Practice management

Hartford, Conn. - With the recent sale of a small business policy to Creative Music Adventures of Seattle, Wash., The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. now maintains one million small-business policies in force across the country."This is an outstanding achievement for The Hartford," says Jim Ruel, senior vice president of small business insurance at The Hartford. "For years, we've been listening to what small business owners want, and then developing the right products and services to help our agents meet their clients' needs. Reaching this milestone in such a competitive market is a testament to our company's leadership and expertise in this field. As the number of small businesses in this country continues to increase, The Hartford will continue to find new ways to serve them."

Reston, Va. - The year 2006 represented the tipping point for using the Internet to buy auto insurance, says comScore, Inc., a Reston, Va., company that measures commerce in the digital world.

Stamford, Conn. – Insurance carriers in North America and Western Europe need to become more customer-oriented to remain competitive, according to a study by Gartner Inc., the research company based here.

Atlanta - A disk containing the personal information of 2.9 million Georgia residents has gone missing, state health officials say.

Bethesda, Md. – A self-described socially responsible mutual fund has withdrawn formal objections to the way two major insurance companies have handled climate change.

New York - New York City-based New York Life Insurance Co.’s consumer Web site was best in the nation among insurance and annuity companies in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Dalbar Inc., a Boston-based company that tracks Internet innovation.

New York - Parents can track the whereabouts of teenage drivers with the help of a global positioning system about to undergo testing by New York-based AIG Auto Insurance.

New York - Senior insurance executives are concerned about governing and managing the crushing volume of data their companies maintain these days, especially in light of stricter reporting requirements.

Edwardsville, Ill - Florists' Mutual Insurance Company (Hortica) has announced the loss of a locked shipping case containing backup computer tapes with personal information.

Denver - Despite some challenges, the health insurance industry continues to focus forward on initiatives that will enable patient-related data sharing in order to help eliminate errors and reduce overall costs. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado announced its participation in a voluntary data-sharing program developed by the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH), the company reports. The program, based on rules drafted by CAQH's Committee on Operating Rules for Information Exchange (CORE), is designed to link the data collected by health plans, providers, and vendors so that doctors can electronically verify their patients' insurance information in twenty seconds or less, significantly improving communications between providers and insurers. A report issued in February 2006 by Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets notes that insurers will benefit from a trend in widespread adoption of electronic capture of patient data. With solid benefits predicted, there still remain challenges, however. Alluding to the routine capture of documents and data for both regulatory and business intelligence purposes, the Research and Markets holds that "health care in the clinical setting has resisted this industry-transforming technology for nearly 20 years. The reasons: the lack of user-friendly interfaces for busy health care providers, lack of workflow understanding on the part of vendors, the expense and complexity of implementation and maintenance solutions, and the lack of transparent ROI for providers." Empirical data on long-term benefits for a program such as this may not be available yet, but carriers such as anthem BCBS nevertheless have high hopes for initiatives designed to create incentives for providers that will help improve communications between parties and create a "healthier" patient base in the process. The fact that the CORE program is a voluntary, industry-wide collaboration facilitated by Washington-based CAQH, may help the cause. Anthem has been certified as a CAQH CORE health plan and has already completed the Phase I implementation of the CORE rules, which allows for standardized data transfer and quicker response times. Physicians who link to the health plan through electronic data interchange (EDI) will be able to use EDI for this quick verification. EDI is a method for two organizations to confidentially exchange data from one computer to another using standard formats that are HIPAA compliant. Currently, Anthem's EDI is used for claims filing, claims status checks, eligibility verification, electronic remittance advices, and electronic fund transfers back to health care providers. "Anthem is committed to employing the most advanced information technology solutions available to improve both our members' experience and their interactions with physicians," said John Martie, president, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Colorado, a subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc. "CAQH has developed an excellent framework for simplifying the administrative side of the health care system, and Anthem has worked diligently to ensure that we are capable of bringing the benefits of CAQH's efforts to our members." "These programs have the potential to transform the way that health care providers and health plans communicate," continued Martie. "But most importantly, they will take much of the confusion out of the health care system for our members." Sources: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, INN Archives

Kansas City, Mo. - Security, developing Web portals, and going paperless are among the top focus areas for IT staff at surplus lines insurance companies, according to a survey of NAPSLO members conducted in February by the association's communications & technology committee.

Needham, Mass. - The time is right for U.S. property and casualty claims insurers to aggressively exploit the business benefits of an enterprise mobility strategy, according to new research from research and advisory services firm TowerGroup. TowerGroup's report, "Mobile Solutions for US Property & Casualty Claims: Life in the Fast Lane," maintains that while using mobile solutions for settling claims is not new to the U.S. insurance industry, adoption for claims processing has been haphazard at best. Insurance carriers have been slowly bringing on mobile technology solutions to assist field workers with claims operations, yet the process has lacked focus and forward momentum. Given the strides made by mobile technology vendors in functionality, bandwidth and devices, mobility solutions for the insurance industry are increasingly reliable - and can yield significant value if developed within a coordinated strategic initiative, says the report. "Customers are increasingly expecting real-time, any-time service from their insurance carriers," said Karen Pauli, senior analyst in the TowerGroup insurance research practice in Needham, Mass., and author of the research. "While many insurers have various mobility irons in the fire, catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina quickly exposed the limits of the haphazard solutions that are in place. It's time for carriers to step back and create an enterprise strategy for mobility that encompasses all aspects of the claims process." Highlights of the research include: * Mobile initiatives will yield significant value for carriers when the implementation directly impacts the most critical business issues facing carriers today, including: disaster response; business continuity; and meeting regulatory and compliance mandates. The report also highlights the key actions carriers must take in order to create an effective mobile strategy. * Carriers can improve day-to-day claims operations, gaining competitive advantage and saving costs, by using predictive analytics to direct activities in a mobile environment. * Before carriers jump into an enterprise mobility plan, they must carefully review the needs and workflow of their claims personnel. "Today, few carriers leverage the breadth of available mobile technologies that could contribute to claims process efficiency," continued Pauli. "Instead, it's more common to see stand-alone applications that have little to no integration with other claims applications or services. Stand-alones don't scale well, usually lack extensibility and cost too much. Carriers must develop a more holistic approach to claims mobility, one that arms the adjuster with the key devices and applications necessary to get the job done in the most efficient and effective way possible." Source: TowerGroup

The insurance industry can't agree on a definition of the phrase "enterprise content management." Whatever it means, though, there's a consensus that it's improving.Many think of it as combining absolutely every kind of documented information the company owns and putting it into a paperless electronic central repository that imposes business rules, manages distribution and affords virtually unlimited access. That master file would house everything from this morning's jpegs to digitized versions of yellowing old paper-and-ink policies.

"Tiny House," the Geico spot for a fake reality series, has been hailed as the funniest ad on television. The commercial mimics TV's reality genre, seemingly promoting a non-existent show about newlyweds living in a house so small they can't stand up straight.Then there's the Cockney talking gecko who dispenses reptilian wisdom in a series of Geico advertisements. And who could forget the Geico ads with Charo prattling on in a very loose interpretation of a stone-faced policyholder's comments on his experience with a claim?

The customer relationship-it's a touchy subject. How do you make sure you're doing the right thing for each and every customer? How do you know if your follow-up on a lead wasn't duplicated by a coworker?Cottingham & Butler Insurance Inc., a privately held Dubuque, Iowa, insurance company, encounters those dilemmas daily. It's part of the job for a firm that offers employee benefits and risk management services, including property & casualty insurance, casualty claims administration, employee benefit brokerage and consulting, benefit claims administration, medical management services, wellness and disease management, and personal insurance services.

SITE SELLS POLICIES ON GROWNUP TOYSMarkel American Insurance Co., Waukesha, Wis., launched a Web site that provides a single access point to customers seeking to insure motorcycles, boats, personal watercraft and ATV.

AGENTS AND BROKERS ADOPT NEW RPOST E-MAIL SERVICELos Angeles-based RPost U.S. Inc. says independent insurance agencies and brokerages are adopting RPost as a service platform for outbound e-mail. Confronted with errors and omissions (E&O) liability exposures, agents and brokers need technology that enables them to optimize electronic communications while minimizing risk. By shoring up the security gap, RPost Registered E-Mail messages offer speed, security, accountability and personal liability protection in a cost-effective solution that can be used for an average cost of 59 cents per message. The company's services provide the e-mail sender with legally valid evidence of what e-mail content and attachments were sent and received, by whom and when.

What do agents want from their agency management systems? In its "Agency Technology Survey-Executive Summary," ACORD Corp.'s ACORD User Group Information Exchange (AUGIE) set out to answer this question and reveal other agency technology needs."The survey shows that many agents are frustrated with the process of having to go from Web site to Web site to get quotes-a process some liken to the situation 15 or 20 years ago, when we moved within our agencies from one company-provided terminal to the next," says Lisa Leach Goth, vice president of New Bethlehem, Pa.-based Charles P. Leach Agency and chair of the survey working group. She sees the survey findings as encouragement for carriers to support more uniform processes that work through the agent's own system.

Not so long ago, discussions of IT security tended to focus on the need to install firewalls; to tunnel via private networks; to employ encryption keys and digital certificates; to surround servers with multiple layers of access; and to install firewalls, sandboxes and "demilitarized zones" to snag hackers.Those tools and methods remain critical, but many in the IT community are recognizing the importance of addressing physical as well as digital vulnerabilities.

MASSMUTUAL UPGRADES PRODUCT MACHINE SOFTWAREThe disability income insurance area of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual), Springfield, Mass., upgraded to version 3.1 of Product Machine, a set of tools designed to enable users to build, design and publish products.