Claims

SITE SELLS POLICIES ON GROWNUP TOYSMarkel American Insurance Co., Waukesha, Wis., launched a Web site that provides a single access point to customers seeking to insure motorcycles, boats, personal watercraft and ATV.

AGENTS AND BROKERS ADOPT NEW RPOST E-MAIL SERVICELos Angeles-based RPost U.S. Inc. says independent insurance agencies and brokerages are adopting RPost as a service platform for outbound e-mail. Confronted with errors and omissions (E&O) liability exposures, agents and brokers need technology that enables them to optimize electronic communications while minimizing risk. By shoring up the security gap, RPost Registered E-Mail messages offer speed, security, accountability and personal liability protection in a cost-effective solution that can be used for an average cost of 59 cents per message. The company's services provide the e-mail sender with legally valid evidence of what e-mail content and attachments were sent and received, by whom and when.

Not so long ago, discussions of IT security tended to focus on the need to install firewalls; to tunnel via private networks; to employ encryption keys and digital certificates; to surround servers with multiple layers of access; and to install firewalls, sandboxes and "demilitarized zones" to snag hackers.Those tools and methods remain critical, but many in the IT community are recognizing the importance of addressing physical as well as digital vulnerabilities.

MASSMUTUAL UPGRADES PRODUCT MACHINE SOFTWAREThe disability income insurance area of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual), Springfield, Mass., upgraded to version 3.1 of Product Machine, a set of tools designed to enable users to build, design and publish products.

Washington - America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has collaborated with The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a checklist insurers can use to prepare contingency plans for a flu pandemic.

Rochester, N.Y. – Many Americans are satisfied with how their personal health information is used, but a substantial number express reservations about the confidentiality and security of their health data, a new survey shows.

Washington, D.C. – America needs a public-private partnership to protect families from a devastating, massive hurricane or earthquake, the head of a coalition that includes insurers said in testimony this week before Congress. Such catastrophes have dulled the industry’s appetite for insuring against such events, said another witness, a representative of an agents’ and brokers’ association.

Washington - The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) has asked its members to challenge the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recent endorsement of optional federal charters for insurers.

Phoenix, Ariz. - Insurance industry groups have banded together to create eight data initiatives and a central data repository to combat fraud, according to the keynote speaker at an industrywide meeting here of property/casualty claims and special investigations executives.

Chicago - Aon Corp., Chicago, completed its acquisition of Valley Oak Systems, San Ramon, Calif. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kansas City, Mo. - Recent statistics show that while consumer complaints decreased for the third consecutive year, the reasons behind those complaints have remained relatively the same for the past five years: Consumers want faster customer service. According to data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the top three reasons consumers filed formal complaints against their insurance companies in 2006 were delays, denials of claims and unsatisfactory settlement offers. Rounding out the top five sources of consumer complaints were policy cancellations and premiums/insurance rating issues. The NAIC maintains a centralized electronic Complaint Database System (CDS), through which states voluntarily report “closed” complaints. A closed complaint is a complaint that has been investigated and resolved to the satisfaction of the state or jurisdiction in which it is filed. First established in 1990, the CDS was significantly expanded in 1998 and now houses more than 2 million complaints. A total of 190,572 consumer complaints were reported to CDS in 2006, a 7.8% decrease from the previous year. This information is based on the submission of data to the NAIC from the state insurance departments. The NAIC does not collect all complaint data from all states. Aggregate data compiled from the CDS can be accessed on the NAIC’s Web site through the Consumer Information Source link. By accessing this program, consumers can obtain company–specific complaint ratios (the ratio of the company’s market share of complaints compared to the company’s market share of premiums for a specific policy type), as well as aggregate counts of complaints by state and by type of coverage for specific companies. Below is details the top five types of complaints and the top five complained about insurance coverages for 2006. Included is the total number of complaints (for complaint type and line of coverage), followed by the percentage of overall complaints each type represents. (Example: “Delays” make up 21.9% of all complaints received by the NAIC in 2006.) Top 5 Types of Complaints in 2006: Delays: Total number reported: 41,647; Percentage 21.9% Denial of Claim: Total number reported: 3,601; Percentage 18.7% Unsatisfactory Settlement Offer: Total number reported: 26,556; Percentage 13.9% Cancellation: Total number reported: 12,467; Percentage 6.5% Top 5 Complaints by Type of Coverage in 2006:Auto: Total number reported: 71,302; Percentage 37.4% Accident & Health: Total number reported: 62,954; Percentage 33.0% Homeowners: Total number reported: 24,785; Percentage 13.0% Life & Annuity: Total number reported: 16,939; Percentage 8.9% Commercial Multiperil: Total number reported: 3,521; Percentage 1.9%

Warren, N.J. - With businesses of all sizes looking to buy and sell overseas, the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., Warren, N.J., released an ocean cargo policy and launched CargoPort, an online system that enables customers to view their policies, submit claims and monitor shipping activities.

New York - Insurers are taking enterprise risk management (ERM) seriously, but many companies have begun ERM programs without taking the necessary step of getting management consensus on risk appetite.

Washington - Insurers are urging Congress to preserve a federal anti-trust exemption granted to the industry in 1945. The exemption has come under scrutiny by legislators in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, insurance trade associations say.

Chicago - The fortunes of two industries are beginning to intertwine, according to Cards & Payments, a Chicago-based sister publication of Insurance Networking News.

DIRECT MARKETING TOOL ENHANCEDMelissa Data announced the addition of multi-platform capabilities to the Canadian Address Object, a complementary product to the Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. company's Data Quality Suite, a direct-marketing tool that verifies and corrects address, phone and contact data.

STRATEGIC GOALS GUIDE IT SPENDINGSenior insurance IT executives are making strategic investments, but budgets and staff size are generally flat or growing only modestly.

INSURER AUTOMATES INTERNAL CONTROLSPhysicians Mutual, based in Omaha, Neb., selected OpenPages FCM for its financial controls management initiatives. OpenPages FCM is an enterprise financial controls management solution designed to reduce time and resource costs associated with ongoing financial reporting regulations. It is expected to reduce Physician Mutual's time and costs associated with efforts to comply with changes to National Association of Insurance Companies financial reporting regulations. "OpenPages allows us to automate our ongoing assessment and monitoring of internal controls and ensure that compliance initiatives align with our business strategy," says Barbara Bergmeier, senior vice president of internal audit, Physicians Mutual.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Property and Casualty Insurance (C) Committee's Catastrophe Insurance Working Group will evaluate modeling for multi-state funding of catastrophes such as hurricanes or earthquakes, reports NAIC. The agreement came out of a meeting to discuss catastrophe preparedness and the potential development of a multi-state catastrophe fund.

New York - Look for accelerated growth this year of the outsourcing trends that predominated in 2006: Expansion of business process outsourcing (BPO), the maturing of the offshore market and more multi-sourcing at the expense of single, one-off “mega-deals.”