Digital distribution

PEARL RIVER, NY--At a September 8 ceremony in London, ACORD as presented with The Review Worldwide Reinsurance Industry Initiative of the Year Award for 2004. ACORD President and CEO, Gregory A. Maciag, accepted the award on behalf of ACORD's more than 480 members worldwide.

When Jacksonville, Fla.-based Allstate Workplace Division, a provider of disability income, hospital indemnity, term and universal life and supplemental insurance products, developed an electronic worksite application called AllApp, the company went out to the field to build a consensus about how the application should be designed.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -The Credit Scoring Working Group of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) adopted its "best practices" document today in Anchorage, despite strong objections from insurers.

September 14, 2004 -MI-Assistant, a division of Fiserv FSC, Inc. announced today that independent insurance distributors in five Midwestern states are now writing auto insurance faster and more efficiently using a bridging system that connects MI Comparative rater, MI-Assistant's rating program with Safeco Insurance's Safeco Now online sales platform.

SAN FRANCISCO--Esurance, a direct-to-consumer personal auto insurance company, announced the launch of its new service powered by eStara, Inc. eStara's Push to Talk is a fully-hosted, Voice over the Internet (VoIP) "click to call" service, the most widely-deployed service of its kind in the world. The click to call feature allows Esurance customers to click a button to speak with an Esurance insurance advisor directly from Esurance's Web site, from PC-to-phone or through phone-to-phone calls.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Humana Inc. is taking full advantage of processing efficiencies from technology investments and changing market dynamics by naming Availity LLC its primary gateway for the submission of claims and encounters. Under this national arrangement, Humana is asking all of its major clearinghouses to send submissions destined for Humana through Availity.

The Citizens and Hanover Insurance Companies have launched The Agency Place, a new, web-based agency portal that provides its network of independent agents with centralized access to all of the information and tools they need to conduct business in the most efficient and simplest manner possible. The Agency Place is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it easier for agents to conduct business on their own schedules.

BETHLEHEM, Pa.--A new Web site, InsuranceGripe.com has been created in an effort to help consumers complain to their respective insurance departments about insurance problems. The site was created specifically to walk consumers through the process of collecting the proper information, preparing a letter and sending the letter to the appropriate address. According to Rick Weidman, President and CEO, "this site has been long overdue for insurance customers and shoppers. If you have ever had an insurance problem and attempted to contact your insurance department to complain, it can be a daunting experience.

ST. LOUIS--With 120-mile-per-hour winds and devastating force, Hurricane Charley ripped into the Alligator Mobile Home Park in Punta Gorda, Florida earlier in the month. If the destruction wasn't enough, just two weeks later Hurricane Frances hit Florida 's East coast with 100 mile-per-hour winds. RVs were overturned, belongings strewn for hundreds of yards, and in its wake, hundreds of RVers were left homeless and stranded, their lives threatened to come to a screeching halt.

LONGMONT, Colo.--- First MainStreet, a northern Colorado financial services organization offering banking, insurance, trust, investment and mortgage products and services, announces that First MainStreet Insurance acquired Value Quote Insurance, a Longmont-based insurance agency guiding individuals and businesses through the health insurance purchase process, and providing administrative services for employee benefit programs. Details about the transaction are undisclosed.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then U.S. insurance companies are making their contribution to this well-worn axiom.North American insurers currently are pursuing global expansion at the brisk pace rivaling European insurers' foray into U.S. markets in the early 1990s, according to a recent report by Needham, Mass.-based research and advisory firm TowerGroup.

Despite all the progress that has been made in developing agent-carrier interfaces, insurance agents, particularly those who are independent, want more workflow support than they're currently receiving from the insurance companies with which they conduct business.In a survey conducted by Scituate, Mass.-based Deep Customer Connections (DCC), there's a gap between agents' expectations and carriers' performance-a gap that has widened since DCC's first survey last year. The Web-based poll was sent to more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies and brokerages nationwide.

In sports, a coach frequently will encourage an athlete to dig down inside for the motivation to reach new heights. In business, however, improvement often can be the result of a company looking outside its own walls.Many companies across a broad range of industries have turned to outsourcing as a way of improving corporate performance, from call center operations to information technology management. The main benefits of outsourcing are the opportunity to cut costs, to take advantage of state-of-the-art processes and systems and to focus resources on an enterprise's core competencies.

Most laptop computer users remain bullish on this technology as a portable and user-friendly computing alternative, one that enhances productivity.No doubt, that notion-while true-is also relative. Material damage appraisers for Indianapolis-based Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance Co. once regarded 4.5-lb. standard-sized laptops as the best available tool to support their workflow efforts in handling auto insurance claims.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Humana Inc. today announced the filing of applications for five patents in pharmacy and health metrics by its Innovation Center. All five of the patent applications are for Humana's use of innovative information technology applications to engage consumers in health benefits.

Esurance has the top auto insurance Web site based the site's ability to provide quick answers to consumers questions and its easy rate-quote questionnaire, according to a new report by Change Sciences Group Inc. The report, "Online Auto Insurance Customer Acquisition: Customer Experience Benchmarks and Best Practices," ranks Web sites according to their support for the goals of first-time buyers, married couples, and senior citizens. These goals include:

BOSTON-- John Hancock has launched a new long-term care insurance (LTCI) program called Corporate Solutions for the small business market to help provide individual LTCI at the worksite in the way that best suits employers' and employees' needs.

EL SEGUNDO--Computer Sciences Corporation today announced the availability of new releases of its life insurance, annuity, property and casualty (P&C) insurance, and reinsurance software components that implement the company's enterprise integration architecture, CSC e4. By using the CSC e4 framework, clients can exploit both the potential of new technologies and the embedded value in their legacy systems.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-- Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., one of the country's largest property and casualty insurance companies, has received more than 22,000 claims in the past week for damages from Hurricane Charley. Overall, Nationwide estimates it will receive more than 50,000 claims and losses approaching $400 million.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--A small but growing group of customers are turning to the Internet rather than phone calls or office visits to communicate with their auto insurance provider, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 National Auto Insurance Study released today.