Anti-Fraud Technology Helps

The use of anti-fraud technology is growing as more insurers see a positive return on investment (ROI). Today’s technology is helping to counter emerging threats such as underwriting scams, money-laundering and cyberfraud. Yet advanced tools such as predictive analysis and geo-mapping are far from widespread among insurers.

These are among the core findings of a study of insurer use of anti-fraud technology conducted by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, with assistance by the business analytics company SAS.

“Insurers are investing in different technologies to combat fraud, but a common component to all these solutions is data,” said Stuart Rose, global insurance marketing principal at SAS. “The ability to aggregate and easily visualize data is essential to identify specific fraud patterns.”

“Technology is playing a larger and more trusted role with insurers in countering growing fraud threats. Software tools provide the efficiency insurers need to thwart more scams and impose downward pressure on premiums for policyholders,” said Dennis Jay, the Coalition’s executive director.

Nearly all insurers (95 percent) said they use anti-fraud technology, compared to 88 percent in 2012.

SIUs also appear to be making headway in building a strong internal business case for anti-fraud technology. Only 8 percent of insurers said lack of ROI was a challenge to implementing anti-fraud weapons, compared to 36 percent in 2012.

Fraud also appears to be spreading, creating a heightened need for tech solutions.

Suspicious activity rose over the last three years, more than half of insurers said. Increased schemes also flowed through the entire claims cycle. Insurers, for example, saw more attempted fraud in applications and renewals — the so-called point of sale. This is especially prevalent with buying of online coverage.

Insurer deployment of advanced tools could help. While most insurers (81 percent) use basic tools such as automated red flags/business rules, far fewer employ more-advanced technology such as link analysis (50 percent), predictive modeling (43 percent) and text mining (43 percent).

Many insurers also appear to face a shortage of claims and anti-fraud professionals despite rising incidence of insurance crime. Technology can help bolster these often-understaffed teams. In fact the top two benefits of anti-fraud technology insurers cited were more referrals (59 percent) and higher-quality ones (69 percent). Improved investigator efficiency also was a crucial benefit (41 percent).

“An anti-fraud strategy that includes the right mix of tools and technologies will result in a much-higher fraud-detection rate,” the study concludes. “This strategy will go a long way toward cutting overall losses for an insurer.”

To access the full whitepaper, The State of Insurance Fraud Technology, visit: www.sas.com.