Policy adminstration

August - the heart of hurricane season.The hurricanes during August 2005 changed the insurance industry. In fact, with experts predicting a number of storms in 2006, carriers are taking action-developing tools and programs-to help their customers through natural disasters, especially hurricanes.

What could a college campus possibly have in common with a health insurer's operation centers? Very little, but a telecommunication technology common throughout college campuses has improved one health insurer's business.Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BCNEPA), a health insurance provider with its headquarters, an operation center and a technology center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., recently saw growth in its employee base; so much so, that its 20-MB-per-second, point-to-point corporate network link was not handling the workload between headquarters and the operation center.

Telecom giant Sprint used National Cell Phone Courtesy Month (July) to re-release its 2004 "Wireless Courtesy Report," which pretty much confirms what we already know: We are annoyed with rude cell phone users, yet we don't think we are among them.Based on a nationwide survey of 723 adult wireless subscribers, the Sprint 2004 study's major finding was: Although Americans felt people were less courteous than five years earlier, they themselves were not at fault. Additionally, 80% of Americans think wireless callers have become less courteous, but 97% don't think they're part of the problem.

24-HOUR ACCESS TO FINANCIAL FITNESSNew York-based Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America launched a proprietary Web-based system designed to help financial representatives enable their clients to instantly gauge their financial health and simplify their personal and business finances. The system enables financial reps and their clients to coordinate accounts from a menu of more than 3,000 financial institutions, access copies of important legal and financial documents from anywhere in the world, and get a comprehensive, up-to-date snapshot of their financial well-being.

Late spring 2005, the world learned that a crime ring that included call center employees of an Indian outsourcing company stole more than $300,000 from Citibank customers by tricking callers into giving up their PIN numbers.The news sent shockwaves through the industry, as India was the premier destination for business process outsourcing in the world.

It's often said that insurers suffer from the "not-invented-here" syndrome, but the fact is: At least in North America, insurers are most likely to look for a vendor solution before embarking on a custom build.In Celent's most recent insurance CIO/CTO survey, more than half of the respondents said they preferred to buy rather than build whenever possible. However, a high level of frustration remains among insurers with availability of appropriate vendor solutions-and identifying and selecting an appropriate vendor partner is still a time-consuming and challenging process.

On the first anniversary of the California Uninsured Help Line in May, Phil Lebherz, founder and initial financier of the free call line looked at national studies and became convinced the uninsured numbers could be cut in half in all states if people knew about the public programs available to them. As a result, he plans to make the help line operable in all 50 states by this fall. This initiative can take the pressure off insurers, he claims, who receive much of the blame for the rising number of uninsured in the United States.INN: What is the California Uninsured Help Line? How does it work?

If the life reinsurance market suffers in its ability to embrace technology, the good news is that it's got a lot to gain by doing so. From a technology perspective, "building the deal," i.e., processing myriad communications between cedants, reinsurers and retrocessionaires, involves layer upon layer of data input and information exchange, integration and ultimate transaction processing.From a business perspective, the drivers-competitive advantage, regulatory reporting, cost reduction and shareholder and broker demands, among others-are as pressing as ever.

Odessa, Del. - Information on search engine marketing, integrated marketing and competitive information on insurance company marketing trends is included in the "Insurance Direct Marketing: The Special Report on the Companies, the Practices, the Standards & the Benchmarks" report, released last week.

Washington, D.C. - The House is considering a bill calling for a bipartisan commission to help guide the federal government in its national disaster response management. If H.R. 5891, the Catastrophic Disaster Risk and Insurance Commission Act, is enacted, a 17-member panel (membership comprised of at least one independent agent) would be empowered to recommend to the lawmakers disaster management policies cost mitigation, and fraud reduction.

Waterloo, Ont. - California State Automobile Association (CSAA) plans to launch a pilot program this summer using telematics technology to improve driving safety. Using the DriveSync GPS vehicle tracking system from Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS), CSSA intends to increase the value of AAA membership for itself and other AAA partners, including AAA Arizona, AAA Oklahoma and AAA MountainWest. Rapid vehicle location for roadside assistance and driver safety improvement are some of the areas that will be researched.DriveSync is a GPS vehicle tracking system that tracks vehicle location including the route, mileage and speeds of each trip. As a turnkey solution, IMS manages all aspects of driving data collection, storage, consolidation and reporting using fraud-prevention technology and military grade data encryption to ensure customer confidentiality. The system produces turn-by-turn trip logs, color-coded route maps and driving statistic reports, which can enable drivers to see a clear picture of their driving behavior and habits.

Worcestor, Mass. - The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc., a regional property/casualty company, is enhancing its billing capabilities, in an effort to deliver on its promise to make doing business with the company easy. Now, The Hanover is enabling agents to accept payments for new home and auto policies via electronic check, credit card and debit card at point of sale.Through the new enhancements, The Hanover's independent agent partners can accept electronic down payments for personal lines home and auto insurance or a full payment on a new policy during new business transactions. No transaction fees will be charged for this service. In fact, policyholders who pay for The Hanover's popular, multi-variate product, Connections Auto, in full via electronic payment will be eligible for a discount.

Detroit - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, will extend an e-prescribing partnership with the nation's three largest U.S. automakers, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler Corp., the companies announced today. The Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative (SEMI), which is designed to reduce medication errors and decrease prescription drug costs through the use of e-prescribing technology, will be in effect for an additional year.

Columbia, S.C. - Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, a Columbia, S.C., business unit of UnumProvident Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn., has launched a new online enrollment platform that offers employers daily enrollment reporting and secure employee data exchange, reports the company.

Atlanta -Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGa) has launched statewide the 360 Health benefits program. Georgia is the first state to have access to this new program through WellPoint, BCBSGa's parent company, which will provide health information and counsel collected from thousands of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to BCBSGa's 3.1 million members through a single point of contact.360 Health is a program designed to integrate all care management programs and tools into a centralized, consumer-friendly resource that assists members in navigating the health care system, using their health benefits and providing information to help them to access comprehensive and appropriate care.

Los Angeles - Mercury General Corp., a Los Angeles-based auto insurer, is using a new interactive destination Web site to highlight its recent advertising campaign—Mercury Theory.The campaign features a suite of 10 30-second TV commercials and the interactive Web site www.mercurytheory.com.

St. Paul, Minn. - Travelers, a business of St. Paul, Minn.-based The St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., developed a two-CD set called The Best of Technology Risk Control to help small technology businesses deal with issues such as property protection, employee safety, reducing liability exposures and creating business continuity plans.The risk control CD contains 120 of the most requested risk control information guides on topics pertaining to the information technology, medical technology, telecommunications and electronics manufacturing industries.

Chicago - Stating that 50 individual sets of individual insurance regulations results in a lack of transparency and a bottleneck to global trade, Frank Keating, president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers, called for an optional federal charter yesterday during his address to the International Insurance Society here.

Hartford, Conn. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s online Quote-to-Issue (QTI) system for rating, quoting and issuing comes in handy with its enhanced Dimensions auto insurance program, which will now be offered as Dimensions with Auto Packages. The Hartford expects online users to get and compare quotes for these packages to be faster and easier than before."We understand the demands on agents and the need for their staff to process business fast and efficiently," says Mike Concannon, senior vice president of personal lines for the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer. "Our QTI technology makes it easy for them to work with The Hartford."

Chicago - Attendees at the International Insurance Society 42nd Annual Seminar in Chicago identified natural catastrophes--over pandemics, geopolitical instabilities, terrorism and man-made catastrophes--as the biggest threat to the future of the insurance industry.The question was posed to the more-than-100 attendees of the July 19, 2006 CEO Panel V: Catastrophic Risk and Insurability: Can the industry cope? Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate USA and Pierre Ozendo, head of Americas Property & Casualty, Swiss Reinsurance America Corp. USA, Armonk, N.Y., spoke to the attendees on the subject.