Practice management

In the wake of insurers increasing their efforts to utilize the Internet to broaden their accessibility, streamline efficiency and reduce time and costs, two insurers have recently ramped up their online customer service capabilities.

Richmond, Va. - Markel International Ltd., the company's London-based operation, will enter the Asian market with marine and professional liability products, the company reports. Markel Vice Chairman Steven Markel told INN that the push in Asia is in conjunction with its operations as a syndicate of Lloyd's of London.

If you think your contact center (what used to be your call center before e-mail and Web chat were added to the customer service mix) doesn't do much for sales, you might have a look at a new study from Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. The Daly City, Calif., maker of contact center software recently surveyed 500 consumers in the United States, and found that almost half placed more importance on customer service than product quality, price or the vendor's reputation when it came to loyalty. A full 40% said they'd stopped doing business with a company solely because of a bad contact center experience.Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting, a West Orange, N.J., company that specializes in helping clients build contact centers, says the centers should be playing a more significant role than just keeping customers happy and loyal-especially for insurance carriers.

SC BLUES WINS CALL CENTER TECH AWARDBlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., took top honors in the "Best Use of Technology" category during the 3rd Annual Call Center Excellence Awards held recently in Las Vegas.

FEE REDUCTION FOR INSURANCE SERVICESThe Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) Insurance Services New York business reports its first fee reduction in history, reflecting growing usage of its services. Insurance Services has automated linkages and data exchange between carriers and their broker/dealer, bank and other distributor partners who market insurance products.

What do insurance, consumer goods, retail and manufacturing companies have in common? Each relies on a complex value chain of partners engaged in collaborative business processes in order to develop relationships and deliver goods or services to customers. This is true for B2B insurance companies such as Health Net Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif., and Delta Dental Plans Assoc., Oak Brook, Ill., consumer-focused organizations such as Galveston, Texas-based American National Insurance Co. (ANICO), which offers a broad line of insurance products and services, including life insurance, annuities, health, property/casualty and credit insurance and Service Masters' American Home Shield (AHS), or American Insurance Group Inc. (AIG), which serves commercial, institutional and individual customers.Whether providing individual policies direct to consumers or a range of portfolio products to commercial or business customers on behalf of employee members, insurance companies operate within complex, process-driven environments.

The relationship between IT and the business within insurance companies is a subject insurance professionals will talk about until the cows come home. How do the two work together? Who are the forward thinkers? How does IT know what the business needs and vice versa? These questions plague both sides. CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, Wis., may have figured it out. In fact, this epiphany helped win the company Insurance Networking News' 2007 INNovator of the Year award for its ability to successfully combine the efforts of IT and the business to create a specialized claims processing solution, Claims Express."We're (business and IT) part of the same team," says Tom Gosnell, CIO at CUNA Mutual. "I think it's that close working relationship that helps best position us to be able to share ideas with the business and vice versa and to be able to come up with the right solution across the board."

Remember the tale of the boiling frog? As the fable goes, a frog placed in a pot of boiling water will frantically clamber out. That same frog, however, will sit placidly in a pot of tepid water. It will remain there even as the water is slowly heated. Gradual changes go unnoticed, with the frog never recognizing the impending disaster as the water reaches the boiling point.Liken the pot of tepid water to legacy claims systems. P&C insurers are beginning to take a closer look at their systems, but will they act in time or wait on the sidelines and continue claims as usual?

RE: July, 2007 Insurance Networking News' Cover Story: Keeping Agents Honest Legally and Ethically: Dear Editor,I read your feature article on Keeping Agents Honest (Legally & Ethically) in the July issue and generally have to agree with your statements. There are some important areas that you have left out, or had not considered. The "other unethical - though maybe not illegal- sale practices" could just easily be directed at the companies that offer the products. The "Death Spiral" is intentional in the way the product is conceived by the company. The basic assumption for term life and its pricing is that the company will not have to pay claims, the policy will expire first. You talk about how companies have to keep a sharp eye on independent agents, and that it is hard to prove fraud, but companies do find fraud and cover it up all of the time. The first reaction is to protect the reputation of the company, not the customer or the general public. In my own town we had an agent that was "let go" by a direct writer, allegedly for fraud. That agent then opened an independent agency and got appointments from some companies. Within two years other agents were receiving complaints about not getting policies, about paying premiums at the agency, but not getting anything from the company until they had a claim, etc. These complaints were sent on to the companies involved. It took almost another year before the agent lost his appointments and was back on the street looking for another opportunity, and he found it in another nearby city, working for a direct writer (a different one). Why, one must ask, were the companies willing to allow this person to keep his license? If any one of them had reported their actions to the Department of Insurance action might have been taken to revoke that license. Companies are as responsible for the fraud committed by agents, captive or independent, if they refuse to report that fraud to the state DOI. Are they really interested in cleaning house, or just protecting their names? Sincerely, Jim Gislason, CPIA Account ExecutiveUnited Insurance Services, Inc.509 Main St.Vincennes, Ind. 47591 Dear Editor, I feel compelled to respond to your article that portrays "independent agents" as unethical thieves. While there may be a few agents that act unethically there are far more that are honest and truly work hard to do the best for their customers. My family and our agency have represented the independent agency system honestly and ethically for over 75 years and we greatly offended by your defamation of our character and ethics. Your article was poo rly written and the three examples you provide do nothing to prove that actual "independent agents" were involved in any of them. Could it be that the examples you gave were actually "captive agents" like State Farm, Farmers, Allstate, and Geico? I ask that you immediately take my agency Martin Insurance, Inc. 1122 Idaho Street Lewiston, ID 83501 off of your mailing lists and never send another copy of Insurance Networking News. I also want you to know that I will be emailing a copy of your article to the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America to see what they have to say about your portray of their members. Mike Martin Jr.Martin Insurance, Inc.Via E-mail

A study of European insurance policy holders by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. revealed an overarching reluctance to manage their accounts online. Given many of the major carriers’ desire to drive more customers to the Internet for routine sales and service interactions, the data points to an uphill battle.

Ipswich, Mass. - The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their online customers, released findings from its Third Quarter 2007 Online Customer Respect Study of the Life Insurance Industry.

New Delhi and The Hague, the Netherlands - Insurers outside the U.S. are actively creating partnerships in a business affecting the banking and insurance industries.

Needham, Mass. – Leaders in claims operations are beginning to break away from traditional processes and seek technology to assist them in managing a complex business process that has, to date, been extremely people intensive, according to new research from TowerGroup, Needham, Mass. Claims departments have been historically reluctant to adopt technology solutions, perceiving technology as incapable of duplicating the decision-making process of an experienced claims adjuster.

Hartford, Conn. - A new, automated system introduced by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. significantly hastens the creation and modification of personal lines insurance policies.

Seattle – Teenagers may liken Teensurance to George Orwell's all-knowing “big brother.” But Safeco is hedging its bets that parents will appreciate its new technology and services designed to help protect their teen drivers as they gain experience behind the wheel, and drive competitive advantage in the process. Safeco released its Teensurance product, which employs a set of online tools based on an on-board GPS and notification technology called the Safety Beacon. This new bundle of tools enables families to take proactive steps to monitor their teen’s behavior behind the wheel. Parents can set speed, distance and curfew limitations. A real-time notification service tells parents when their teen drivers are in danger. Teensurance is available to customers with Safeco auto insurance policies, and includes free installation of the Safety Beacon, which is guaranteed for two years. Safeco’s goal with Teensurance is to keep communications open about driving and the responsibilities that come with having a driver’s license. “Teensurance is a proactive solution to help our customers keep their families safe on the road, and the first in a series of Safeco innovations that push beyond traditional insurance to impact our customers on a broad scale,” said Jim Havens, vice president of consumer solutions at Safeco. The Teensurance program’s set of tools includes set “safe driving” zones to gradually ease new drivers into the driving experience; the ability to unlock a car door remotely using a simple code; access to 24/7 roadside assistance, a parent/teen contract and pertinent educational materials, including a “TeenDash” survey. Source: Safeco

New York – Aiming to capitalize on the record pace of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Zurich has created a new business unit designed to cater to the companies involved. The unit, part of Zurich's global corporate business division, will offer customized products and services to help companies manage M&A transaction-related risks, the company says.

Las Vegas - A feature on its Web sites that links directly to a physician's office has garnered an award for BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. The feature, called STATchat, took top honors in the "Best Use of Technology" category during the 3rd Annual Call Center Excellence Awards held recently in Las Vegas. STATchat allows a physician's office staff to call BlueCross over the Internet and gives them priority for customer service. Physician office staff members simply click on the STATchat icon to call for assistance without dialing any numbers by using an inexpensive headset with microphone. STATchat links the staff member with a BlueCross provider services agent, ahead of calls from physician offices using traditional phone lines. Both the awards and the conference are organized by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC). Experts and practitioners in the call center field judged this year's award entries. "Providers who utilize our STATchat feature receive the help they need with little or no wait time," said David Boucher, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina's assistant vice president of health care services. "This allows our providers to better focus on their vital role of caring for their patients." Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Source: PR Newswire

Oakland, Calif. - Web-based options are playing a larger role in doctor-patient interaction, notes Kaiser Permanente. The Oakland, Calif., health insurer released a study that was published in the American Journal of Managed Care and describes how secure e-mail changes the way patients choose to access medical care. "Patient access to electronic health record with secure messaging: impact on primary care utilization" examines the use of secure e-mail between Kaiser Permanente members and physicians. According to the study: Patients with online access to an electronic health record (EHR) are choosing to use secure e-mail, thereby decreasing the number of primary care office visits and telephone contact rates. The study noted that the use of secure e-mail linked to an EHR decreased annual adult primary care outpatient visit rates by 7 to 10% and led to 14% fewer phone contacts than those not using online services. "The access to personal health management tools, including secure email is helping our members get care how and when they want it," states Yvonne Zhou, PhD, one of the authors of the study. "It is valuable to have been able to document an evolving trend that shows consumers are choosing to replace office visits and phone calls with electronic communication with their doctors." More than 1.4 million Kaiser Permanente members are registered to use the company's secure online services. Since launching secure e-mail services, more than 2.7 million e-mail messages have been sent to providers. Source: PR Newswire

CIGNA HealthCare, Hartford, Conn., announced yesterday that it will begin providing online precertification this fall to more than 365,000 physicians in its national network.

A former insurance agent from Penn Valley, Calif., was convicted of one felony count of insurance fraud and three misdemeanor counts of petty theft for collecting insurance premiums from clients for commercial general liability and commercial automobile insurance and failed to remit the premiums to insurers. A former Allstate insurance agent was charged with a single count of theft, a Class D felony, after an investigation revealed that he had accepted and deposited his clients' checks without applying the funds toward their policies. A Louisiana-based agent was arrested, transported to jail and booked on four counts of insurance fraud and one count of forgery for altering insurance applications to increase the previously agreed upon premium amount, thereby increasing his commission. In one instance, he forged the client's initials to changes without the client's knowledge or consent.All three of these stories graced the news within a week-and-a-half, and are just a few that have recently made headlines. Independent agents seem to be finding more ways to commit fraud and practice unethical business--creating false insurance entities, fraud rings, misinterpreting policies and just flat--out stealing policyholders' money.