Social Media And Insurance Claims

You have doubtless heard of it. You probably have used it. Aside from the chattering
Class, you probably think that social media has little utilitarian value to claims professions. I agree with you. Wait, I just got off of twitter. I changed my mind, I don’t agree with you, here is why – This new social media world of communicating and information sharing is so effective in that it can’t be ignored by the insurance industry, particularly as it relates to the insurance claims business. Think about it, we deal in information and communication. The strong suit of the medium (social Media) is information and communication. What is social media? It is: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and much more. Currently, I am finalizing an eBook on this topic. Thus far, during my research, I have concluded that social media helps us in the following ways:

It allows us to see what our customers are thinking. What do they like and want and don’t want.

It allows us to answer customer questions for customers in a general nature. Note: claims are a litigious business and it would not be wise to share legal-sensitive information that would expose us to unwanted legal exposure.

It helps establish are brand as an exceptional claims organization.

It makes for a positive responsive presence with our customers

It allows claims professional to share information and thoughts on common claims topics

And so much more.

In my eBook, I will go into detail as to how to accomplish the above and provide plausible examples. I will complete the list. I will introduce you to my insurance claims social media vision which will help everyone who services insurance customers.

Thanks – Robert Carper

What is "Combined Ratio" and why should claims people care?

The combined Ratio is important to claims people because it is a measure of success. The lower the better. We contribute to this metric with efficent claims handling. This results in possible financial rewards given the company will make more money with an impressive combine ratio.

The combined ratio in insurance, combination of the loss ration and the expense ratio:
1. Loss Ratio
= Incurred Losses + Loss Adjustment ExpenseEarned Premiums

2. Expenses Ratio
=Incurred ExpensesWritten Premiums

The combined ratio is important to an insurance company since it indicates whether or not the company is earning a profit on the business it is writing, not taking into account investment returns on the premiums received. The property and casualty insurance business sometimes goes through cycles. During the 1980s, for instance, it was not unusual to have a combined ratio of over 120%. Obviously, the difference has to be made up from the company's surplus, which in some instances even put the major companies under severe financial strain.

This metric is useful to determine and compare the profitability between insurance companies. A combined ratio of less than 100% means that the company is profitable, as its premiums earned are greater than its total expenses. For example, an insurer with $800 in expenses and $1,000 in premiums earned has a combined ratio of 80% (800/1000). However, companies with combined ratios over 100% may still earn a profit because the ratio does not account for Investment Income.

Lower combined ratios signal that the company is more profitable than competitors with higher combined ratios.

9 Car Safety Features That Help Minimize Auto Claims
From National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
Whether you're shopping for a used or new car, it's important to spend time making sure it's safe. First off, you should take a test drive and try on the seat belt to make sure it fits well and is comfortable. Check that head restraints, roof structures, and windshield designs don't interfere with your ability to see clearly. And try to conduct your test drive in the evening so you can check the visibility provided by the headlights.

To help you better understand what to look for, click on the following links for descriptions of features:

Seat Belts In the event of a crash, seat belts are designed to keep you inside the vehicle. They also reduce the risk that you will collide with the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield. New seat belt designs have the following additional features that improve seat belt performance:

Adjustable upper belts. An adjustable upper belt lets you change the position of the shoulder strap to accommodate a person's size. This feature may encourage passengers to wear their belts, since it increases shoulder belt comfort. Seat belt pretensioner.

Pretensioners retract the seat belt to remove excess slack, almost instantly, in a crash. However, you still need to adjust your seat belt so that it fits as snugly as possible, since pretensioners are not powerful enough to pull you back into your seat in the event of an impact.

Energy management features. Energy management features allow seat belts to "give" or yield during a severe crash to prevent forces on the shoulder belt from concentrating too much energy on your chest. These features include "load limiters" built into the shoulder belt retractor and/or "tear stitching" in the webbing that causes the seat belt to extend gradually.

Rear center seat lap/shoulder belts. Some manufacturers provide a rear center lap/shoulder belt. This added feature is especially beneficial to older children and children in booster seats who are often seated in the rear center position.

Air Bags Depending on the speed at impact and the stiffness of the object struck, front air bags inflate to prevent occupants from hitting the dashboard, steering wheel, and windshield. Side air bags reduce the risk that occupants will hit the door or objects that crash through it. Although air bags provide life-saving benefits for the vast majority of people, there are situations in which air bag deployment can have adverse effects, such as when occupants are unbelted. Front air bags do not eliminate the need for seat belts and are not designed to offer protection in rollovers, rear, or side impacts. In fact, maximum air bag effectiveness depends upon seat belts, which help keep you in place should a collision occur. You can significantly reduce the risk of injury from an air bag by buckling your seat belt and keeping about 10 inches or more between your breastbone and the air bag. Children can be killed or seriously injured by an air bag, so you should always put children age 12 and under in the rear seat. You should never use a rear-facing child seat in the front seat of a vehicle equipped with a front passenger air bag unless the air bag is off.

Head Injury Protection Head injury protection consists of foam or other energy absorbing material under the trim of the vehicle interior and is likely to be invisible to vehicle occupants. Some vehicles have head air bags. While all head air bags are designed to deploy in side impacts, some are also designed to deploy during rollovers. Both types of air bags are designed to help protect occupants from injuries caused when their head strikes the upper interior of a vehicle.

Head Restraints Head restraints are extensions of the vehicle's seats that limit head movement during a rear-impact crash, thus, reducing the probability of neck injury. Head restraints meeting specific size and strength requirements are required in front seats, but not in rear seats. While you must adjust most head restraints manually, some adjust automatically with changes in seat position or dynamically in a crash. In general, dynamic head restraints provide the best protection.

Antilock Brake System An antilock brake system (ABS) prevents a vehicle's wheels from locking during "panic" braking, which allows the driver to maintain greater steering control -- a key factor in avoiding a collision. However, an ABS does not guarantee your ability to avoid a crash. Furthermore, you still may lose control when driving at excessive speeds or when using extreme steering maneuvers. Learning to use the ABS correctly will provide you with the greatest benefit from the system. All passenger cars equipped with ABS have four-wheel ABS. Sport utility vehicles, trucks, and vans equipped with ABS can have either four-wheel or two-wheel ABS. Four-wheel ABS monitor and control all the wheels of the vehicle, while two-wheel ABS only monitor and control the rear wheels of a vehicle. Some ABS's also include brake assist, which senses emergency braking by detecting the speed or force at which the driver presses the brake pedal and boosts the power as needed. Under certain conditions, brake assist may reach the braking force needed to activate the ABS more quickly and easily compared with vehicles without brake assist, and can potentially reduce overall stopping distance by eliminating the delay caused by not braking hard enough or soon enough.

Traction Control Traction control systems improve vehicle stability by controlling the amount the drive wheels can slip when you apply excess power. The system automatically adjusts the engine power output and, in some systems, applies braking force to selected wheels during acceleration. Traction control is mainly found in vehicles with four-wheel antilock brake systems.

All-Wheel DriveAll-wheel drive distributes power to both front and rear wheels to maximize traction. Unless combined with traction control, all-wheel drive systems do not prevent the drive wheels from slipping when you apply excess power during acceleration.

Electronic Stability ControlElectronic stability control (which is offered under various trade names) is designed to assist drivers in maintaining control of their vehicles during extreme steering maneuvers. Electronic stability control senses when a vehicle is starting to spin out (oversteer) or plow out (understeer), and it automatically applies the brake to a single wheel. It is intended to reduce the occurrence of crashes in which vehicles veer off the road and strike curbs, soft shoulders, guard rails and other objects that initiate rollovers. However, it can't keep a vehicle on the road if its speed is simply too great for the curve and the available traction.
Weight Crash data show that heavy vehicles offer more protection than light vehicles with the same safety equipment, particularly in two-vehicle crashes.

Nine Claims Speed Reading Tips

Much of our day is spent reading all sorts of claims material. It makes sense to increase our ability to grasp, digest and comprehend the claims material in the most effcient way possible. The following tips will help to achieve this objective.

1. Choose your claims reading material intelligently, efficient reading is the goal


2. Browse the material from back to front as often you will find that you have read it before


3. Read Early in the Day before the phones and emails start


4. Prioritize Your Reading - important claims material should take priority


5. Skim Material First for Main Ideas and preview Topics


6. Consider the digital version (If available) insurance policies are often in PDF format


7. Read in the Proper Environment (Comfort, Lighting, quiet etc.) if available


8. Decide what you want to accomplish by reading this material


9. Enroll in a Speed Reading Class if you have not achieved "The Read Speed" Claimstrainer is currently contructing a online claims speed reading module. Due out 2/12/10

INSURANCE FRAUD PRIMER(Part -1-)
When reviewing a claim, one or more of these indicators may suggest a potential fraud. Indeed, the more you find, the higher the prospect of fraud and the more important it is to investigate thoroughly. Most policyholders are honest, a claim must be given every opportunity to prove itself genuine, inconsistencies naturally surface in a properly conducted investigation.

This series is broken down into the important claims fraud components. I will address each component on a weekly basis. This week I will start with the policy. What does it cover? what does it not cover? Is the person and property covered? Does it fall within the policy period? Have the exclusions and conditions been addressed? and more. The following areas should be addressed (at a minimum) as they relate to the insurance (policy) contract.


Loss within first year (or sooner) of purchase of coverage
Loss shortly before renewal/expiry of cover
Loss shortly after increase in coverage
Notification of claim after policy lapse/cancellation
Existence of multiple policies covering same loss
Premium payment abnormalities
Pre-loss enquiry re cover/claims circumstances
Non-disclosure/misrepresentation
Frequent changes of insurer
Gaps in previous insurance history
Evidence of significant over insurance/under insurance
Policy arranged via agent far away from insured's home
Poor claims history
Claimant appears to be different from policyholder
Questionable use of property/occupation at time of loss
Very knowledgeable about the policy

Time Management Tips For
The Claims Professional
Here are 10 practical claims time management tips by Robert Carper

1. Write things down
A common claims time management mistake is to try to use your memory to keep track of too many details leading to information overload. Using a to-do list to write things down is a great way to take control of your projects and tasks and keep yourself organized. Keep a claims “to-do” list and you will be amazed by the results.

2. Prioritize your list
Prioritizing your “to-do” list helps you focus and spend more of your time on the things that really matter to help you resolve claims. Rate your tasks into categories using the ABCD prioritization system. Areas such as 1st contact, telephone calls, file review/recall, follow-up, email mail replies, paperwork, new claim file reviews etc. are usually at the top of the list.

3. Plan your day, week and month
Spend some time at the beginning of each day to plan your schedule. What are the things you need to do to accomplish your claims closings goals? Taking the extra time to do this will help increase your productivity and balance your important long-term claims objectives with your more urgent tasks. All you need is fifteen to thirty minutes each day for your planning session.

4. Make notes
Have you ever thought about a claims issue (while away from your desk) and thought I will implement this. If so, carry a small notebook with you wherever you go so you can capture your thoughts. If you wait too long to write them down you could forget. Another option is to use a digital device.

5. Learn to say no
The “superman syndrome” dictates that we think we can do it all, when in reality, we simply can’t. Many people become overloaded with too much work because they over commit; they say yes when they really should be saying no. Learn to say no to low priority requests and you will free up time to spend on things that are more important like serving customers and settling claims. Let’s face it, you can’t say no to your claims job responsibilities but you can focus only on the items that contribute to successful claims outcomes.

6. Think before acting
How best to approach the claim to resolve it in a customer service focused and efficient manner, is a question you will want to ask yourself. How many times have you committed to something you later decided was not the most efficient approach? Before committing to a new task, stop to think about it before you commit. Simply ask yourself “can I do this in a effective manner”. This will help with timely claims resolution.

7. Continuously improve yourself
Make time in your schedule to learn new things and develop your natural talents and abilities. For example, you could take a class, attend a training program, or read a book. Continuously improving your knowledge and skills increases your effectiveness, can help boost your claims career..

8. Stop the Claims productively killers!
Claims productively killers warrant recognition and elimination. It is a good idea to evaluate regularly how you are spending your time. In some cases, the best thing you can do is to stop doing an activity that is no longer serving you so you can spend the time doing something more valuable. Consider what you are giving up in order to maintain your current activities.

9. Use a claims time management system
Using a time management system can help you keep track of everything that you need to do, organize and prioritize your work, and develop sound plans to complete it. An integrated system is like Microsoft outlook or in some cases, you can use a company provided proprietary time management system that offers claims time management solutions.

10. Identify bad habits
Make a list of bad habits that are stealing your time, sabotaging your goals, and blocking your success. After you do, work on them one at a time and systematically eliminate them from your claims work model. Remember that the easiest way to eliminate a bad habit, it to replace it with a better habit.

Useful Insurance Links Part -1-
This is part one of the Claimstrainer useful insurance links series. This five part series will unfold in the next five weeks providing you with the most comprehensive insurance links available.

Property Casualty Insurers Association of Americahttp://www.pciaa.net/sitehome.nsf/main/
American Institute for CPCU and Insurance Institute of Americahttp://www.aicpcu.org/
CPCU Societyhttp://www.cpcusociety.org/
CIC Societyhttp://www.scic.com/
National Association of Insurance Women - Local Chaptershttp://www.naiw.net/
National Association of Insurance Womenhttp://www.naiw.org/
National Alliancehttp://www.thenationalalliance.com/
Risk Insurance Managers Societyhttp://www.rims.org/
Society of Insurance Researchhttp://www.sirnet.org/
Insurance Journalhttp://www.insurancejournal.com/Business Insurancehttp://www.businessinsurance.com/
Insurance news links http://www.insurancejournal.com/
All 50 departments of insurance http://www.ican2000.com/state.html
AM Best http://www.ambest.com/
Natl assc. of insurance commissioners http://www.naic.org/
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/
Officer.com http://www.officer.com/links/Agency_Search/
Fire departments USA http://home.flash.net/~jturner/map.htm