Insurers, ISO and the National Insurance Crime Bureau

January 1, 2011 / 3 min read

JERSEY CITY, N.J., March 26, 2007 — Addressing an industrywide meeting of property/casualty insurance claims and special investigations executives, Susan Q. Hood, State Farm claims vice president and chairperson of an industry fraud data working group, announced a number of enhancements that will help mitigate the impact of fraud on the insurance industry and consumers.

In her keynote remarks at the 2007 Insurance Fraud Management Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Ms. Hood described eight data initiatives designed to improve data collection, data sharing, and data analytics for fighting fraud through the services of the ISO ClaimSearch all-claims database and system. “Fraud is a huge problem, costing the insurance industry over $30 billion a year, and these initiatives will help the industry to better combat it,” Ms. Hood stated.

The initiatives were developed by a fraud data working group made up of representatives from the insurance industry, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), and ISO. The initiatives will enable ISO's all-claims database to be leveraged as the principal, central repository for claims and fraud data. According to Ms. Hood, “The specific initiatives will provide more actionable information for special investigations units and NICB investigators to improve their ability to identify fraudulent claims.”

Under the program, ISO will work through 2007 with insurers and the NICB to implement the eight initiatives, which include enhancements such as revising reporting formats both to and from ISO, adding more optional data fields to the ISO database, changing the process for submitting questionable claims through ISO ClaimSearch to the NICB, and creating the ability to extract and sort data.

Richard Boehning, senior vice president of ISO, said, “The initiatives will also promote best practices and protocols for insurers’ timely and accurate submission of fraud-related data.

“A number of the changes will affect the data that companies can submit and the data we can return for claims investigation,” Mr. Boehning said. “It will be important for companies to develop internal plans to adapt to the changes in order to capture the value intended.”

ISO staff will work closely with individual ISO ClaimSearch participants to ensure that they are aware of system enhancements and are informed of how to extract full value from improved system resources. ISO will also release regular communications to ISO ClaimSearch users and the industry overall as initiatives are completed during the coming months.

About the Insurance Fraud Management Conference
The annual Insurance Fraud Management Conference, sponsored by ISO and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, brings together hundreds of insurers’ claims and special investigations unit managers who are involved in claims fraud detection and investigations. The three-day conference features dozens of workshops and general sessions devoted to investigations management, process, and procedures.

About ISO ClaimSearch
ISO ClaimSearch serves thousands of insurers, 24 state workers compensation insurance funds, 650 public and private self-insured organizations, 480 third-party administrators, several state fraud bureaus, and many law enforcement agencies involved in investigation and prosecution of insurance fraud. More than 77,700 claims, investigations, and law enforcement users connect to the system through the Internet or other high-speed telecommunications facilities.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500