Digital Platforms

As part of its stated goal to create a digital insurance community, Insurance Networking News is adding a comments section to its blog postings. This functionality is part of a larger effort to leverage INN’s Web site to offer timelier editorial offerings.

The arrival of BPM as a transformational initiative is creating new opportunities for carriers to think about new ways of doing business.

Just a year after the launch of its Attachments Warehouse, the National Insurance Producer Registry(NIPR), a non-profit affiliate of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, announced an enhancement to the licensing tool that electronically stores documents submitted by applicants. NIPR’s Reporting of Actions (ROA) expands electronic filing abilities to enable producers to submit necessary documents for reporting administrative, criminal or civil action.

Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO and the Des Plaines, Il.-based National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) are partnering to create a national information sharing system aimed at thwarting cargo crime.

Few organizations, including insurers, have even begun PIM initiatives; lack of resources a major barrier.

USAble Life and Benefitfocus have struck a multi-year partnership through 2013 that leverages the Benefitfocus suite of solutions related to how group and voluntary benefits are sold, enrolled, billed and serviced, the companies report.

AXA Insurance UK has signed with Duck Creek Technologies Europe Ltd., a software and service solutions provider for the insurance industry, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to supply a new commercial insurance processing system for the insurer.

Genworth, Markel and Unum are just a few of the insurers affected by A.M. Best and Fitch’s latest rating actions.

The Xerox name is generally well known. And now, Xerox Corp. may become even more well known in the insurance industry, as it signed a definitive agreement with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) to acquire the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm.

A decline in investment gains seems to be the driver of private U.S. P&C insurers’ poor first-half net income numbers. Net income after taxes fell 59.3% to $5.8 billion in first-half 2009 from $14.1 billion in first-half 2008. P&C insurers’ net investment gains—the sum of net investment income and realized capital gains (or losses) on investments—fell 50.2% to $12.4 billion in first-half 2009 from $24.9 billion in first-half 2008, according to ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

Association cheers legal ruling in Michigan.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is denouncing marketing efforts by insurance companies aimed at shifting the debate over Medicare Advantage.

Discoverture Solutions (Discoverture), .a Phoenix-based insurance industry-focused IT solution and service provider, is pleased to announce the company's software development center achieved a CMMI Maturity Level 3 rating during a recent appraisal.

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America of New Jersey is recognized for its contributions to education.

One of the most contentious subjects broached at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Fall 2009 meeting was the issue of a public catastrophe model.

Testifying before the House Small Business Committee, J. Douglas Robinson, chairman and CEO of Utica, N.Y.-based Utica National Insurance Group, said efforts to rein in the excesses of Wall Street firms might adversely impact smaller insurance companies.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) is expressing gratitude for an amendment that counters efforts to exclude independent agents from the health care exchanges envisioned in America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200).

Insurance IT Budgets: It’s a tricky time for those who must make plans for next year, but where should insurers draw the line between caution and boldness?

While endorsements of an optional federal charter for insurers were easy to come by during the previous administration, the Obama administration has largely avoided offering an opinion on the controversial issue.

Photos from INN’s Women in Insurance Leadership Forum.

Now’s the time for life insurers to target consumers, as Americans show increased interest in financial protection, according to surveys.

Association says their proposal offers a more comprehensive solution to cross-border reinsurance transactions.

While the universe of financial services regulation is in flux, one key component, a proposed consumer financial protection agency (CFPA), is taking shape. The CFPA will have a mandate to set rules governing all financial institutions,

Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) (www.naic.org) passed legislation today that adds changes to the Standard Valuation Model Law. When enacted by state legislatures, the changes, addressed at the Executive/Plenary session of NAIC’s Fall national meeting in National Harbor, Md., are designed to improve the way life insurers calculate the reserves held to protect consumer’s financial interests in insurance products, says the organization.

The Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York State are offering access to the PIA Technology Hotline, a new member-exclusive resource to help agents navigate the myriad technology options available for their businesses.

Productivity and cost control lead the list of key challenges; business intelligence, meanwhile, tops the list of application and technology priorities.

Vice President Joe Biden faced a standing-room-only audience yesterday at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), where he discussed the Administration’s health care proposal and the need to create a level playing field in the insurance industry. Biden was invited to speak at the NAIC Fall meeting in National Harbor, Md., where he told members that the reform health care would not impact health insurers’ competitive set. “I want insurance companies to make money,” he said.

Federal and state authorities have a bone to pick with rating agencies, and insurers could feel the effect.

Public option out of the mix as Senate Finance Committee considers America’s Healthy Future Act.

Shares rocketed upward in trading yesterday, rising about 21% based on the announcements from the GAO and Government Reform Committee.

A Blues plan enables members to create PHRs, using Google Health, that automatically populate with claims data, and can link to select EHRs.

The Senator's plan would establish a timeline for accelerating the development, adoption and implementation of a set of operating rules for each HIPAA transaction.

Centurion, Fidelity and National Life are just a few insurers seeing ratings changes.

Department of Health and Human Services allocates $25 million for medical liability pilot initiative.

A new study says that nearly 26,000 state and federal rules impacting the insurance industry will change or be created this year.

Pressure to pass health care has reforms picked up additional momentum as the American Journal of Public Health released statistics tied to mortality for uninsured Americans.

While economists can't exactly predict the future, they can tell us what policies will fail.

A mid-year report from IBM confirms that the World Wide Web is a very insecure place.

AIG board puts kibosh on plans of new CEO to use company jet for personal use, Bloomberg says.

New report finds the industry spent $15.5 million lobbying Congress in the first half of 2009.

Gulf Coast construction standards are 'woefully inadequate' to withstand storm flooding, study finds.

Study’s findings of a lack of FCPA compliance, coupled with a potential increase in federal enforcement activities, could prove a perfect storm for D&O insurers.

Odds are more than a few insurers' IT projects were scrapped this year, but does it need to be that way going forward?

Organization of mutual insurers says that seeking to apply the Community Reinvestment Act to insurance companies would be “forcing a square peg into a round hole.”

Baucus’ bill proposes to expand coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans by creating nonprofit health insurance cooperatives, which require a $6B “fee” from the health insurance, pharma and clinical stakeholders to fund them.

Consequential bills will advance in House in the coming weeks, NAMIC says.

While insurers have unique challenges differentiating them from other industries, this shouldn’t deter efforts to apply BPM across the board.

Federal official says havoc ahead if Congress allows NFIP to lapse.

Customer data is the lifeblood of the insurance industry, but should the government be in charge of its safekeeping?

Norkom Watch List Smart Update designed to reduce costly false positives in detection of financial crime.

Solution provider receives positive rating in analyst’s claims administration systems MarketScope report.

Vendor noted for its market acceptance as a provider of operational risk across the organization.