology, and he described how radio frequency identification devices could be attached to people or assets to enable the industry to obtain a plethora of information about who or what it's insuring. "There's a privacy element," he admitted. "But people will give up some privacy for convenience."

    March 1
  • ON-DEMAND CALL CENTER SERVICEAgents OnDemand is a service designed for three key industry vertical segments-travel, healthcare and financial services-by Working Solutions Inc., a Plano, Texas-based provider of remote agent call center services to Fortune 1000 companies. According to Working Solutions, Agents OnDemand enables contact centers to respond to fluctuating call volumes by leveraging knowledgeable agents when needed.

    March 1
  • HUMANA PROVIDES PRESCRIPTION BENEFITS SUMMARYLouisville, Ky.-based Humana Inc. has developed SmartSummary Rx, an in-depth, monthly prescription benefits summary tailored to individual Medicare members. As a companion to the SmartSummary program for commercial members, SmartSummary Rx provides Humana's Medicare enrollees with guidance on cost-savings opportunities, a consolidated prescription claims record and tools can help them budget for future health care and prescription spending.

    March 1
  • Ten years have passed since the Web made its debut, threatening to eliminate intermediaries in the insurance sales process. But, after all these years, only a small percentage of insurance consumers actually purchase their policies online.The Internet has evolved, however, and it serves an important role in insurance.

    March 1
  • Segundo, Calif. - Two U.S. surveys of property/casualty insurance customers show a large, untapped opportunity for cost control through electronic billing.Conducted for Computer Sciences Corp. by MarketSearch Corp., a survey of car and homeowner insurance billing methods found 88% of auto insurance customers and 93% of homeowner insurance customers still receive bills by mail. Yet 73% of respondents surveyed indicated they would be willing to pay their insurance bills over the Internet. A second survey that asked approximately 350 P&C professionals at CSC's Connect 2005 conference about their own personal insurance experience confirmed these findings.

    March 1
  • Schaumburg, Ill. - Expanding on its seminal 2002 study report, "A Comparative Analysis of Claims-based Methods of Health Risk Assessment for Commercial Populations," the Society of Actuaries (SOA) has appointed Milliman USA to produce an updated version of the study.The 2002 report, which evaluated the state of the art in predictive modeling software for health care claims at that time, provided an unbiased forum for comparing the technology and methodologies then available in the market. With the passage of three years and the continuous refinement of these methodologies and software, the SOA strongly felt a fresh look at the tools would provide immediate practical benefits to the health care community.

    March 1
  • Dallas - Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a provider of business process outsourcing and information technology solutions, has been awarded an information technology outsourcing (ITO) contract with UnumProvident, a disability income insurer. The five-year agreement is valued at $84 million.Under the terms of the contract, ACS will provide a full range of operational support services for UnumProvident's mainframe and help desk operations, and will assist in the management of the mid-range and end-user environments.

    February 28