ISO Launches PICAS Plus to Automate the Evaluation of Motor Personal Injury Claims

• New system minimises negotiation time between claimant representatives and compensators

• Claim agreed upon through the automated process can be settled within minutes

• Enhances and streamlines the current Ministry of Justice (MoJ) process

London, U.K. – 09 January 2012 – Insurance Services Office (ISO) Limited, the U.K.'s leading provider of personal injury claims solutions, has launched PICAS Plus, a major new version of its award-winning Personal Injury Claims Automated Settlement programme. PICAS Plus works with the industry-leading ISO Claims Outcome Advisor^_® (COA™) to automate the evaluation of motor personal injury (PI) claims. Using information covering 18,000 medical conditions, COA provides users greater consistency of valuations.

As part of the MoJ settlement process, claimant representatives currently have to value the claim when submitting a Stage Two Settlement Pack through the MoJ claims settlement portal and must attach the appropriate medical report and special damage evidence electronically. With PICAS Plus, the ISO system can import medical details via the appropriate medical reporting software, which automatically populates COA with the relevant information and then automatically runs an estimated settlement assessment on behalf of the compensators.

By using PICAS Plus, compensators can dramatically reduce the time that claims handlers spend inputting data and negotiating claims. If the compensator, using COA, values the claim similarly to the value proposed in the Settlement Pack, the case will settle automatically without further claims handler involvement. Since being implemented earlier this year, PICAS Plus has demonstrated the ability to reduce claims processing time from days to minutes. In one recent case, a claim submitted through the portal was settled in under 30 minutes, including exchange of counteroffers.

Commenting on the launch, Joe Pendle, director of Client Services at ISO, said, "The increased automation of PICAS Plus makes the system extremely easy for both claimant representatives and claims handlers to use. PICAS Plus was designed to work within the normal MoJ settlement process, so claimant representatives are required to submit only the Stage Two Settlement Pack, as they do now, and await the results of the evaluation. Normally the results are available within minutes."

"The increased automation that PICAS Plus delivers revolutionises the personal injury claims process to the benefit of all parties involved: claimants, claimant representatives and compensators. The new PICAS Plus system further streamlines the process in an environment where all stakeholders are looking to minimise handling costs," continued Pendle. "This system currently is available only for motor personal injury claims, but the principles involved could be rolled out to other types of claims if the MoJ portal is extended. The speed at which claims are being settled via PICAS Plus could potentially shape the way all insurance claims are handled."

_{About ISO
Since 1971, ISO has been a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, the company provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting, and claims information; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud-identification tools; and technical services. ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents and brokers, insurance regulators, risk managers, and other participants in the property/casualty insurance marketplace. ISO is a member of the Verisk Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK). For more information, visit www.iso.com and www.verisk.com or contact:}

_{Mark Strang
Tel: 01252 761055
mstrang@iso.com}

_{Claire Grant, IBA – PR for ISO
Tel: 01780 721433
cgrant@ibapressoffice.com}

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