A new and improved Insurance Claims Register (ICR) has been launched this month which will help insurers detect fraud more easily.
The new system, which boasts access to 7 million records, can now show red flags alerting insurers of double dipping claimants or a geographic history of claims.
Manager of the ICR, Dave Ashton, said insurers could now search the claims history of potential new policyholders to see if other companies had included alerts on them.
Ashton was recruited last year to update the register, which has been available for insurers to use for 16 years, because of his background in using advanced computer software to analyse military intelligence for the RAF.
Now Ashton hopes to spot other trends, such as demographic comparisons using dates of birth which could highlight patterns in age groups.
He said with the ICR returning searches in milliseconds as opposed to minutes, insurers would be able to check records significantly quicker, which would be a real boost to business.
“The new ICR has a ‘Real Time’ capability, so claims handlers and underwriters can instantly check claims history and alerts to establish any risk without delays in their processes,” he said.
It was estimated insurance fraud adds around $350 million to the cost of insurance in New Zealand, Ashton said.
The six member companies who set up the register in 1999 were
Vero,
AA Insurance,
IAG,
Tower,
Lumley and
FMG.
