Digital Platforms

Insurers in Britain may have a new data set to consider in their predictive analytics endeavors: the increase in claims due to personal lines property/casualty policyholders’ “do-it-yourself” (DIY) home improvements.

American Fidelity Assurance Co. has chosen Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ NILS INsource and NILS INcompass offerings to help monitor and implement regulatory changes.

Last decade, car crashes were the leading cause of teen deaths, with 16-year-old drivers possessing crash rates two times greater than 18-to-19-year-old drivers and four times that of older drivers. But Allstate and the National Safety Council think they know how to cut into the 81,000 fatalities resulting from crashes involving teen drivers between 2000 and 2009, claiming in a new report that nationwide GDL laws have the potential to prevent over 2,000 such deaths and save $13.6 billion annually.

The soft pricing that has defined the property/casualty market for years may finally be ebbing.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a final rule to make available standardized extracts of Medicare claims data to facilitate measuring the performance of providers and suppliers. The rule has significant changes that enable use of clinical data along with the claims data.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published a final rule, with a comment period, establishing health insurers' "medical loss ratios," including provisions to account for ICD-10 conversion costs.

As a teetering Euro threatens more disruption in world financial markets, a new survey reveals widespread concern among those responsible for risk management at U.K.-based insurance companies.

Would customers react less negatively if their insurance company informed them about rate hikes personally over the phone versus a written letter? A new white paper by The Forum: Business Results Through People suggests that customers are less inclined to perceive a business negatively if price increases are communicated in-person, over the phone rather than through the mail.

Having suffered five of the top ten deadliest natural disasters in history, with recent events affecting over 70 percent of its land area and more than half its population, China presents ongoing challenges to the insurance market. According to a new market report released by Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary of Aon Corp., these and other challenges are complex and amplified by the scale of the market and the speed of its development.

A.M. Best's recent catastrophe-related loss estimates reveal a bad first nine months of 2011 for U.S. P&C insurers. According to the agency's briefing “U.S. Property/Casualty Catastrophe Losses Climb to $38.6 Billion for the First Nine Months of 2011,” the estimated total net pretax accident-year catastrophe-related losses were $38.6 billion, up $22.5 billion (140 percent), from an estimated $16.1 billion reported during the same period a year ago.

CGI Federal Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Canada-based CGI Group, announced that it has been awarded a $93.7 million contract by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) to build the U.S. government’s federal health insurance exchange.

One-third of office-based physicians have a "basic" electronic health records or electronic medical records system, according to preliminary figures from the federal 2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Even though they know it’s dangerous and, depending where they are, against the law, drivers continue to text behind the wheel, and Allstate Insurance Co. and Manitoba Public Insurance are doing their part to put an end to it.

Property/casualty insurers may well be relieved that the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially ended this week. This year, the season counted 19 tropical storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes (Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) resulting in insurance claims.

Mobile devices and network capabilities will lead growth areas in IT and information management in 2012, with cloud services adoption and enablement not far behind, according to IDC’s annual market predictions.

1. Risk Management/ Climate Control

Life insurers need to craft mitigation strategies for a prolonged low-rate environment.

Fraud is on the rise in the United States and globally, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’s 2011 Global Economic Crime Survey, with cyber crime making the most significant increase in the two years since the firm’s last survey.

Commercial lines carriers focused on risk mitigation tied to business continuity have reason for additional concern. According to a newly published survey, 85 percent of companies reported at least one supply chain disruption over the last 12 months, with 40 percent of analyzed disruption originating below the immediate supplier. The survey, sponsored by Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) and conducted by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Caversham, United Kingdom, queried companies from across 62 countries.

Glatfelter Insurance Group, a multifaceted insurance broker and MGA/program manager, and SPARTA Insurance Co., a property/casualty carrier dedicated to writing program business with Program Administrators as well as retail agents, share few things in common.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has released the latest version of its ARC Logics for Financial Services offering. The enterprise risk management (ERM) solution suite draws upon actionable, industry-specific regulatory intelligence and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ domain expertise. Wolters says this helps financial organizations bring transparency, traceability and efficiency to managing compliance, operational and financial risks as well as to the audit function.

Society Insurance, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance, has selected CSC’s comprehensive legal management software, Legal Solutions Suite, as a Software as a Service (SaaS). Society will access the CSC-hosted offering online to improve consistency in legal matter planning and bill review.

A comparison of third-quarter data from 2009, 2010 and 2011 reveals a notable increase in the number of questionable claims submitted, according to a new report issued by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Des Plaines, Ill. In its third-quarter 2011 questionable claims (QC) referral reason analysis, the Bureau examined six referral reason categories of claims—property, casualty, commercial, workers' compensation, vehicle and miscellaneous—for the quarters listed above.

A recent study of IT spending among small businesses (from $40 million to $350 million in annual revenue) reveals that the budgets will grow slowly. The report—“IT spending and staffing forecast for 2012”— from Computer Economics predicts IT operational budgets should grow about 2.0 percent at the median for small organizations and 0.5 percent for medium ($350 million to $1 billion in revenue) and 0.8 percent for large (revenue of $1 billion or greater) organizations. Growth in the financial services sector, including banks and insurance companies, is weaker than other sectors—health care, professional and technical services, and distribution and manufacturing—but the net trend is still positive.

Aviva Canada Inc., a P&C insurance group, has chosen communic8 as its broker integration hub. The iter8 connectivity hub product will expand its presence within the insurer's IT infrastructure to include uploads from multiple broker management and bridge systems, enabling a one-and-done broker workflow.

It’s no secret that the Green Bay Packers are chasing perfection this season. But what many might not know is that they are quietly leveraging their success to help bring health tips to fourth grade classrooms across the state of Wisconsin.

Foreign insurers are meeting a wall of resistance as they try to penetrate the Chinese market, new analysis from Moody's indicates.

Sponsored by Swiss Re, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) finds risk management practices surrounding renewable energy projects wanting.

Thanks in large part to health information technology, small businesses in Arizona’s Maricopa and Pinal counties are about to be pitched on an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) insurance plan called Aetna Whole Health, a collaborative effort by Aetna and Banner Health Network. Experts say that the ACO model of care shifts the focus of payment from a fee-for-service model to a focus on tying payments to quality metrics and decreased costs of patient care.

In a new report, Forrester Research Inc. identified edge IPK, the provider of edgeConnect, an insurance user experience platform (UXP) designed to provide the optimal user experience to any insurance user, through any device, browser, and language, as a vendor to watch.

The International Insurance Society (IIS) announced the three industry leaders who will be recognized at the society’s 48th Annual Seminar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 17-20, 2012.

Needs analyses and face-to-face contact greatly improve the odds of closing life insurance sales, according to a new study from LIMRA.

The introduction of telematic technologies will help improve overall road safety, new data from U.K.-based The Co-operative Insurance shows.

AgentsofAmerica.org (AoA) reports that it will publish a 26-chapter e-book on risk management in early 2012. The “E&O Loss Control & Risk Management Program for Insurance Agents and Brokers” represents a collaborative effort by more than 25 top E&O insurance attorneys and experts from across the country, notes AoA, and includes an appendix on best practices.

Yodil Inc., a provider of business intelligence, data analytics and management reporting to the insurance industry, has developed OneSource for Affirmative Insurance Holdings Inc., a writer of non-standard auto coverage. According to Yodil, OneSource is now in live production and interfaces with Affirmative's multiple systems to rate, quote and sell auto, home and ancillary products.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded CGI Federal Inc. (CGI), a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc., a $8.9 million, two-year contract to develop and implement the CMS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight's Rate and Benefits Information System (RBIS). CGI Group is an information technology and business process services firm.

The retail theft claims insurers expect to pay out this holiday weekend may take a back seat to those presented by clients with commercial package policies that include business interruption. CNBC reports that demonstrators are taking the Occupy Wall Street movement to retailers with an organized effort called “Stop Black Friday.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has rolled out an enhanced version of a public Web site, mandated under the Accountable Care Act, to aid small businesses and consumers in comparing and purchasing health care coverage.

Torus, a specialty insurer, has implemented Guidewire Software’s ClaimCenter, a claims management system.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted to exclude broker commissions from calculations of medical loss ratio required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

RMSI, a geospatial and software services company, has been awarded the Technology Initiative of the Year award, as part of the 15th Asia Insurance Industry Awards, held recently in Singapore.

Dan Colarusso, VP, CIO of Cypress Insurance Group, talks with INN about his company's decision to replace its multiple existing technology systems currently used for policy, underwriting, rating, billing, and management of its distribution channel with a SaaS solution offered by MajescoMastek.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued its first rebuke to an insurer under the federal rate review provision of the Affordable Care Act.

According to a new study from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), the extra weight hybrid vehicles carry around because of their battery makes them safer. In fact, the study found that the odds of being injured in a crash are 25 percent lower for people in hybrids, when compared to conventional fuel models.

With the insurance industry seemingly starved for some good news about itself, it can take solace knowing that more than 4,000 insurance company volunteers were willing to provide time and labor to various nonprofit groups across the nation last week.

In the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, insurers and bankers feuded over directors and officers' liability policies. At issue: whether D&O policies covered claims brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation against a failed bank's officers. Years of messy litigation failed to settle the question conclusively, and insurers responded by tightening their policies with ironclad exclusions of future FDIC claims.

Survey shows employers not meeting employee desires for health plan programs that are easy to use, motivating, meaningful and personalized.

Former American International Group CEO Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg is seeking $25 billion in damages from the federal government for the manner in which it bailed out the insurance giant in 2008.

Late yesterday both houses of Congress passed a continuing Resolution which provides for a 30-day extension of the National Flood Insurance Program. The program is now set to expire on Dec. 16, 2011.

Surveys and studies show that insurers are actively implementing new policy administration systems. In September, Celent released its “Policy Administration System Vendors, North American Commercial P/C Insurance 2011” report. And this month, the analyst and consulting firm released a similar report for the life, health and annuities industry.

Through conducting a survey at 2011 Professional Liability Underwriting Society’s Annual International Conference in San Diego earlier this month, global specialty insurer Torus set out to identify key issues affecting the management and professional liability insurance market. The results reveal a professional lines market in flux with widespread concerns over pricing uncertainty in 2012, a heightened awareness of the current regulatory environment and fast-emerging new risks for small businesses. Thirty percent of the 102 insurance professionals surveyed, among them brokers, agents, insurers and risk managers, affirmed that the changing pricing environment is a major cause for unease, viewing it to have the biggest overall impact on the market over the next 12 months. Respondents also note that an increase in market competition (25 percent), the current regulatory environment (23 percent) and the creation of new products (17 percent) were also major concerns.

As 2011 winds down, few would dispute the centrality of mobile communications to the insurance industry.