Insurance

Hartford, Conn., - Two insurers are partnering to bring advanced workers' compensation services to businesses throughout the Connecticut. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., has contracted with Aetna to offer its customers the Aetna Workers' Comp Access (AWCA) network of health care providers. This arrangement, which became effective Sept. 1, follows a June 1 initiative when

Kansas City, Mo. - State insurance regulators, working cooperatively through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), are working to ensure that survivors of Hurricane Katrina are being treated fairly and in compliance with the state insurance laws. To help respond to consumers' needs, the NAIC is creating an Emergency Responder database of state resources. This database will serve as a network of consumer assistance representatives from around the nation, who will help support state insurance departments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as they respond to losses associated with the disaster.

Alexandria, Va. - The national board of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) has adopted a new policy on producer compensation disclosure by carriers.

New York, N.Y. - The insurance commissioners of several large states will convene a summit November 15 and November 16 to develop a National Catastrophe Insurance Program, which would more effectively spread insurance risk and help survivors cope with the tremendous financial damage caused by natural catastrophes and acts of terrorism.

Boston - Will Katrina change the insurance industry in fundamental ways? Have loss patterns changed from "small and frequent" and "large and infrequent" to "very large and not infrequent?"In a new report, "After Katrina: What Now for the Insurance Industry?" Celent Communications Inc. examines the immediate and long-term implications of Katrina and describes best-case and worse-case scenarios of its impact on the insurance industry and select insurance providers.

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO's guide on state insurance laws and regulations, the State Filing Handbook, is now available in a new Web-based format designed to make it easy for insurers to access the information they need when they need it. The State Filing Handbook is available through ISOnet, ISO's secure Internet platform for delivering information to property/casualty insurers.The online State Filing Handbook features multi-state reports on a broad range of filing topics. Insurers can select a single topic, a type of filing and a number of states -- or choose all states -- and the handbook will generate a table summarizing the requirements for those states. A keyword search feature includes regulations, bulletins and forms to make it easier to locate the exact topic or section.

Los Angeles - In response to unprecedented demands on independent adjusters due to Hurricane Katrina, Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MS/B), a supplier of local building cost information, residential and commercial property valuation technology and services for the property and casualty insurance sector, has extended its help desk hours. Its fully staffed technical support is now available weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. CST and on weekends from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The help desk can be reached toll free at 888-337-9665.

Philadelphia - Mutual of Omaha has implemented COMPASS, an enterprise group benefit administration system from Philadelphia-based SunGard. In 2004 the Omaha, Neb., carrier created a sales force dedicated solely to group life, disability and dental products. It purchased COMPASS in July 2004 to support product development, billing, collections and administration and to help it manage its group life, disability, dental and voluntary insurance offering. COMPASS, a participant recordkeeping and plan administration system, supports a range of plan types, including group pension, group and life disability, individual pension and annuity, and corporate profit sharing.

Boston - New York-based MetLife and Babson Executive Education held their second annual Thought Leadership Conference this week in Wellesley, Mass. The meeting brought together key players in the Internet and multi-channel marketing arena to discuss innovative practices for understanding the multi-channel marketing mindset.

San Diego, Calif. - Mitchell International Inc., a provider of information and workflow solutions to the automotive insurance and collision repair industries, has acquired ClaimIQ, a leading San Francisco-based provider of claims decision optimization applications for insurance carriers.ClaimIQ will join the Mitchell organization as a business unit of Mitchell's medical division. All products of both Mitchell and ClaimIQ will continue to be supported and expanded, and a new set of integrated products that combine the strengths of decision support, bill review, and collision estimating will be introduced.

Springfield, Mass. - MassMutual piloted its e4 Wireless Enrollment System with several plan sponsors and participant focus groups early this year, and so far, the results have been significant.In an effort to make retirement planning less overwhelming for participants and more action-oriented, MassMutual engaged Ameranth Wireless Inc., San Diego, to develop e4, MassMutual's custom Electronic Enhanced Enrollment Experience.

Newark, Calif. - Risk Management Solutions reports that insured losses from Hurricane Katrina are estimated to be $40-$60 billion, of which $15-$25 billion are related to the Great New Orleans Flood. This estimate does not include NFIP coverage.

Acton, Mass. - CCH Insurance Services, a part of Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services division, has launched a new micro site summarizing regulatory compliance information for insurers responding to catastrophe in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The web site, located at www.insurance.cch.com/katrina is free of charge as a public service to insurers."Affected states are now issuing requirements and other directives specifically related to this catastrophe," says Joe Bieniek, compliance manager for CCH Insurance Services. "We want to provide insurers with a resource that will help them easily determine what is required in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi so they can respond to claims quickly, avoid confusion, and maintain compliance."

Pearl River, N. Y. - IBM is contributing more than 100 business-process models, model definitions and other industry content to the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD), reports the non-profit standards organization. The models come from IBM's Insurance Application Architecture (IAA), the company's insurance business and IT architecture framework. The donation will accelerate the development and adoption of business-process standards that will help address some of the global insurance industry's greatest challenges.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) says that while the damages from Hurricane Katrina may set record losses, the property and casualty industry maintains the adequate capital and liquidity required to withstand claims arising from one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history.

The terrorist attacks that ripped through the heart of London last month provided a jarring wake-up call to American insurers.Even though the attacks, which killed 55 people and injured hundreds more, are expected to result in relatively modest liability exposure according to early estimates, insurers are taking notice.

The London bombings may have provided a wake-up call, but insurers could also be experiencing restless nights fretting over the fate of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) of 1992.The future of TRIA, a safety net that has provided some protection against the financial fallout from a terrorist event, is uncertain. The law, which was enacted in November of 2002 and is in effect until December 31, 2005, provides a federal financial backstop for the insurance industry for claims from certain terrorist attacks.

Insurers are better prepared to face the hurricane season this year, after the harsh 2004 season forced them to learn how to more effectively interpret the information they get from catastrophe (CAT) modeling systems, according to Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a Newark, Calif., provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk. At press time, RMS estimated that losses from Hurricane Dennis were likely to be between $1 and $3 billion.The two million claims produced from the 2004 season were a catalyst that encouraged companies to improve their understanding of the models, much like Hurricane Andrew in 1992 pushed catastrophe modeling into the mainstream, says Kyle Beatty, meteorologist with RMS.

Information technology is generally the wildcard in any company's annual budget. Unpredictable in cost and difficult to explain to the layman, IT is one cost center that can be relied upon to keep executives up at night.Given that upper-level executives are not generally also computer experts, methods for riding herd on IT projects had to be devised.

Imagine leaving your sales and marketing efforts to guesswork. Not understanding your customer's age, lifestyle, income or other factors would spell certain disaster for any insurance carrier trying to market or cross-sell specific products.Amica Life Insurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amica Mutual Insurance Company, is one company that decided to attack its marketing efforts with statistical intelligence.