Hartford, Conn. - The Industrial Hygiene Laboratory of St. Paul Travelers has added a state-of-the-art instrument that helps customers address OSHA's proposed lowering of the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for hexavalent chromium (CrVI). St. Paul Travelers purchased this instrument to help its customers better protect their employees and reduce workers compensation losses.Hexavalent chromium (CrVI) is a human carcinogen for which OSHA has proposed a 50x reduction in the PEL from the current standard. The new Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) has enabled the Industrial Hygiene Laboratory to develop a method for the analysis of CrVI below OSHA's proposed PEL.

San Diego - CareGroup Healthcare System has gone live at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) with an application that delivers automatic healthcare information updates every 15 minutes to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. The bio-surveillance system, which feeds the CDC with information key to early identification of disease trends, is built on the CACHE post-relational database. InterSystems Corp., a health care database provider, spotlighted the bio-surveillance implementation at the HIMSS 2006 conference in San Diego, Calif.BIDMC is one of 10 U.S. hospitals that were approached by the CDC to provide medical data on an ongoing, around-the-clock basis. The initiative is part of a mandate by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt, who chairs the American Health Information Community (AHIC), a group charged with advising the federal government on standards for electronic health records (EHRs). Bio-surveillance and public health monitoring are among the first focus areas for AHIC and Leavitt has stated that he wants a system for streaming emergency department (ED) data to public health authorities in place by the end of 2006.

Washington, D.C. - Health insurance plans' cutting-edge information technology (IT) strategies are adding value to health care for employers, health care practitioners and most importantly, consumers, industry leaders said today on Capitol Hill.Participants in the briefing stressed that health insurance plans are using IT not only to process claims more efficiently, but also to promote evidence-based care, add value to health care services and empower consumers through access to better information and decision tools.

Boston - As some insurance companies have learned the hard way, a market conduct exam uncovering noncompliance violations has the potential to cost millions of dollars in fines and lost business. To help insurers steer clear of costly noncompliance risks, CCH Insurance Services, a part of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, has identified the top 10 reasons property/casualty insurers are found to be out of compliance during a market conduct exam.CCH's research has shown that the most common market conduct compliance criticisms are:

Kansas City, Mo. - Vision may be the most important element required to underwrite liability risk, says Ajay Gupta, marketing leader of GE Insurance Solutions, a provider of reinsurance and commercial insurance and risk management services. Gupta says insurers tend to look backward at historical loss experience but not forward to factors that may impact future losses.Gupta's article, "Crisis or Opportunity: The Liability Dilemma", appears on GE Insurance Solutions' Web site at: www.geinsurancesolutions.com/erccorporate/theinstitute/pc/0601_cris.htm.

Yonkers N.Y., - An investigation in the March 2006 issue of Consumer Reports magazine contends that a national system of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) being developed by the federal government, states, HMOs, and PPOs to link the medical records of every American has potential for abuse. Consumer Reports claims that while such electronic medical records systems could save lives and billions of dollars in health-care spending, it may also jeopardize the security of personal health care information.The advantages of EHRs are many, according to Consumer Reports, include: more precise patient care from doctors, greater participation by patients, and an early-warning system for medical disasters such as the appearance of avian flu are among the hoped-for achievements for an electronic medical records network.

Chicago - It was a year with more storms in the Atlantic than any other on record, and it was also the costliest hurricane season ever. Impact Forecasting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aon Corp., studies some of the possible reasons for the activity, including shifts in the frequency of storms and the impact of El Nino, behind a year that produced more Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin than any other.The report, "Atlantic Ocean Basin Hurricane Frequency Shift," is available at http://www.aon.com/.

Orlando, Fla. - Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI) has released a mold risk reduction program that certifies the design, construction and ongoing operations of newly constructed multifamily and commercial properties. Greenguard Mold Protection Program is designed to ensure that buildings use industries' best practices for safeguarding against the damage and resulting losses caused by mold.The program fills a void for lenders, insurers and building owners that has grown increasingly serious over the last several years. As large court judgments for mold continue to cloud the construction and financing of new buildings, more are turning to mold prevention measures as a way to manage their financial risk.

WEALTH RISK MANAGEMENTThe Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., Warren, N.J., has selected New York-based Risk Control Strategies to support its new Signature Suite offering of luxury personal risk management services. Signature Suite is designed to help identify potential threats and help affluent individuals protect their families and wealth. Risk Control Strategies will provide Chubb's high-net-worth and family office customers with a complimentary personal risk assessment. Risk Control Strategies will also offer Chubb's clients an array of services including cyber crime investigations, identity theft prevention and response, and premise security strategy and implementation.

To remain competitive, insurance companies must successfully respond to merger and acquisition activity, escalating customer demands, and increased regulatory pressures. And all of these factors are expanding the human resources professional's role.HR staff is expected to perform more than traditional reporting and operational duties. In addition to ensuring recruitment of the best employees, HR must also spearhead cost-containment initiatives, provide strategic leadership and, more recently, assist with and oversee regulatory compliance.

Atlanta - The use of credit information in underwriting and rating Florida homeowners and auto insurance policies is now threatened by yesterday's approval of a rule governing insurers' use of credit-based insurance scores, according to the American Insurance Association (AIA)."While the legislature passed a law in 2003, specifically authorizing the use of credit information for insurance underwriting and rating, today's administrative action by the Florida Cabinet may effectively ban insurers' use of credit information," said Cecil L. Pearce, AIA vice president, Southeast Region.

Indian Wells, Calif. - "For many financial institutions, a network security breach involving the release of confidential customer information is not a matter of if, but when," cautioned Tracey Vispoli, vice president, Chubb & Son, during the 2006 American Bankers Association Insurance Risk Management Annual Conference. "It's time for financial institutions to further tighten their data security controls and to prepare for the potentially significant financial cost of this risk."Vispoli, the global fidelity manager for Chubb Specialty Insurance, explained that new laws in nearly half the states require companies to disclose security breaches to their customers residing in those states. "Network security breaches expose companies to class-action lawsuits as well as irreversible damage to the corporate brand," she said. "The new state laws add another layer of responsibility and cost by mandating that companies notify customers of actual or suspected security breaches."

Blue Bell, Pa. - As ID fraud, privacy and compliance with security-related regulations continue to shake the mind set of how financial institutions think about securing their business operations, experts at Unisys Corp. foresee the following five trends that will help banks and insurers rebuild eroding customer trust, and maintain a competitive edge in 2006 and beyond:1. Coordinated, "industrialized" fraud attacks will continue to rise causing more government intervention and pushing financial institutions to work together on common standards to fight increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals.

New York - Lexington Insurance Co., a member company of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), has expanded it online training on its Web site at www.lexeplhelp.com for customers carrying employment practices liability (EPL) insurance.Launched in 1999 and formerly called www.eplselect.com, the Web site was developed to provide EPL insureds with free risk management resources and training tools.

Westborough, Mass. - According to a recent national survey, 54% of organizations have experienced cyber attacks, with 21% of the cyber attacks causing more than $100,000 in measurable damages, and 11% causing more than $500,000 in measurable damages.The 1st Annual Enterprise Security Survey, generated through an online survey of security decision makers spanning a wide range of industries, indicates that a vast majority of businesses are reliant on the Internet to conduct business and have experienced some form of cyber attack in the past year. Additionally, the survey demonstrates a trend in the change in security spending habits due to government regulations such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Competitive pressures will force insurance companies to get serious about rationalizing the number of operational systems they support, notes a report issued by research and advisory firm Financial Insights, a Framingham, Mass., IDC company. The focus on rationalizing operational systems is one of the top 10 IT initiatives that will have key strategic importance for insurance organizations worldwide in 2006, according to the firm.

Framingham, Mass. - Companies ranging from regionals to multinationals will spend 2006 wringing more efficiency from their data storage infrastructures and holding down costs through information lifecycle management (ILM) rather than improving security, according to the "2006 Storage Budget Survey" released by GlassHouse Technologies, a provider of enterprise storages services.Despite a rash of high-profile security failures in 2005, nearly 100 companies in every size category--with storage budgets from less than $10 million to $150 million and above --ranked improving their storage infrastructure usage as either their first or second concern.

New York - In the face of these ever-growing business challenges and public scrutiny, it's time for insurers to take compliance to the next level, said Glenn Pomeroy, vice president of governmental relations and compliance at GE Insurance Solutions. Pomeroy addressed The 2nd Annual Forum on Regulatory Compliance in New York.Pomeroy, a former NAIC president and state insurance commissioner, outlined the components of a traditional compliance program: leadership commitment, employee engagement and a system to detect potential problems, address them and ensure ethical and lawful behavior.

Kansas City, Mo. - The top three reasons consumers filed formal complaints against their insurance companies in 2005 were delays, denials and unsatisfactory settlement offers, according to data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).Following these claims handling issues, consumers complained most about policy cancellations and premiums/insurance rating issues. That complaint pattern has remained relatively consistent during the past four years. A total of 199,639 complaints were filed by consumers in 2005, a 22.5% decrease from 2004.

Framingham, Mass. - A recent survey of 802 consumers carrying health insurance, conducted by IDC's Health Industry Insights, reveals one in three respondents (33%) cite medical information being made accessible on the Internet as a primary reason for feeling less comfortable about sharing information with primary care physicians (PCPs).Nearly half of respondents (47%) who are uncomfortable sharing information with PCPs also indicated "wanting control over who accesses their personal health information" as a reason, while 14% do not trust the health plan to adequately protect personal health information.