Claims

INDIANAPOLIS--Consumers will be able to enjoy more options and flexibility to pay for health care expenses, gain more control over their health care dollars, reap tax benefits and plan for retirement as a result of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's (Anthem) introduction of its Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

A lot has been made about insurers' attempt to comply with federal regulations, such as The USA Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley, but lost often in the shuffle are the ongoing state-level regulations with which insurers must contend.

Agents may not be fully aware of how customer service is related to customer satisfaction, according to the findings of two surveys conducted recently by The Progressive Corp. The carrier polled more than 1,100 independent agents and more than 1,800 auto policy holders who bought their policies through an independent insurance agency.

NEEDHAM, Mass.-- North American insurers currently are pursuing global expansion at a pace rivaling that of European insurers' entry into US markets in the early 1990s. TowerGroup finds that more favorable economics, key demographic trends and the gradual dissolution of international barriers to entry underscore the high growth possible for U.S. insurers in key emerging markets.

In the legal profession, attorneys refer to it as the "discovery" process where a legal team embarks upon intensive fact-finding to construct its case.At Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., there's a variation of the concept that's beginning to take shape. It's all part of State Farm's attempt to optimize cross-selling opportunities within its multi-product line that spans homeowners, life, annuities and mutual funds, to name a few.

To provide customers with an "ideal buying experience" can sometimes mean practicing what you preach.That axiom is being practiced by business and information technology executives at Amica Life Insurance Co., a Lincoln, R.I.-based provider of term and universal life, annuities and structured settlement insurance products. The "Ideal Buying Experience" is Amica Life's recently launched new business selling program which focused on automating the front-end capability of the carrier's business-from electronic applications and new business submission, to paperless underwriting and automatic issue within its core administration system.

Many insurers have indicated that reining in claims handling costs is a priority this year and beyond. After examining the root cause of inefficient claims management, insurers have concurred that the onus is on the absence of historical databases.In a customer poll conducted by Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO), 46% of U.S. insurance organizations identified the lack of historical databases as a major cause of poor claims management.

Conventional management thinking says: Labor is expensive, and automation reduces that expense. Although in many cases this statement is true, competitive advantage in the area of customer service isn't a simple matter of replacing people with technology.

With apologies to Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, there is a free lunch after all. Blue Cross of California has expanded a unique technology initiative to give 1,200 physicians either a complete desktop computer system or a personal digital assistant (PDAs)-free of charge.This is the second wave of the 21st century technology give-away program in the state, and targets physicians taking part in two safety-net health care plans-called the Medi-Cal and Healthy Family Insurance programs-for poor, uninsured or low-income patients.

SEATTLE, Aug. 2--Safeco today announced it has completed the sale of its Life & Investments (L&I) operation to an investor group led by White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Safeco completed the sales of Safeco Trust Company in April 2004 and Talbot Financial Corporation in July 2004.

PEARL RIVER, NY--41 states are now accepting the ACORD Life Form Life Application Part 1, ACORD announced. This is a major step in a multi-year initiative and is supported by numerous life insurance companies and associations, including NAILBA and NAVA.

PORTLAND, Ore.-- Standard Insurance Company, a subsidiary of StanCorp Financial Group, Inc. has appointed Brad Nantz as vice president of Sales and Ellen Steel as vice president of Operations for the Employee Benefits Division.

Grange Insurance, Columbus, Ohio, has licensed EDR InSight, a set of solutions designed for claims professionals to facilitate the use of automotive Event Data Recorder (EDR) or "black box" data in the claims evaluation process.Grange will use EDR InSight, provided by Injury Sciences LLC, San Antonio, to identify vehicles with harvestable black box data. Grange claim representatives will use EDR InSight to schedule harvesting services from a network of mobile service providers and for analysis and interpretation of the EDR data.

BOSTON--John Hancock Life Insurance Company has quadrupled the long-term care insurance (LTCI) operations professionals who support the sale of its LTCI products from 6 staff members to 24. The expanded support enhances service for its existing LTCI channels including career agents, its national account team, managing general agents (MGAs) and banks, and allows the company to serve two new channels, brokerage general agents (BGAs) and broker-dealers.

BOSTON--The American Insurance Association (AIA) is pushing Congress for a two-year extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), an extension that AIA says will help avoid destabilizing the insurance market and the economy, and will enable policymakers to develop a more permanent solution for managing our nation's economic exposure to catastrophic terrorism.

WELLESLEY HILLS-- Sun Life Financial announced today that its U.S. Group Insurance Division has reorganized its distribution organization into six regions, a new structure necessitated by the rapid expansion of its division and the commitment to provide local service to brokers and customers. To lead operations in these new regions, Sun Life Financial has named four new regional vice presidents (RVPs), to serve alongside two existing RVPs. All six of the RVPs report to Drew Niziak, Vice President, Distribution.

Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA), a Washington, D.C.-based CEO public policy and advocacy group composed of security software, hardware and service vendors to address key cyber security issues, has released its recommendations for the development of a secure electronic health care system.These recommendations are designed to support the nation's first strategic framework report on a 10-year initiative to develop electronic health records and other uses of health information technology, which was announced today by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph. D., the National Health Information Technology Coordinator.

Safeco today announced strong second-quarter results, reflecting the company's solid underwriting and the competitive strength of its automated sales platform. In addition, weather-related catastrophe losses were relatively light for the second quarter. The company posted net income of $247.5 million -- or $1.77 per diluted share. This represents an increase over second-quarter 2003 net income, which was $111.9 million--or $0.81 per diluted share.

New York--Fitch Ratings has revised its Rating Outlook for the U.S. commercial lines insurance sector to Stable from Negative. Fitch had maintained a Negative Rating Outlook on the sector since September 2000.

WebMD Corp., Elmwood Park, N.J., has released a white paper on the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that concludes the law's administrative simplification provisions are increasing in complexity and costs for healthcare providers and payers across the country.The White Paper, which is the result of WebMD's analysis of HIPAA implementation nationwide, identifies concrete steps that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services can take to steer the implementation back on course, through what the company calls a "rational roll- out plan."