NEW YORK, April 7, 1999 — The chances of getting away with an insurance scam have been reduced by new technological enhancements to ISO ClaimSearchSM, the property/casualty industry's comprehensive all-claims information system.
Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) has unveiled ISO ClaimSearch Online, a system that directly connects insurers' claims handlers and fraud investigators from Special Investigation Units (SIUs) to ISO ClaimSearch's databases of bodily-injury, property-loss and auto claims information. ISO ClaimSearch Online's new Investigations Query (IQ) Tool is specifically designed to help fraud investigators more easily detect suspicious claim patterns and potential fraud rings.
The new IQ Tool provides immediate access to the databases, simultaneously searching for query matches across multiple lines of insurance. The new Online tool provides SIU investigators significantly more data and improved search capabilities, including faster and more efficient searches across multiple insurance lines.
Among the enhanced capabilities:
- The new IQ Tool permits special investigators to search all injury claims through the bodily-injury database for names of both insureds and claimants, improving investigators' ability to detect individuals who change roles as part of an insurance-fraud ring.
- The IQ Tool features an improved address-search capability in the system's property-claims database. These searches are designed to help investigators target addresses more effectively.
SIUs play a key role in supporting insurers' claims professionals in investigating and identifying insurance fraud. SIUs work with law-enforcement officials, whenever possible, to prosecute fraud. Insurance regulations in some states also require insurers to have SIUs and most insurers assign special investigators to examine suspicious claims.
"The latest enhancements to ISO ClaimSearch mark a significant milestone in the industry's quest for the 'Holy Grail' of a reliable, integrated all-claims information system," said Richard P. Boehning, ISO Senior Vice President ." We've raised the ante for anyone who would commit insurance fraud. "Fraud costs the property/casualty industry an estimated $20 billion a year.
The latest enhancements to the ISO ClaimSearch system follow last year's introduction of Claim Reporting and Search Software, a PC-based application that simplifies insurers' reporting of claims information to the system. Using the software package, insurers can report all claims, regardless of type or line of insurance, and can receive reports from the system sorted by a number of variables.
The ISO ClaimSearch system includes complementary databases comprising the bodily-injury and property-loss claims databases of the American Insurance Services Group (AISG) and the vehicle-information and claims databases acquired from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) in 1998.
Release: Immediate
Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com