Core systems

Corporation's Human Resources & Investor Solutions (HR&IS) business today announced that it has developed a fully integrated Health Savings Account (HSA) solution that will be offered both through alliance relationships with insurance companies and health care plan providers, and to its corporate customers nationwide.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., and AMS Services Inc. have teamed up to enable agents to submit applications for the four key middle market lines of business--property, general liability, auto and workers' compensation--directly to The Hartford from their AMS agency management system."As one of the industry's leading agency management vendors whose system is used by many of our top agents, we're pleased to align with AMS in the use of ACORD XML standards to make it easier for middle market agents to do business with The Hartford," says Gary Thompson, senior vice president of The Hartford's Middle Market and Specialty Practices unit.

Preferred Medical Claim Solutions (PMCS), Scottsdale, Ariz., and Genelco Software Solutions, a division of Greenville, S.C.-based Liberty Insurance Services Corporation (LIS), have formed a strategic partnership that will provide Genelco Group+ users access to the Preferred Data Interchange (PDI) offered through PMCS. Genelco Software Solutions provides administration software and services to life and health insurers."A number of Genelco Group+ users wanted the claim funding and repricing that PMCS provides," says Mike Molinar, vice-president of Genelco Software Solutions. "Knowing that this will save our clients money, we thought it very important to provide a seamless way for them to take advantage of the PMCS network."

Hartford, CT --2004-2003 mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry reached the highest level since 1998 in dollar terms, even while the total number of transactions continued its long decline since the same year, according to a study by Conning Research & Consulting, Inc.

San Diego, CA--WorldGroup has introduced InsureWorx First Report of Injury (FROI), the latest InsureWorx On Demand Solution (ODS). The new FROI capabilities offer exceptional efficiency and customer service to the First Report of Injury process, enabling efficient and timely intervention - critically important to controlling overall costs of workplace injury claims. The company launched the solution at RIMS Annual Conference & Exhibition.

SAN DIEGO, CA---Assurex Global, the world's largest privately held risk management, commercial insurance and employee benefits broker group, is launching new software to enhance communication and information-sharing among its independent broker partners and commercial clients around the world. The software was introduced here at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual conference.

ChoicePoint, Alpharetta, Ga., has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Superior Information Services LLC and Charles Jones LLC, Trenton, N.J., for a combined total purchase price of $89 million in cash. The acquisitions are scheduled to close on or before May 1, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.Superior Information is a provider of public records information for bankruptcies, civil judgments, and federal and state tax liens in the Northeast U.S. and works closely with Charles Jones in sharing data and services. Charles Jones is a leading supplier of title and property lien searches in New Jersey and has provided a variety of public record data services to title insurance companies and real estate markets since 1911. Superior Information and Charles Jones have a combined total of 300 employees.

Specialty Risk Services (SRS), The Hartford Financial Services Group's third party claim administrator, has added SRS COMPWORKS to its arsenal of resources to help clients obtain optimal return-to-work results in workers' compensation. SRS COMPWORKS is a consortium of client tools and national and regional vendors brought together to address the most challenging return-to- work situations and help workers' compensation claims close faster and at a lower cost. "We developed SRS COMPWORKS to handle the small minority of situations that tend to account for the majority of workers' compensation claim dollars and for which the usual rules don't apply," says Nancy Brennan, vice president of Specialty Risk Services. "Using claim and case management best practices developed by SRS, as well as enhanced medical-only practices and online disability tools, SRS is able to obtain industry-leading outcomes for its clients.

Data standardization within the reinsurance industry comes a step closer as London-based ri3k announces a special release of its reinsurance hub. Called InSynch, it enables users to create LMP-compliant slips, and has ACORD certification for contract placement messages covering all treaty types and classes.The LMP Office has approved the ri3k contract structure, which will be used for June renewals onward for tradable electronic slips on ri3k’s system. In accordance with the LMP slip requirements, ri3k has introduced mandatory field names, separated into the correct LMP categories. These categories are risk details, subscription agreement, information and fiscal/regulatory.

Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., has launched a new online disability claim submission application for employees of group disability clients. The new functionality also lets employees handle many aspects of their claims using a highly secure and confidential online process."Continuing to provide our clients and their employees with the secure tools they need to effectively manage disability issues is of paramount importance to us," says Al Hemond, vice president of disability risk management for Prudential's group insurance business. "Online employee claim submission supports our strategy of providing claims management services that are responsive to the varying needs of claimants."

SunGard Sherwood Systems, an operating unit of SunGard today announced that Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, one of the largest property and casualty insurers in Canada, has licensed SunGard's FrontTier solution to replace its existing legacy policy, billing, workflow and claims systems.

Reactivity, a Belmont, Calif.-based XML Web services firm, and Grand Central Communications, a San Francisco-based provider of Integration On Demand, have formed a technology and joint marketing partnership to simplify the deployment of privacy-enhanced enterprise integration. Combining the strengths of Reactivity's XML Firewall and Grand Central's Business Services Network, the two companies will offer a rapid and scalable integration solution with the security enterprises need to ensure they are in compliance with government-regulated privacy and security regulations and their own privacy policies.

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina will promote two executives to top positions over BlueCross' major group division and Companion HealthCare when a key senior officer retires in June.

Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., has introduced an automatic, online licensing application for brokers seeking appointment to sell the company’s insurance and annuity products. The electronic data collection tool, called Online Confidential Data Sheet (CDS), was developed by Indianapolis-based BISYS Education and Licensing Services for Prudential. The Online CDS streamlines the traditional, paper-based appointment process and greatly improves brokers’ speed to market."Prudential’s new electronic application is on the cutting edge in several respects," says George Hanley, senior vice president, chief compliance officer. "The Online CDS makes Prudential easier for brokers to do business with, while taking the company to the next generation of appointment processing and online records management. All are important advantages in today’s environment."

IVANS Inc., Old Greenwich, Conn., has added new features to Transformation Station, which make it easier for carriers and agents to communicate in real-time. The features include the ability to send and receive attachments, receive alerts regarding activities such as claim actions or cancellations, streamline endorsement processing and conduct Web site navigation and sign-on. Transformation Station is an Internet-managed data exchange using Web services and ACORD XML to enable real-time transactions between insurance carriers and independent agents and brokers."The Web services based, real-time model allows us to provide our agency, company and vendor partners with new, innovative types of transactions that will have a positive impact on agency-carrier workflows," says Janice Sheffield, divisional vice president for IVANS. Transformation Station is currently growing at a rate of 28% per month in transactions, and growing to the level of what it took 10 years for batch transactions to reach.

Philadelphia-based Aetna has selected The Training Camp to provide IT training for Aetna staff scholars as part of an employee scholarship program."We want to ensure our network performs at its best, while we maintain maximum security for our customers and their data," says David Wetmore, distributed Support manager at Aetna. "We chose The Training Camp because the instructors were experts in their field, but understood our business as well as the particular IT needs within the health industry. Our staff will gain the knowledge and skills to install, configure, support, and troubleshoot Windows-based networks, with the focus on security that we need."

DriveCam Video Systems, a San Diego-based developer of fleet safety technology, has published a white paper titled, "Bringing Down the Cost of Vehicle Crashes: The Impact of the DriveCam Driving Feedback System on Insurance Costs for Commercial Fleets." Intended for insurance executives, risk managers and fleet operators, the white paper analyzes the costs and examines the root causes of motor vehicle crashes, especially as they pertain to commercial fleets.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle collisions cost the U.S. more than $230 billion each year. For fleets, the costs include both insured and uninsured expenses. In examining these costs, the paper describes the relationship between losses and insurance rates, the effect on worker's compensation costs, and preventative actions taken by fleets. It also includes two case studies involving fleets that use the DriveCam Driving Feedback System to reduce collisions.

Enterprises that purchase Sarbanes-Oxley targeted solutions in 2004 will retire or replace those systems by the end of 2005, according to Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn."Enterprises that choose one-off solutions for each regulatory challenge that they face will spend 10 times more on compliance projects than their counterparts that take a proactive approach," says French Caldwell, research vice president at Gartner. "Although there are times when adopting a 'quick-and-dirty' solution may be necessary to meet deadlines, enterprises should avoid committing too much time, effort or data to such systems."

S2, a new service offering from CBC National Inc., Saddle River, N.J., and ARI (Automotive Resources International), Mt. Laurel, N.J., was launched as part of a strategic partnership between the two subrogation recovery and salvage/remarketing industry players. According to the companies, the new venture was built on the premise that no company should let money slip through its fingers.Responding to the needs of the insurance industry, the rental car industry, and a variety of other self-insured and government entities, S2 provides clients with aggressive subrogation resale services that are designed to positively impact their bottom line.

SIMSBURY, Conn. -- The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. today announced that Internet-based self- service reporting is now available nationwide to its group life and disability insurance customers, providing them immediate online access to standard reports that help them monitor and manage their group benefits plans.