Exhibitors Offer Solutions in Cyber Risk, Supply Chain Exposures, Workers’ Comp

Hundreds of exhibitors representing myriad insurance interests and specialties assembled at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia. National Underwriter met with them to discuss some of the new offerings they presented to the thousands of risk-management attendees on hand for the four-day event.

RISK-ANALYSIS DASHBOARD & CYBER RISK

Travelers' Michael J. Strietelmeier, second vice president, risk-management information services, presented the company's risk-analyzer dashboard in its e-CARMA suite of information services and tools.

The new Web-based analyzer allows a risk manager to compile various loss data into an easy-to-use statistical format with just a few clicks.

The dashboard, which is custom-assembled for clients by Travelers, includes loss data going back five years to provide a granular picture of a company's claims history and helps discern patterns of loss.

“This was built by risk-management professionals for risk managers,” says Strietelmeier. The dashboard has been rolled out to 2,300 customers, says Travelers, and shortly will be released to a total of 11,500.

The analyzer is geared toward companies in the mid-to-large-size range, with a claim frequency of 50 to 100 incidents a year.

Travelers also unveiled an enhanced version of its CyberFirst product that Kirstin Simonson, underwriting director of global technology, says expands its coverage to first-party coverage options.

In the past, the product only covered third-party cyber liability such as technology errors and omissions, network and information security liability, and communications and media liability.

Now, the first-party coverage will cover costs resulting from cyber attacks that include forensic investigation to determine what happened and who was harmed; cost of notification; reputational risk; and exposure to fraud and telecommunication theft, such as billing for long-distance phone calls the policyholder never made.

SWISS RE CORPORATE SOLUTIONS LOOKS TO INCREASED SPEED OF PAYOUTS

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has announced its Business Continuity Expense Coverage, offering quick cash payouts and enhanced flexibility to businesses damaged by seismic activity.

The insurance product, designed three years prior and licensed in 2011, was first introduced in Japan as a buffer against loss damage, the cost of debris removal and extra expenses in line with business continuity.

“Japanese businesses were running out of cover quite quickly due to gaps in coverage,” Serge Troeber, chief underwriting officer at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, tells NU. “This [business-continuity plan] provides funding based on a defined trigger related to an intensity-to-payout ratio.”

“It pays out quickly once triggers are hit, providing for realistic extra expenses,” he adds. “Companies may have to order new goods, hire additional short-term employees and advertise that they are still in business.”

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions calculates the payout based on a professional estimate of property damage or loss-of-profit trigger based on the quake's magnitude. The compensation offers up to 3 billion yen if the event's magnitude is 7.4 or greater.

DEALING WITH SUPPLY-CHAIN EXPOSURE

Following 2011's lessons in global business interruption due to catastrophes, Supply Chain exposure is a growing concern among risk managers—and AIR Worldwide has addressed that concern with the expansion of its suite of Catastrophe Risk Engineering solutions.

Akshay Gupta, AIR's senior principal engineer and director of catastrophe-risk engineering, says the new offering helps risk managers better understand the probability of exposures to their supply chains, including political risk.

The analysis can run from just a portion of the supply chain to 100 percent to understand “the interdependent action of multiple events” on their business,” says Gupta.

PHYSICIAN-GUIDED CARE

Paladin Managed Care Services is offering a new service designed to lower costs and improve outcomes in Workers' Compensation cases: physician-guided management care.

Where most health-care management-services companies rely on nurses to review cases and influence treatment, says Paladin COO Jeffrey D. Miller, his company has doctors reviewing these cases.

The advantage is that Workers' Comp cases go through a peer-review process through which doctors discuss cases with doctors to determine the best outcome for a patient.

Savings comes from Paladin's specialists working with claimants' doctors to determine the most-effective course of action for getting patients back to work as quickly as possible.

As medical decisions are made faster, says Miller, the system reduced medical costs by 8 percent and litigation by more than 50 percent in a study group.