Insurer In N.Y. Cites Fraud For Rate Hike Need

By Daniel Hays

NU Online News Service, Jan. 10, 4:33 p.m. EST?New York's insurance superintendent called for action by the legislature on an anti-fraud package today after the state's largest auto insurance carrier said it had to raise rates to account for bogus injury claims.

"Now the legislature, particularly the Assembly, must get back to work to decrease the incidence of fraud," said Superintendent Gregory V. Serio.

A request for action by the legislature was made as well by Allstate Insurance Company, which said yesterday it had raised auto insurance rates 10.5 percent, citing high losses from accident injury fraud.

The new rates are effective for new customers, and for renewal business beginning Feb. 17, the company said.

A representative for the insurance department, Joanna Rose, refused to say whether other auto insurer rate hike requests have been submitted to her agency.

Allstate said it was forced to make the hike to keep up with rising claims costs, driven primarily by New York's no-fault fraud.

Maureen Sullivan, field corporate relations manager for Allstate's New York State Region, said, "no-fault insurance fraud is driving car insurance rates in New York, and is impacting the availability of affordable auto insurance products in the state."

She added that "increasing rates and limiting availability of insurance products is not the solution to the no-fault fraud problem. New York auto consumers will continue to pay for fraud, until we can curb its impact on the state's no-fault system."

She said "there are solutions to the fraud problem that will harm no one but the perpetrators of fraud. We urge the Legislature to act on the pending reforms that would stiffen criminal penalties for fraud, shorten deadlines for submitting bills, establish needed guidelines for treatment, and decertify medical professionals convicted of insurance fraud."

According to Mr. Serio, from 1999 to 2001 there was a 66 percent increase in no-fault reports of insurance fraud.

Mr. Serio announced that the department is getting better reporting of fraud because of a new online remote system, which allows insurers to report and cross-reference information with other reports containing common elements top better weed out fraud.

The system is available to all insurers, and 20 of the largest insurers are presently online. Once a report has been transmitted, the department's fraud bureau's database provides the insurer with information on accident reports that share common elements such as names and addresses and Vehicle Identification Numbers.

Mr. Serio and the administration of Republican Gov. George Pataki proposed a legislative overhaul in May of last year to combat auto fraud, but it ran into resistance in the Democrat-controlled Assembly.

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Insurer In N.Y. Cites Fraud For Rate Hike Need

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