Customer experience

The industry constantly hears about the problem of retiring knowledge workers and that young people aren’t drawn to insurance careers. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) is doing something about it. On December 7 the association hosted more than 50 high school students who participated in InVEST, an insurance industry classroom-to-career education program.

Fledgling social network offers unique potential if search engine personalization comes to fruition.

Many companies still operate in the dark while unknown numbers of customers are turned away by websites suffering slow or tedious processes.

While insurance products are inherently complex, interacting with insurance companies should not be.

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.

Competition and customer expectations leave little room for error when it comes to website performance, and that pressure only increases with customers using mobile platforms.

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.

Aetna, a diversified health care benefits company, launched enhancements to its international website in an effort to customize the user experience and provide mobile capabilities for people on the go.

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.

A survey of 120 U.S. P&C insurers finds them increasingly leveraging social media platforms for business purposes. Conducted by IVANS, an electronic communications services provider, the study notes that return on investment for social media initiatives can be difficult to measure and says that carriers must work with their distribution partners to ensure a cohesive strategy.

The economic crisis of the past few years has given P&C and life insurers new reasons to be competitive, and new reasons to be concerned. During this period, consumer spending on insurance dipped, while spending on personal technology reached an all-time high. In fact, experts say that we have entered an era that marks a turning point for consumer technology-for the first time, the combined shipment of smartphones and tablets is predicted to eclipse that of PCs, notes International Data Corp. (IDC), giving customers the power to access information and transact business at any time from any place. Just from 2010 to 2011, the number of mobile devices shipped is expected to increase from 305 million to 472 million, the company says.

Daily, there's news affecting health insurers. What's becoming clear is that transparency is a demand from consumers and regulators that health insurers are going to have to keep up with.

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.

JHPInsite.com, an insurance quote engine technology company and off-shoot of Health One Insurance Agency, found that “35 percent of website visitors clicking for information on additional products that are entirely different than what they were initially looking for." To address unpredictable shoppers, the vendor has developed a cross-sale platform enabling insurance brokers to place any product they wish into the quote engine environment for prospective clients.

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.

Some say social media can serve as a comfortable setting for learning and receiving encouragement from others suffering similar circumstances, but how can patients verify the information's integrity?

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.”