Practice management

Washington, D.C. - The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) has launched a new Web tool linking consumers with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans offering Medicare products in their local communities.In 2006, 29 Blue Plans will sponsor Medicare Advantage products and 24 Blue Plans will sponsor Medicare Prescription Drug Plans.The Medicare Blue PlanFinder is designed to help consumers navigate the complex maze of Medicare offerings. The tool can be accessed by going to www.bcbs.com and clicking on "The Blues and Medicare."

Blue Bell, Pa. - The PMA Insurance Group, a property casualty insurer specializing in workers' compensation, is achieving high levels of client satisfaction with its services, according to the results of a recent survey.According to the survey of its clients conducted by an independent opinion research consultant, 95% of clients responded that PMA has exceeded, fully met, or generally met their service expectations.

Des Moines, Iowa - The Principal Financial Group has launched an online claim submission form for group long-term and short-term disability customers."Even a brief disability can be difficult to overcome, which is why we stress early intervention and ongoing claim communication throughout the process," says Cindy Ford, claims director, the Principal Financial Group. "Offering online submission is simply one more way we can expedite the process to ensure the best possible outcome for our members."

Hartford, Conn. - Six months after introducing its enhanced Select Accounts products for small businesses, St. Paul Travelers reports the feedback from independent agents has been overwhelmingly positive.According to a survey of more than 1,300 agents, 96% rated the breadth of product eligibility and 88% rated the pricing and coverage features to be the same or significantly better than the competition.

St. Paul, Minn. -- A study of insurance brokers and consultants' attitudes about relationships with group life insurers shows they place high value on technology and good service and little value on freebies."The study confirmed our assumptions about how best to approach benefits brokers and consultants," says Paula Bilitz, marketing manager, Minnesota Life Group Insurance. "Professionalism rules, with a clear focus on how best to serve the employer-client."

Cheshire, Conn. - Chicago-based Aon Consulting has set its sights on beefing up the real-time health claims data it delivers to its customers.

Beijing - InsCom, an e-commerce insurance company based in China, has been awarded as one of China's Top 100 Business Web sites of 2005 at the second awards ceremony of the China Commercial Internet Developing Conference. In the five years of the top 100 business Web site award, this is the first time an insurance Web site has won.Rapid development of the insurance industry has led to diversities in the insurance marketing channel. Some traditional channels such as: direct sales, full-time or part-time agents, telephone, correspondence and networking are seeing new changes being gradually introduced in order to modernise roles in product sales and business development for insurance companies.

Indianapolis - When the Market Regulation & Consumer Affairs Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) agreed to do no further work on a model law regulating the use of claims databases for underwriting purposes, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), Indianapolis, praised the decision. The decision by NAIC was made at the organization's winter meeting last week in Chicago

Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide introduced a new look and feel for its main consumer web site, nationwide.com. The re-design represents the first phase of a multi-year overhaul, the company reports.

Westlake Village, Calif. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. The Hartford property and casualty sales and service centers are the first in the insurance industry to be certified under the program.Through its direct personal lines business, the Hartford, Conn.-based carrier handled more than 10,000,000 telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004 from its call centers in Southington, Conn., Allentown, Pa., Santee, Calif., and Oklahoma City.

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill extending a federal program that guarantees the government's support of some losses from terrorist attacks, a measure that insurers and property owners call critical to the economy.

Stamford, Ct. - The lack of IT budget and resources, and perceived higher priorities for spending elsewhere will no longer be a barrier for P & C carriers making major investments in claims technologies, according to a report released today from Gartner, a Stamford, Ct. research firm. In fact, tight profit margins and high operational costs, as well as consumer demands for quality service, are now driving insurers to address these problems, says the report's author, Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, who predicts that claims technology and process improvement projects will increase by more than 20 percent in 2006 among P&C insurers.

Using the right analytic tools to analyze and manage terrorism risk is paramount, according to a review of methodologies available for insurers and reinsurers published by Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk management division of ISO, Jersey City, N.J.

Creating economic value from distribution has never been more difficult for life insurers trying to increase business and reduce costs. Balancing the complexities inherent in a competitive marketplace, more than 1,000 U.S. companies currently offering a host of life and annuity products are in a scramble to hold on to representatives from traditional channels and acquire those from nontraditional channels.In the face of a growing market (Baby Boomers looking at retirement strategies now count 77 million), Internet-based customer self-service and a host of alternative distribution channels, keeping traditional, dedicated life insurance sellers on board is no easy task. The number of career life agents dropped to 178,000 in 2000 compared to 238,000 a decade ago, reports TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass., research and advisory firm.

They began in the late 1990s as personal Web sites for hobbyist-authors to climb on their soapboxes, voice their opinions and reveal their daily activities to the whole wide world. Today, there are more than 17 million "blogs"-short for weblogs-and they're making their way into the business world, including the world of insurance."Weblogs have such a strong appeal to Web users," says Julie Ferguson, a communications consultant for Lynch, Ryan & Associates, a Westborough, Mass.-based workers' compensation consulting firm. "They're an important source of information, and if companies do them right, they speak with a more authentic voice than other forms of communication."

How important is your distribution network? Is it the lifeline of your business? What if your distribution network was a finely tuned machine, cranking out more business than capacity allows? As seen in our cover story, carriers agree that technology is the key to solving many distribution dilemmas. In another article in this issue (page 20), we learn that they're not all that excited about investing in technology that enables agents to leverage single-entry, multiple carrier interface (SEMCI) technology. It may depend who you ask, but few would disagree that technology plays a critical role in independent agents' ability to help carriers realize success-across all lines.So, who is ultimately responsible for making sure that happens? In a recent Insurance Networking News virtual trade show, available on the INN Web site, we posed that question to Jeff Yates, executive director of the Agents' Council for Technology for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, a national alliance of 300,000 business owners and their employees.

Although insurance carriers have been slower than banks in adopting e-billing and e-payment technologies (see "Carriers Have Some Catching Up to Do), two insurers recently have taken a lead in this area.Esurance, a San Francisco-based direct-to-consumer auto insurer, has added a PayPal payment option to its Web site. PayPal is one of the leading forms of online payment, with approximately 79 million accounts worldwide.

In this age of Blackberries and instant messaging, insurance carriers and agents alike are focused on finding high-tech solutions to conduct their businesses. Enter: Single Entry Multiple Carrier Interface-also known as SEMCI.The concept of SEMCI technology sounds simple. Vendors create applications that enable independent insurance agents to access one site, hopefully through their own agency management system, enter data once and then communicate with multiple insurance carriers to obtain real-time quotes.

When you've got a lemon, make lemonade. That's basically what Medical Mutual of Ohio did when the Cleveland-based health insurer decided it was time to ditch its 15-year old phone system.While installing a new private branch exchange (PBX) and automatic call distributor (ACD), the company took advantage of the new technology's advanced functionality to bring its two call centers up to award-winning status.

By converting from paper to e-billing, companies can reap appreciable cost savings, achieve significant efficiencies, hasten incoming payments, gain greater accuracy in accounting and invoicing systems, and reduce labor operations.But only a relatively few carriers have thus far converted to e-billing, also known as Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP).