Single All-Claims Database and Claim-Analysis Technology Key to Fighting Insurance Fraud, Say Experts

January 1, 2011 / 2 min read

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 18, 1998 — A comprehensive industry database of all claims, combined with today's sophisticated claim-analysis technology, are potent weapons in the war against insurance fraud — a $20-billion-a-year property/casualty catastrophe, two data-management experts said today at Insurance Services Office, Inc.'s (ISO) AISG lnsTech98 Conference.

James Surrago, ISO's vice president of data management and information services, and Valerie A. Zicko, research director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, made the observations before an audience of property/casualty insurance executives at the conference's data-management and technology session.

Sponsored by ISO's American Insurance Services Group unit, AISG InsTech98 is the premier insurance-technology forum for the property/casualty insurance industry devoted to technology-application issues and solutions.

"Insurance fraud is a $20-billion-a-year menace to businesses and consumers," Surrago said." According to an Insurance Research Council survey, insurance fraud investigators identified an all-claims database for the industry among their top two priorities for combating fraud," said Surrago.

ISO has made rapid strides in providing the solution the industry has been looking for by developing ISO ClaimSearchSM, the industry's only all-claims database that integrates auto theft, bodily injury and property claims information for fraud investigations, Surrago noted.

"The effectiveness of the ISO ClaimSearch database in identifying suspicious claims patterns will depend on the quantity and completeness of claims data reported to ISO," Surrago said. Insurers now report 20 percent of the claims they receive.

"As the ISO ClaimSearch database becomes fully functional in 1999, when the individual auto-theft, bodily-injury and property-claims databases are completely integrated, investigators will be able to undertake more thorough and advanced-level searches to detect claim patterns and handle meritorious claims more efficiently. Right now, it is tedious and time-consuming for insurers' special investigation units to conduct limited searches across multiple lines of insurance to identify similarities in claims patterns and other common links," Surrago observed.

Zicko, of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau, stressed "quality and availability of good data" are critical in fraud investigations.

ISO's AISG lnsTech98 features six conference tracks on claims, underwriting, loss control, premium audit, data management and insurance technology, comprising 45 sessions and 95 speakers. Speakers have been drawn from leading insurance and technology companies including Travelers Property Casualty Co.; CNA Financial Corp.; CIGNA Corp.; The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.; The Chubb Group; IBM Corp.; Computer Sciences Corp.; Automatic Data Processing, Inc.; and Control Data Systems.

In addition, ISO's AISG lnsTech98 features a Technology Showcase demonstrating applications of insurance-industry software and 62 exhibitors of technology products and services.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com