Claims

STUDY SHOWS POOR USABILITY OF WEB HOME PAGESAccording to a recent study by Oak Park, Ill.-based Vox Inc., home page usability of many insurance companies isn't up to snuff. The study analyzed the positioning of key customer and user elements, such as insurance quote and "find an agent" functions. Each company was given a rating based on a set of usability and benchmark criteria. One exception to the overall findings is 21st Century Insurance Co., Woodland Hills, Calif., which recently redesigned its home page. The study, conducted in the first quarter, reviewed content and where it was positioned on the page, comparing 12 insurance providers: State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Geico, American Family, Liberty, 21st Century, Country Financial, AIG, Nationwide, AAA Chicago and USAA.

Build it and they will come. Such was the faith in location intelligence technology from Church Mutual Insurance Co.'s leaders back in 1999 when the Merrill, Wis.-based provider of insurance for religious institutions began looking for a way to improve its claims operations.Seven years later, the insurance company is using mapping technology from Troy, N.Y.-based MapInfo Corp., in some surprising ways.

The Data Warehousing Institute based in Seattle came to the conclusion in its August 2005 report, "Strategies and Technologies for Deploying Business Intelligence," that 66% of organizations in different industries are trying to transform business intelligence (BI) from a departmental solution to an enterprise one. Only 17% of organizations have completed the task, while the remaining 17% will continue to deploy BI departmentally. This data shows that BI has a ways to go until it reaches maturity in most organizations.Newport Beach, Calif.-based Pacific Life Insurance Co. seems to have the maturity factor under control. It has implemented an enterprise server equipped with BI features.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - Young independent insurance agents identify technology to help them more easily write business and service customers as the second most important thing – after competitive rates – carriers can offer an independent insurance agency. Drive Insurance Group of Mayfield Village, Ohio-based Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. discovered this while conducting a survey of more than 750 young (40 years of age or younger or those who have been in the industry less than 10 years) independent agents to find out what they think about everything from business growth opportunities and technology to the skills necessary to succeed and the challenges faced by the industry.Drive insurance conducted the survey to coincide with the National Young Agents Leadership Institute, put on by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, which gets underway in New Orleans next week.

Charlotte, N.C. - Montgomery Mutual Insurance Co., a Charlotte, N.C.-based member of Liberty Mutual Group, Boston, implemented the Commercial IQ SmartRisk underwriting and pricing system for business owners' policies developed by Liberty Mutual Agency Markets' strategic business unit.After a pilot launch in Maryland yielded a 100% increase in policy issuance, Liberty Mutual made Commercial IQ SmartRisk available to appointed agents for BOP coverage in Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and will be available to Virginia appointed agents this fall.

Washington - Senior technical and management professionals from a number of insurance companies--Prudential, The Hartford, AIG and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota--are among the presenters at Rules Technology Summit, a new event at the 2006 International Business Rules Forum, November 5-9 in Washington.The Rules Technology Summit is aimed at technical audiences including IT architects and IS professionals whose goals are to take advantage of the business rules approach to build agile applications with the flexibility to accommodate frequently changing business conditions.

Boston - Dozens of new insurance activities, such as 'green' building credits and incentives for investing in renewable energy, are emerging to tackle the causes of climate change and rising weather-related losses in the U.S. and globally, according to a new report issued this week by the Boston-based Ceres investor coalition. But the report also states that more insurance companies need to be offering similar services to minimize losses and make the most of business opportunities related to climate change.

Washington, D.C. - As the country approaches the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina next week, the American Insurance Association (AIA) and ProtectingAmerica.org were at odds as to how best to proceed with a national catastrophe agenda.

Health plan sponsors are ready to help workers make sound medical and financial choices, according to a recent employer survey. The problem is that many of these clients do not have the healthcare decision support tools to do so, notes Starmark, a Lake Forest, Ill., company that specializes in small group healthcare benefits and serves businesses with two to 50 employees.

Seattle - Safeco has launched online technology that enables independent agents to make instant changes to clients' commercial auto policies. The real-time capability cuts a one-week process into a two-minute drill--saving agencies time and enhancing their customer-service experience.Safeco agencies in 10 states have received access to Safeco's enhanced policy change tool. The rest of the company's more than 9,000 independent agent partners will receive access during rolling state launches that run through November 9. All agencies can use Safeco's single intake system for commercial endorsements, a simple policy change Web form introduced this spring that eliminates agents' need to call, mail or fax.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - Drive Insurance from Progressive, the carrier's program for distributing auto insurance through independent agents and brokers in the United States, has signed a joint marketing agreement with Homesite Insurance Group, a national provider of home insurance products.The agreement paves the way for a test that will allow selected Drive agents in three states--Ohio, Pennsylvania and Oregon--to provide their Drive auto insurance customers quotes for homeowners, renters and condo insurance policies underwritten and serviced by Homesite.

Seattle - Envision Telephony Inc., a provider of contact center software, has named Blue Cross of Idaho among the winners of its 2006 Envision Excellence Awards. Other winners include ShopNBC, Staples and Wachovia.The awards honor companies using Envision's solutions that have transformed their businesses and improved the quality and delivery of business performance required to deliver exceptional customer service from agents' desktops to enterprise decision-makers.

New York - Accenture has agreed to acquire NaviSys, a privately held company that specializes in software solutions for the North American life insurance industry. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close within the next 60 days, were not disclosed.

Needham, Mass. - In the wake of 2005--the worst year on record for insured catastrophe damage in the United States with losses estimated at $56.8 billion--the federal government, insurance carriers, and the general public are coming to a point of convergence about the need to rethink catastrophe management beyond the much publicized issues around hurricanes, according to new research from TowerGroup.In a report titled "Property and Casualty Insurance: Convergence in Catastrophe," the research and advisory firm finds that without a concerted effort by all parties to support a holistic solution to catastrophe management, the dire predictions of insolvency in the insurance sector and general economic upheaval across the United States may come to fruition.

New York - Guy Carpenter & Company Inc., a global risk and reinsurance specialist and part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos. has published a report, titled, "Nanotechnology: The Plastics of the 21st Century?," which provides an overview of the emerging science, its potential benefits for the global economy, and associated risks and implications for the insurance industry.A team of technology, environmental and casualty specialty professionals from Guy Carpenter and Dr. Robert Blaunstein, national director of loss control and underwriting manager for American Safety Insurance Co., prepared the report.

AIG Private Client Group, a division of the personal lines property and casualty insurance subsidiaries of American International Group Inc. (AIG), is expanding its Wildfire Protection Unit, a mobile service designed to mitigate wildfire exposure and proactively respond to high net worth insureds in select areas of high exposure.The Wildfire Protection Unit was first introduced in June 2005 and was available to insureds residing in 14 California ZIP codes. The service, which is complimentary for eligible insureds, has been expanded to reach 90 ZIP codes, including select areas of Colorado.

Chicago -- Fort Dearborn Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), a Mutual Legal Reserve Co., has launched a redesigned Web portal designed to make managing group life, disability and dental programs easier for employee benefits administrators.The Benefits Manager Web portal at http://www.fdl-life.com provides solutions for all employee benefits customers regardless of which billing method they choose. Features include online policy contracts, benefit claim reports, employee coverage verification, and group payment history. For customers that want to manage all aspects of administration online, Web billing is offered as a unique administration tool to manage employee benefits and eligibility.

Washington - Former Sen. John Breaux hopes policy makers, health care experts and the American public will tune into and participate in a new blog on the Ceasefire on Health Care Web site, www.ceasefireonhealthcare.org.The Ceasefire on Health Care campaign's goal is finding bipartisan "common ground" agreements leading to market based, incremental change to the nation's health care system. The online forum is designed to supplement the Ceasefire podcast series and engage its participants in lively discussion about pressing health care reform trends and issues.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - The Progressive Direct Group of Insurance Cos. is providing a text messaging service to its customers. Progressive customers can sign up to receive up-to-date information about their auto insurance policies through text messages sent directly to their cell phones. Customers can opt-in to receive Progressive Direct Mobile Alerts including payment reminders, sent in advance of billing dates; payment confirmations, sent once payment has been received; and other payment information."A Mobile Alert sent directly to a cell phone makes it easy to know when a payment is due and when it has been made. The beauty of it is the customer gets the information instantly - without having to be connected to e-mail," says Toby Alfred, Progressive customer experience general manager.

New York - Nearly four in ten (37%) California employers see workforce diversity--and the wide range of benefits needs associated with it--as a top human resource priority, compared with 29% of employers nationwide. This is according to MetLife's 2005 Employee Benefits Trends Study. One way the state's employers are working to meet this challenge is by providing work/life benefits--an approach adopted by 58% of California employers, compared with 52% of their peers nationwide."More than employers in other states, California employers strive to truly understand their employees' diverse needs in order to create the most appropriate benefits packages," said Randy Stram, vice president, Institutional Business, MetLife. "While many companies nationwide still continue to offer a one-size-fits-all benefits package, California employers are taking extra steps to maximize benefits satisfaction and return-on-investment."