Claims Magazine June 2007
Cover Story
Total Recall
In an age when distribution networks and supply sources are becoming more global, manufacturers must rely on outside providers to supply high-quality components or ingredients.
Features
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Bent Out of Shape
There was a time when cars were only about getting from one place to another.
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A Calculated Move
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, vexing questions regarding business-interruption losses emerged that were encountered infrequently in Texas and Louisiana before the storms.
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Where Do We Go from Here?
Editor's note: Last month, David Rioux outlined various initiatives brought together by certain fraud-fighting associations that were striving to increase the awareness of the fraud crisis.
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Claim Technology Trends
Anyone with an ounce of sales resistance will recoil from promises of a product that is "new and improved" because experience teaches that even if the former is true, the latter may not be.
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Playing with Fire
For years, insurers have been the target of bad-faith legal actions and judgments.
Columns
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Taming the E-Mail Beast
Claim professionals--like most business people--are drowning in a tsunami of e-mail.
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The Last Frontier
Can you name a coverage that represents $25B-$30B in annual claim payouts, represents more than 90 percent of an average nine-month claim cycle time, yet has seen little-to-no investment in technology and innovation?
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Grieving Fido
In March, Menu Foods recalled dog and cat foods produced at two of its facilities and sold under a number of different brand names.
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"Flat-World" Predictions
Editor's Note: The Iconoclast suggests that Tom Friedman's The World is Flat should be mandatory reading for all of us, as it tells us how our 21st Century world might look.
Departments
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Auto-Theft Rates Highest in the West
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its annual "Hot Spots" report on auto theft last month.
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Insurers Settling Disputed Katrina Claims
Several insurers have finalized settlements with claimants over disputed homeowner losses stemming from Hurricane Katrina.
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First-Quarter Losses Top $1.2 Billion
The quarter's costliest event occurred in early March, when tornadoes raked areas of Alabama and Georgia.
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NICB Leads Effort to Fight Fraud
Driven by an annual fraud loss of $30 billion, the nation's property and casualty insurance companies are taking aggressive action based on a two-year, industry-wide review of their fraud fighting efforts.
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Speaking Of: Thermography
Using infrared thermography is an effective way for claim adjusters to non-destructively evaluate buildings, especially in water-loss cases.
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Hurricane Watch 2007
Predicting hurricanes and tropical storms isn't an exact science, as illustrated by the 2006 storm season.
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Higher Learning Adjustments
Travelers' new Claim University aims to keep the company's property and casualty adjusters in top mental form.
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The Joy of Fraud
Ask insurance special investigation units and claim adjusters what they consider to be the most entertaining type of fraud to investigate, and workers' compensation fraud will likely top the list.
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Palisades Wows Drivers
Palisades has been ranked the number one auto insurer in New Jersey for the third year in a row.
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Cat Claims Assessment Drops
The Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) is lowering an assessment rate paid by insurers that covers unlimited lifetime medical costs for victims injured in auto accidents by 10 percent.
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Cat Losses Highest for Hoosiers
Indiana residents experienced more property damage than any other state last year, due largely to the fact that no severe tropical storms or hurricanes affected coastal regions.
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Ingenix Releases e-Billing Software
Health information technology provider, Ingenix, recently launched a new workers' compensation e-billing software program.
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New Cybersettle Program Handles Claim Disputes
Online dispute resolution company Cybersettle has recently introduced Cybersettle 6.0.
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MSB Upgrades IntegriClaim
Building cost data and estimating technology provider to the property insurance industry, MSB, has recently unveiled a new software upgrade.
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Sapiens Releases Insight for Reinsurance
Sapiens International recently introduced Sapiens Insight for Reinsurance version 3.5.
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Travelers Launches OSHA Recordkeeping for e-CARMA
Travelers has recently announced that OHSA Recordkeeping will now be a part of their Risk Management Information System, e-CARMA.
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Is Life Getting You Down?
I was talking with an adjuster friend the other day who was lamenting that "his life was in the toilet."
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