ISO Shows How to Avoid Bottlenecks in Personal Injury Claims at 5th Annual Claims Club Conference

  • ISO participated in an interactive panel debate with leading executives from legal, medical and insurance firms
  • ISO’s Personal Injury Claims Assessment Service (PICAS) encourages a more collaborative approach to the PI settlement process – for faster, more consistent settlements

London, U.K. – 15th December 2009 – An interactive panel discussion at this year's Post Magazine Claims Club Conference investigated current bottlenecks in the personal injury claims settlement process. Speaking on the panel, Joe Pendle, Director of Client Services at Insurance Services Office (ISO) Limited, the U.K.'s leading provider of personal injury (PI) claims solutions and services, demonstrated how a more collaborative PI claims process enables all stakeholders to seamlessly and quickly transfer claims information. This allows for more effective communication throughout the settlement process – as envisaged by the Ministry of Justice reforms – ensuring faster, more consistent settlements for claimants. The panel brought together top professionals involved in the PI claims process across the legal, medical and insurance industries.

The interactive debate session – Personal Injury Claims: Evolution or Revolution? – saw Joe Pendle of ISO joined by panellists, including Nick Addyman, senior partner at Cogent Solicitors, Eric Baygot, Sales & Marketing Director at WARP Technologies, Elaine Clarke, LV= Group Regional Claims Manager, and Jason Powell, Chief Executive Officer of Premier Medical Group.

"The current business process associated with ‘low value’ personal injury claims is unnecessarily cumbersome for the claimants. As a group, we need to come together with the intent to help develop a solution that is both fast and fair for the claimant, and efficient and effective for solicitors and insurers," said Nick Addyman from Cogent Solicitors.

When questioned by a leading insurer as to why his firm was working collaboratively with insurers in the PICAS scheme, Mr Addyman stated categorically that because of the reductions in lifecycle it was clearly in his clients’ best interests.

The lifecycle of a PI claim usually involves a great deal of 'back-and-forth' correspondence — with reliance on postal services, returned telephone calls and medical reporting — all of which adds to the cost of the claim and the frustration of the claimant. The panellists explored methods to reduce lifecycles and/or costs, how claimants' interests are being met, the developments that are being made as part of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) reforms, as well as the impacts of Lord Justice Jackson’s preliminary report on Civil Litigation Costs.

"In light of the MoJ's proposed reforms of the PI claims process, claims professionals from across the sector need to collaborate with one another and across industries to promote a solution that is both fast and fair for the claimant," added ISO's Joe Pendle. "A collaborative solution has a major impact on the way the claims settlement process operates, allowing all parties within the claims life cycle to communicate and settle claims more efficiently. The ability to seamlessly and quickly transfer claims information between all stakeholders not only enables better communication between parties, but empowers the solicitors to generate immediate responses from the insurer and more importantly allows for considerably faster and more consistent settlements."

For more stories relating to this news:

ISO launches Personal Injury Claims Assessment Service (PICAS) — Industry’s First Solution to Entirely Digitise the Personal Injury Claims Process

ISO Claims Outcome Advisor (COA) Becomes U.K. Motor Insurance Market’s Leading Injury Claims Evaluation Solution

About ISO Claims Outcome Advisor™ (COA™)
ISO Claims Outcome Advisor™ (COA™) is the industry’s first personal injury claims management solution that manages the multiple dimensions of organisations’ personal injury claims portfolios. COA understands the severity and recovery implications of more than 18,000 injuries, treatments, complications and pre-existing conditions and 14,000 occupations and creates for an insurer an historic database of all of its injury claims. COA helps claims handlers, managers and actuaries manage the unique and complex medical, legal and occupational issues presented by personal injury claims, and helps ensure appropriate financial arrangements are agreed to and implemented. Claims handlers can manage all aspects of a case from first notice of loss to return-to-work plans, rehabilitation and damages.

About ISO
A leading source of information about risk, ISO provides data, analytics, and decision-support services to professionals in many fields, including insurance, finance, real estate, health services, government, human resources, and risk management. Using advanced technologies to collect, analyse, develop, and deliver information, ISO helps customers evaluate and manage risk. The company draws on vast expertise in actuarial science, insurance coverages, fire protection, fraud prevention, catastrophe and weather risk, predictive modeling, data management, economic forecasting, social and technological trends, and many other fields. To meet the needs of diverse clients, ISO employs an experienced staff of business and technical specialists, analysts, and certified professionals. Around the world, ISO helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets. ISO is a member of the Verisk Analytics family of companies. For more information, visit www.iso.com or contact:

Mark Strang
Business Development Manager, ISO
Tel: 01252 761055
mstrang@iso.com

Manuela Whittaker
The Press Office – PR for ISO
Tel: 01780 721433
mwhittaker@pressoffice.targetwire.com

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