High-Loss Management Seminar Held in Boston

Pilgrim Insurance, a provider in business process outsourcing, recently sponsored a seminar to promote awareness on auto insurance reform and methods for managing high-risk business in Massachusetts.

Ronald Mariano, state representative and member of the Governor’s Auto Reform Task Force, joined Glenn Cunha, Chief, Insurance & Unemployment Division of the Attorney General’s Office, Kathleen Cullen, claims practice leader of Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, Pilgrim President, Ellen Wilcox to create a fact-filled day focused on ways to manage high-loss auto business and stay current with the Massachusetts reform initiative.

Mariano explained the various responsibilities and challenges the task force faces in its efforts to develop an equitable auto insurance model for consumers and carriers. Among those challenges is the need “to convince the eighty one representatives of the legislature that change is required and they need to support the insurance reform initiative.” Mariano conducted a review of the proposals that are currently being evaluated with the support of Insurance Commissioner Julianne Bowler. “With only nineteen carriers writing business in Massachusetts, we need to create better models which allow for more carriers to enter the competitive mix,” Mariano said.

Also at this seminar, Pilgrim’s Wilcox highlighted the benefits of focusing on the Personal Injury Protection (PIP) claim processes.

In her presentation Effective High Loss Management: Business Process Changes Required, Wilcox emphasized the need for carriers to aggressively review both their PIP and adverse subrogation processes. “This is one of our major hot buttons and an area where companies could improve their high loss ratios. PIP losses account for 30-40% of the losses within Massachusetts auto,” Wilcox said. “Medical management is also a key business process that can achieve maximum savings on every bill through effective processing.”

Additional speakers and panelists addressed fraud and provided recommendations on best practices to win the war on fraud. Mass. attorney Chris Jantzen, New York attorney Robert Glick and Cunha shared various strategies to implement a successful examination under oath (EUO).

Tillinghast’s Cullen outlined the key components to fighting fraud. She said, “The companies who have created a team approach integrating underwriting, SIU and claims are well on their way to successfully reducing their overall fraud exposure.”