Data and information management

In the wake of insurers increasing their efforts to utilize the Internet to broaden their accessibility, streamline efficiency and reduce time and costs, two insurers have recently ramped up their online customer service capabilities.

Washington, D.C. - The House Financial Services Committee today passed H.R. 2761, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 (TRIREA) by a vote of 49 to 20.

Richmond, Va. - Markel International Ltd., the company's London-based operation, will enter the Asian market with marine and professional liability products, the company reports. Markel Vice Chairman Steven Markel told INN that the push in Asia is in conjunction with its operations as a syndicate of Lloyd's of London.

Frisco, Texas – The consolidation in the vendor arena continues as Skywire Software, making its third major acquisition of the year, snapped up Canadian automation and compliance solutions provider Whitehill Technologies, Inc.

The momentum to move to a nationwide e-health network that includes electronic medical records and secure transmission of information between stakeholders is being fueled by entities of all sizes and influence-from grass roots-oriented non-profits to major health insurers to the federal government. This momentum is putting mounting pressure on the faction that may stand the most to gain yet seems most reluctant to participate-the health care provider.No one questions the fact that the e-health market is still in a state of relative infancy, in spite of the support being offered by the government, insurance, standards and vendor communities.

If you think your contact center (what used to be your call center before e-mail and Web chat were added to the customer service mix) doesn't do much for sales, you might have a look at a new study from Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. The Daly City, Calif., maker of contact center software recently surveyed 500 consumers in the United States, and found that almost half placed more importance on customer service than product quality, price or the vendor's reputation when it came to loyalty. A full 40% said they'd stopped doing business with a company solely because of a bad contact center experience.Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting, a West Orange, N.J., company that specializes in helping clients build contact centers, says the centers should be playing a more significant role than just keeping customers happy and loyal-especially for insurance carriers.

From collaboration to customer service, companies are turning to networks of applications and individuals to accomplish tasks, increase competitiveness and improve productivity. As a result, pressure is on enterprise networks to constantly keep increasing capacity, intelligence, speed and performance-both inside and outside the firewall.The typical insurance carrier is increasingly becoming a networked organization, albeit at a slower rate than other industries.

It seems as though the insurance industry just can't cut a break in the media. As I write this, the news of a MetLife agent convicted in a New York murder-for-life-insurance plot received coverage across all major business wires. Those of you who remember insurance executive Michael Segal's 2004 conviction on racketeering, fraud and embezzlement, or the trials and tribulations of Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, will agree that regardless of guilt or innocence, propaganda or truth, information is power. This is particularly true as health insurers put their talking points together to respond to the recent release of Michael Moore's movie, "Sicko." This type of news brings the entire industry down... and puts the industry under increased scrutiny.Information published by either the public or the trade press is held to stringent ethical standards, and although this may not always be the case, we'd like to think that professionals from both mediums report truthful information without bias. This is INN's editorial mission. Reporting negative information tends to stir the pot, however, from generating a quiet dialogue to generating results that force accountability. The facts are the facts.

SC BLUES WINS CALL CENTER TECH AWARDBlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., took top honors in the "Best Use of Technology" category during the 3rd Annual Call Center Excellence Awards held recently in Las Vegas.

FEE REDUCTION FOR INSURANCE SERVICESThe Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) Insurance Services New York business reports its first fee reduction in history, reflecting growing usage of its services. Insurance Services has automated linkages and data exchange between carriers and their broker/dealer, bank and other distributor partners who market insurance products.

With the 2007 business environment for North American insurance carriers looking relatively good for the second year in a row, according to Forrester Research Inc., insurance carriers have become slightly more generous in their IT spending. The Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm anticipates that IT spending in 2007 in the insurance industry will increase by 7%, compared with 5% growth in 2006.Efficiency and innovation will be the highest priorities, and the initiatives to support these priorities are utility-oriented projects such as infrastructure consolidation and disaster recovery. However, competitive pressures and technology-enabled opportunities will drive the need for innovation in Internet and mobile applications as well as the replacement of legacy applications. Underpinning these changes will be a continued drive toward service-oriented architecture (SOA) for internal integration of systems, usage of services firms for transformation, and greater focus on process standardization.

Reinsurance firms are gripped by a series of major challenges, from increased consolidation in the industry to the rise in securitization and the greater risk primary insurers assume. Although the firms' brokers remain intent on winning clients by accentuating the personal touch, many reinsurers are aggressively adopting technology to confront the stiff obstacles they face.A principal new challenge for reinsurers is the rise in the use of securitization to support life insurance products. Both life and P&C insurance firms are turning to securitization to access capital markets, which has helped lead to a decline in recurring reinsurance since 2005, according to the recent study, "Emerging Trends in U.S. Life Reinsurance: Challenge or Opportunity," from the Hartford, Conn.-based firm Conning Research and Consulting Inc. While recurring reinsurance increased significantly from 1995 through 2000, it flattened out from 2001 until 2004, and then began declining in 2005. "To the extent that some primary insurers, initially several larger ones, use securitization as a substitute for reinsurance, it presents a threat to reinsurers," the study notes.

DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER INSURER CHOOSES RULES MANAGEMENT SYSTEMPrecedent Insurance Co., a subsidiary of American Community Mutual Insurance Co., headquartered in Livonia, Mich., chose Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Corticon Technologies' Business Rules Management System as a critical component in the development and management of Precedent's direct-to-consumer healthcare insurance solution. Precedent plans to deliver a suite of health insurance solutions called REMIX, which includes "Coverage on Demand" plans that charge the insured for only the health insurance coverage they need.

Remember the tale of the boiling frog? As the fable goes, a frog placed in a pot of boiling water will frantically clamber out. That same frog, however, will sit placidly in a pot of tepid water. It will remain there even as the water is slowly heated. Gradual changes go unnoticed, with the frog never recognizing the impending disaster as the water reaches the boiling point.Liken the pot of tepid water to legacy claims systems. P&C insurers are beginning to take a closer look at their systems, but will they act in time or wait on the sidelines and continue claims as usual?

A study of European insurance policy holders by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. revealed an overarching reluctance to manage their accounts online. Given many of the major carriers’ desire to drive more customers to the Internet for routine sales and service interactions, the data points to an uphill battle.

Hartford, Conn. - The economics of distribution channels in personal auto insurance can be difficult to understand, and this can present both opportunities and challenges in a softening rate market, according to a new study by Hartford, Conn.-based Conning Research & Consulting.

Philadelphia – To support high-quality patient care, Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross (IBC) is providing physicians with enhanced data about members with chronic conditions.

Needham, Mass. – Leaders in claims operations are beginning to break away from traditional processes and seek technology to assist them in managing a complex business process that has, to date, been extremely people intensive, according to new research from TowerGroup, Needham, Mass. Claims departments have been historically reluctant to adopt technology solutions, perceiving technology as incapable of duplicating the decision-making process of an experienced claims adjuster.

Washington, D.C. - NAVA has struck an alliance with Atlanta-based Financial Services Institute (FSI) to automate electronic annuity sales for independent broker-dealers. The alliance is the latest in a series of actions that play into NAVA's straight-through processing (STP) initiative, a comprehensive set of standards for managing new annuity business electronically. With the goal of reducing redundancies and costs, and increasing efficiencies across the industry, the STP standards, published in December 2006, address e-signatures, e-document management and regulatory acceptance, and includes built-in compliance capabilities to help prevent unsuitable sales. NAVA and the FSI, a membership association of broker-dealers that serve registered representatives who are independent contractors, will work together to augment the STP standards and enable broad adoption among FSI members. The group comprises 110 broker-dealer member firms with more than 130,000 independent registered representatives.NAVA reports that independent brokers represent a significant and fast-growing channel for the distribution of variable annuities - FSI members account for more than 36% of all annuity sales. Mike DeGeorge, NAVA's general counsel, told INN that one of the group's goals is to have broader participation from the independent channel. "FSI gives us access to a larger group of advisers," he says. "We have similar alliances with ACORD, and we've been working with the American Council of Life Insurers." DeGeorge says that NAVA already counts 19 of the top 20 insurers on its executive council, including Allianz Life, Hartford Life, Pacific Life, Principal Financial, Prudential Financial, Transamerica Life and Wachovia Securities. Major wire houses, such as UBS and Morgan Stanley, along with 10% of the bank channel, are also involved, DeGeorge adds. NAVA is also in the process of working with other trade associations as well as federal and state regulators to secure wide-spread acceptance and approval of STP."We want to let them know what we are doing and why we are moving to electronic commerce," DeGeorge says.The group is now working on implementation guides for the standards, model consent documents, and on suitability standards that provide common interpretations of regulatory requirements.This series of actions, reports DeGeorge, is designed to encourage more brokers, advisers and representatives to sign on. "Now it's paper intensive, time-consuming process," he says. "Reps feel it's a good product, but hard to sell because of all the paper. We want to make it easier for the consumer-make it less like buying a house with all the paper-retirement planning can be made very easy with this." Source: NAVA

Pearl River, N.Y. - Building upon the success of its initial rollout, the insurance standards body organization ACORD announced the expansion of its testing and certification facility to include test capabilities for ACORD Reinsurance & Large Commercial (RLC) Placing message implementations.