Suspicious claims activity appears to be climbing each year, theNational Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) asserts in its mostrecent analysis.

The Des Plaines, Ill. non-profit organization examined allquestionable claims submitted by its member companies for thefirst three quarters of 2009, 2010, and 2011. A thoroughassessment revealed a 7 percent increase overall. This isslightly more troubling than the 4.5-percent spikereported for the firsthalf of this year.

Once received, an incoming claim displaying at least onepossible indicator of fraud is categorized according totype—such as property, casualty, commercial, workers' compensation,vehicle, and miscellaneous. Each claim can contain asmany as seven referral reasons (or possible indicators) thatwarrant further investigation.

A total of 74,944 questionable claims werelogged during the first nine months of 2011, which accountsfor the aforementioned increase of seven percent, when NICBfactored in the 62,341 and 70,295 QCs submitted during the sameperiods in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

The questionable claims submitted by NICB memberinsurance companies contained a total of 142,316 referralreasons. Referrals under workers' compensation and casualtypolicies posted noticeable gains, while property andcommercial policies saw only slight decreases. Althoughvehicle claims remained flat, referrals related to “hail damage”claims soared 103 percent compared to the NICB's 2010findings.

More than 1,100 p&c insurers and self-insured organizationssupport NICB's ongoing mission to identify and deter fraudulentactivity. These members wrote more than $319 billion in insurancepremiums in 2010, or about 80 percent of the nation's p&cinsurance. That figure includes more than 94 percent ($152 billion)of the nation's personal auto insurance.

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