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Insurance
Fraud
Insurers better able to detect fraud
Insurance companies' ability to detect fraudulent claims by cross-checking them in an "all-claims" database will become keener as insurers adopt new methods of reporting and coding claims, a process that began in July.
More than 4,000 insurers, self-insured entities, and third-party administrators now report claims to ISO ClaimSearch SM —the antifraud information system established by Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) for auto, property and liability claims.
By cross-checking new claims against the 147 million records in the ISO ClaimSearch system, users can detect staged-accident rings, multiple claims for the same loss and other types of fraud.
Claims professionals will be able to spot potential fraud more easily and reliably because theyıll receive consistent, integrated reports across insurance lines. Insurers are waging a pitched battle against claims fraud—a $20 billion industry scourge that adds significantly to the cost of insurance.
Reprinted from: The Ohio Insurance Forum; September 2000
Cell
Phones
Reaction time for braking was 24 percent slower when men or women were using a cell phone than when they were not, according to the findings of a controlled study of licensed car drivers by researchers at Nfiami University.
"At 65 miles per hour, such a Cell Phone Use delay would increase stopping distance by nearly IO feet," said William P. Berg, slows reflexes associate professor of physical education, health and sport studies. "This is a considerable delay, especially considering that all the research participants had to do was focus on and react to the simulated brake light. In actual driving, the demand for attention would be far greater, and therefore, so could the delay.
In a simulated driving task, 16 young adults were told to move their foot from the accelerator to the brake as quickly as possible when they saw a red light activate in front of them. Reaction time was recorded without a phone and under four listening/ talking conditions: listening to a weather report on the phone; answering simple questions; answering challenging questions; and answering questions about beliefs or issues that might elicit an emotional response or about which the person might have a strong view.
Researchers found no difference in reaction time between male and female drivers.
Reprinted from: The Ohio Insurance Forum; September 2000
Unlicensed
Drivers
Unlicensed Drivers are involved in 19 percent of fatal crashes Almost one in every five fatal car crashes in the United States each year involves a driver who does not have a valid license or whose license status is a mystery to law enforcement, according to a study released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
The report, Unlicensed to Kill, said that 8,400 people die on average each year in crashes with unlicensed drivers. Researchers also found that 28 percent of the law-breaking drivers had received three or more license suspensions or revocations in the three years prior to their fatal collisions. ³Itıs like a revolving door. These people are being suspended and suspended and suspended again, and still theyıre driving,² said researcher Lindsay I. Griffin of the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A & M University.
Griffin and colleagues studied five years of data from the Department of Transportationıs Fatality Analysis Reporting System, 1993 through 1997. They studied 278,078 drivers involved in 183,749 fatal crashes. Among the drivers, 13.8 percent, or 38,374 drivers, had a license that was suspended, revoked, expired, canceled or denied; had no license at all; or in, some cases, were a mystery because they were hit-and-run drivers; or law enforcement officers could not determine their license status for other reasons. Among the crashes, 19 percent, or 36,750, involved such a driver.
The researchers said a California policy of impounding the vehicles of unlicensed drivers and technology being developed, such as "smart cards" that would prevent an illegal driver from taking the wheel, show promise in preventing fatalities.
Reprinted from: The Ohio Insurance Forum; September 2000
Tsunamis
East Coast insurers beware Property/casualty insurers in the Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina markets could be in store for a different type of catastrophe—tsunamis, according to an article in Bestıs Review.
Although tsunamis typically occur in Pacific Rim countries, scientists reported in Geology that there is a potential for landslides off the continental shelf and slope along the Mid-Atlantic coast that could trigger 20-foot-high waves. The coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay area are at a greater risk of flooding if a tsunami occurs, because their coastlines are low-lying and in a direction opposite to the potential slide motion of the shelf, according to the report.
The scientists say itıs difficult to forecast when and where tsunamis will strike. Tsunamis are devastating, as evidenced by the loss of 2,000 lives when one hit northern Papua New Guinea in 1998.
Researchers also said if a tsunami hits, the destruction could be catastrophic given the development in the Mid-Atlantic and southern coastlines of the United States.
Reprinted from: The Ohio Insurance Forum; September 2000
Child
Booster Seats
Safer
than seat belts for 4—8 year olds
Strapping young children into seat belts instead of car booster seats significantly increases their risk of death and serious injury, a study shows.
The results bolster the federal governmentıs safety campaign promoting booster seats for youngsters who have outgrown child safety seats. That category includes children about 48 years old weighing 4080 pounds, and those who are less than 58 inches tall. ³Correct seat-belt fit is not usually achieved until a child is 9 years old,² wrote the authors, whose study appears in Pediatrics, the medical journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Car crashes are the leading cause of death and disability for children older than 1, the authors noted. In 1998 alone, 697 child passengers younger than 6 died, and nearly 100,000 were injured in crashes government data show.
The new study suggests that using booster seats could have prevented a sizable portion of those deaths and injuries. The authors examined data on car crashes involving children reported to State Farm Insurance in 15 states and the District of Columbia. They focused on 2,077 young-sters ages 25. Overall, nearly 40 percent of the 2- to 5-year-olds were restrained in seat belts, which by age 4 were the most common restraints. Less than 1 percent of children older than 5 were in booster seats during the study period, Dec. 1, 1998, through Nov. 30, 1999.
Reprinted from: The Ohio Insurance Forum; September 2000
