Policy adminstration

ATLANTA-- Digital Insurance Inc. announced it has signed agreements with five additional employee benefits brokers to enhance the level of day-to-day service and product sales for a portion of their small group benefits business.

IVANS Inc., a Greenwich, Conn.-based provider of networking services for the insurance and healthcare industries is offering a new wireless fidelity solution (Wi-Fi) for insurance carriers that can significantly speed their ability to remotely process claims and improve customer service. The new Wi-Fi service is offered through IVANS business partner, AT&T.As the demand for Wi-Fi technology increases, so does the need for low-cost flexible solutions. According to data provided by The Yankee Group, a communications and networking research and consulting firm based in Boston, 14% of U.S. companies plan to implement the technology within the next twelve months, and another 14% plan to follow suit in the next two years. A recent IVANS study of large and mid-sized insurance carriers indicates that only 27.9% are currently using Wi-Fi technology to allow remote access to their systems by employees, highlighting the growth potential for Wi-Fi technology.

Results International Systems (RIS) will provide an end-to-end, Web-enabled policy processing system Partners Mutual Insurance Co.'s personal and commercial lines of business. The RIS solution will deliver a policy processing system with integration to claims, billing, rating and form printing. RIS will provide the hardware, software, systems personnel, systems security, back-up and disaster recovery.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-- Vitria, a leading provider of business process integration solutions, today announced that Premera Blue Cross, a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association independent licensee for Washington state and Alaska, has selected Vitria's Healthcare Solutions as the integration infrastructure to simplify, streamline and automate its transaction management processes.

Seattle-based Safeco Corp. has launched Safeco Now for property/casualty insurance--an online sales platform that integrates personal and small-commercial insurance product. Safeco Now is a streamlined Web site for independent agents and brokers that gives them access to 90% of their daily online work tools with just one click.The highlight of the system, according to Safeco, is the single-platform sales tool that enables distributors to quote and bind--in just minutes--seven major lines of P&C and surety business: personal auto, homeowners, business owners policy (BOP), commercial auto (fleet and non-fleet), workers' compensation, business umbrella, and surety (notary; license and permit bonds; court bonds; public official bonds).

AMSTERDAM and MILAN--Accenture has signed an agreement to acquire Nomos Sistema, a leading provider of life insurance administration and product management software systems in Italy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Toronto, Canada--DWL, a provider of Enterprise Business Services software, today announced that Empire Financial Group has launched phase two of groupweb - an initiative to achieve proven cost reduction with web-based self-servicing capabilities for group business. Following on the success of Empire's initial implementation of DWL InsuranceT for Group Life and Health, which provides a password protected site for electronic plan administration, phase two of the project now adds full update and enrollment capability in real-time, using version 3.0 of DWL Insurance for Group Life & Health.

Miami, FL-- SunGard Insurance Systems, an operating group of SunGard, announced today the SunGard VIP sales illustration system has been awarded the Designed for Windows XP logo certification. This certification is a result of a long-standing technology affiliation between SunGard Insurance Systems and Microsoft, further strengthening the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner relationship recognized for many years. SunGard VIP clients running on Windows XP can realize benefits such as greater application stability and efficiency; as well as, the assurance that the SunGard VIP system will be fully functional in later versions of Windows.

WebMD Corp., Elmwood, N.J., has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Dakota Imaging, Inc., a privately held provider of automated healthcare claims processing technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) services.Dakota's scalable software and BPO services provide automation for mailroom, document processing, scanning, data capture, data scrubbing, automated workflow and online secure document management. Dakota's solutions can reduce costs associated with manual processing of healthcare documents and increase auto-adjudication and auto-payment of medical claims through advanced data scrubbing.

The insurance industry's response to fast-changing regulatory and corporate governance demands is characterized by a primary reliance on manual processes and ad-hoc measures, according to survey conducted by ILOG, a Mountain View, Calif.-based business rules software vendor, and Pearl River, N.Y.-based ACORD.Although specially appointed compliance officers generally have been assigned to manage the impact of regulatory demands, the survey reveals the industry is failing to fully embrace the high business value of information technology when addressing regulatory requirements such as HIPAA and corporate governance demands driven by mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Insurity Inc., a ChoicePoint company, today announced that Georgia Casualty & Surety, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlantic American, has selected Insurity's Commercial Intellisys property/casualty policy processing services and software. A complete Web-based rating, intelligent underwriting and electronic issuance platform is being deployed across 11 states for workers' compensation, commercial business auto, general liability, commercial package and umbrella policies.

An Internet-only health plan for individuals and families, called Net Saver, has been introduced by Health Net Life Insurance Company, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based health insurer.With Net Saver, there are no paper-based application or enrollment materials. Once a secure, encrypted online application is completed by an applicant, it is downloaded by the consumer for record keeping and submitted at the same time to Health Net for processing. Net Saver's online processes help to speed the application submission process. It's not uncommon for applications to be submitted in the middle of the night by Internet-based brokers such as EHealthInsurance.com, according to Health Net Life Insurance Co.

One-third (34%) of workers believe they may outlive their retirement savings. Among individuals who make less than $25,000, 54% believe they run the risk of outliving their retirement savings. This, according to the 14th annual national Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), American Savings Education Council (ASEC), and Mathew Greenwald & Associates.Men are slightly more confident than women (65% versus 61%) when it comes to believing they will not outlive their retirement savings, and married people are more confident than non-married individuals (66% versus 58%). When it comes to long-term care (LTC) in retirement, 51% of workers are confident that they will have enough money to pay for LTC expenses.

OLDSMAR, Fla. -- eAutoclaims today announced that it has secured a two-year contract with Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Company. eAutoclaims will provide its national network of body shops and independent appraisers (IA) to process Michigan Millers' automobile and commercial heavy equipment physical damage claims.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. --Humana Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Humana Insurance Company, has completed its acquisition of Ochsner Health Plan of Louisiana from the Ochsner Clinic Foundation. Ochsner Health Plan is one of the largest health benefits plans in the New Orleans market and the third largest in the state of Louisiana with approximately 152,000 Commercial medical members, primarily in large group accounts, and approximately 31,000 members in the MedicareAdvantage program. Ochsner Health Plan is licensed in all 64 of Louisiana's parishes.

Nearly half of the top 200 U.S. insurance carriers are using offshore services, according to Celent Communications Inc., Boston. Among the carriers working with outsourcing firms that provide at least some offshore services are: Guardian Life, Manulife, Sun Life, Fireman's Fund, Farmer's Insurance Group, Allmerica, PacifiCare Health Systems, Abbey Life and Royal & Sun Alliance.But try to get an insurance executive to talk about outsourcing these days--especially offshore outsourcing--and you won't find many takers. Several large insurance carriers declined to be interviewed for this article. And, at a recent Insurance Networking News outsourcing conference in Tampa, Fla., several IT managers from smaller insurance companies said they did not want their employees to know they were attending.

They say sharing is good, but try telling that to insurance executives overseeing individual business units. Actuaries, underwriters, sales and marketing executives and claims adjusters have long regarded their departmental knowledge as sacrosanct, with the thought of sharing that information akin to giving up one's first-born.Perhaps out of necessity, this cloistered approach to knowledge-sharing might be loosening its territorial grip. Keeping departmental knowledge close to the vest might protect a business's so-called secrets, but reciprocally this approach also prevents a business from tapping into the knowledge that resides within other corporate units, industry experts relate.

It's been said: People don't mind changing; they just don't like being changed. And that's a fundamental principle underlying the practice of organizational change management--a practice that can mean the difference between success and failure when implementing new technology."When change management is used successfully-when there's a clear definition up-front about what the objectives are and those objectives tie back to the right business goals-the projects I've worked on have had 100% success," says William Speir Jr., change management portfolio manager at Hartford Technology Services Co. (HTSC), a subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based The Hartford Financial Services Group.

Writing this month's cover story was more challenging than usual. Few insurance executives wanted to talk about offshore outsourcing-at least not "on the record." That's because the topic is incredibly sensitive these days."My staff doesn't know I'm here," one IT manager told me at the Outsourcing Forum hosted by this magazine in Tampa in February. Another attendee announced that protesters were picketing at another outsourcing conference taking place in Orlando that same week.

Like many of its mid-size insurer counterparts, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance Co. understands that overhauling legacy information systems is a costly proposition. As a result, the carrier continues to conduct business from multiple and disparate systems.But what if an insurer could eschew the high cost of a comprehensive systems conversion and reap the operational benefits of an effective but less-expensive alternative?