Quick SPOT: 6 Security Tips To Keep Portable Technology Safe For Claims

Protect that claims data with common sense tips

If you are like me you keep everything on your laptop and cell phone. Numbers, corporate information, claims data, and even some of the dreaded non-private personal information of others. Claims data is filled with information that if lost or stolen could be detrimental to both the company and the individual. Many companies today issue corporate cell phones and blackberry devices as well as laptop computes in place of desktops. It’s a modern world and we are all expected to be connected. Partial work at home arrangements also mean this information is traveling from location to location which can increase the risk that things may be lost or stolen.

Recently I read in the Sophisticated Litigation Support Blog about 6 Security Steps To Take With Laptops, Smartphones, and Flash Drives.  As they noted according to William Quick, a sole practitioner in Clayton, MO who teaches and lectures on technology topics, “Identity theft is a mushrooming problem that Congress and the states have been trying to deal with any way they can.”

6 basic steps to prevent a loss

Sophisticated Litigation support suggested these 6 steps to help lower your risks:

  1. Be careful not to lose the device in the first place. Pay close attention to where your equipment is.
  2. Have a written plan that details your firm’s action if a data breach should happen.
  3. Only keep what you need. Decide what information has to be saved and then back up your data to a secure location on a regular basis.
  4. Lock your computer when you are away.
  5. Encrypt all devices – most statues don’t require you to inform your clients of encrypted data breach.
  6. Invest in back-up-plan software. Some software allows you to protect your data security after the fact.

But what happens if you loose the equipment anyway?

I had a manager that no matter how hard he tried would loose something all the time.  In one year I believe he lost 3 cell phones and a laptop. He actually almost lost another when he left it in the seat pocket in front of him.  Loosing equipment should be avoided at all costs, but if you do loose it, the Sophisticated Litigation Support Blog notes:

If you lose your equipment and someone obtains this information, you need to alert potentially affected parties of the loss – and that’s a lot easier said than done. It may also land you in some hot legal water (at several hundred bucks an hour, there really is no other water temperature in the legal world), because 46 states have data breach laws. So there could be some liability issues that come up.

Clearly having to explain to customers and claimants how you lost their information would not be a good thing. So discuss these issues with your group and incorporate some of the security tips to avoid a problem later.

Tell us your “I lost my equipment” story

AMA Study Finds Almost 1 Malpractice Claim Is Filed For Every Physician – Not Really Shocking

No surprise I guess – Doctors remain targets of malpractice

Despite being in this business for 20 years, even this report left me in a momentary state of shock. A study from the American Medical Association (AMA) reports that an average of 95 medical liability claims are filed for every 100 physicians, almost one per physician. The AMA study looked at 42 specialties and was from a sample size of over 5,800 physicians.

The report reminded me of the question my now Ob/Gyn brother asked me as he was graduating medical school. “Who gets sued more? Regular obstetricians, high risk obstetricians, or ones that specialize in fertility?” My answer to him at the time was “they all get sued.” I did not truly realize how true that statement was until I read this report (for my brother and anyone else that may be interested, the AMA says 69.2%  Ob/Gyn doctors have been sued with Ob/Gyn physicians averaging 215 claims per 100 hundred physicians).

The AMA report also found:

  1. Nearly 61 percent of physicians age 55 and over have been sued.
  2. There is wide variation in the impact of liability claims between specialties. The number of claims per 100 physicians was more than five times greater for general surgeons and obstetricians/gynecologists than it was for pediatricians and psychiatrists.
  3. Before they reach the age of 40, more than 50 percent of obstetricians/gynecologists have already been sued.
  4. Ninety percent of general surgeons age 55 and over have been sued.

Med-Mal claims are not an indication of frequency of medical errors yet the cost to defend them is high

As the AMA reported in New AMA Report Finds 95 Medical Liability Claims Filed for Every 100 Physicians:

The number of medical liability claims is not an indication of the frequency of medical error, as the physician prevails 90 percent of the time in cases that go to trial.  While 65 percent of claims are dropped or dismissed, they are not cost-free.  Average defense costs per claim range from a low of over $22,000 among claims that are dropped or dismissed to a high of over $100,000 for cases that go to trial. This leads to increased costs for physicians and patients.

Are you shocked by this report or is it just par for the course?

The Claims SPOT Has Been Selected As One Of The Top 50 Insurance Blogs For 2009

We are pleased to accept this wonderful honor by LexisNexis, a true leader in the industry.

As LexisNexis reported in Insurance Law Community’s Top 50 Insurance Blogs 2009 Honorees:

After some very careful review and a great deal of deliberation, the LexisNexis Insurance Law Community has selected its Top 50 Insurance Blogs for 2009.

We’d like to express gratitude to our Community members for your comments and suggestions. All of you submitted many of the new names on the 2009 Top 50 list and we thank you for infusing so much fresh talent into our Community. We also want to specially thank the LexisNexis Insurance Law Advisory Board for giving us their input.

These top blogs offer some of the best writing out there. They contain a wealth of information for all segments of the insurance industry, and include timely news items, expert analysis, practice tips, frequent postings and helpful links to other sites and sources.

Demonstrating on a daily basis that insurance makes the world go round, these blogs also show us how insurance issues interact with politics and culture. These sites also demonstrate the power of the blogsphere, by providing a collective example of how bloggers can—and do—impact and influence the law and the business of insurance.

We would also like to congratulate our fellow bloggers that we believe add so much to the industry as well:

Thank you for all your support and we hope you continue to read!

Promote Creative Thinking To Get The Most Out Of Your Claims Staff

So how do you train the next leaders in claims? How about challenging their creativity!

If you do not know about TED, I strongly recommend you take a look. To quote them directly:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

I recently watched the clip below from the TED archives and was so fascinated by the concepts I just had to relate them to claims.  Good workers are sometimes all that claims departments look for and, given the nature of claims these days, it is not a bad thing. There is so much to do and so little time to do it and good workers, however you define them, are great to have. But how often are creative thinkers found and rewarded?

I am a big proponent of new ways of looking at claims and trying to get people to think out of the box (see Change Hats With Someone And Free Your Mind To Make Your Claims Operation Better and Is your claims department becoming a bus company?). With increases in technology, more claims specialization and the constant pressures on staffing, the ability to freely think, analyze and resolve claims creatively is being challenged.

Sir Ken Robinson is considered a “Creativity Expert” and led the British government’s 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. He has most recently published a book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, which is a deep look at human creativity and education.

Good workers but not creative thinkers

Take a look at the video below with Sir Ken. He is truly and a dynamic speaker and the will engage you quickly.  In this clip, Sir Ken asks why don’t we get the best out of people? He argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Do you recognize that employee in your organization?

Two suggestions to help promote creativity

So how do you promote creativity? How do you get the claims staff to try new ideas? It is difficult to encourage creativity when claims have to be regimented and everything is being monitored and standardized. Regardless, there are ways to attack the creative mind to open up new ways to manage claims.

  1. Challenge staff to be more creative when looking at problems. When facing a difficult situation try and put together an old fashioned brain-storming session to allow free flowing ideas no matter how crazy. The idea here is to promote creativity and come up with new ways to solve problems.
  2. Another way to try and teach creativity is to tell war stories. Have a war story lunch and see who has resolved a claim in the most creative way. I am sure you will be surprised at how creative people are and retelling those stories will help stir the imaginations of others.

How do you think creativity plays a role in claims? What have you done to encourage free thinking?

3 Suggestions To Beat The Summer Slow Down In Claims (If You Do Slow Down)

It’s nice to spend time on the beach, but use the summer slow down to make some improvements

Let’s face it – no matter how busy your organization is, come August often times things begin to slow down. It seems everyone is on vacation, and while there is less coming in, there is still much to do. Now is the perfect time to clean up messes and get set for the fall push.

1. Managers & Supervisors

The summer is a great time to work on performance and training issues with your claims staff. With courts slowing down, fewer crises to deal with and less phone calls to take, now is a good time to work with claims handlers to get stronger. Even if your performance reviews are not due for several months, spend some of the extra time you may have to look for learning opportunities. Help claims handlers clear some “dead wood”, and mentor them to reach new goals for the future.  With the extra time there will be fewer interruptions and spending some of that extra time encouraging a handler to look for new ways to excel will benefit everyone.

2. Claims handlers

Wouldn’t it be nice to clear all those tasked items and clean your desk up. It’s been a busy year and things have been piling up. Emails, reports, bills,  and closings are just a few of items that can so easily stack up on a desk that need to be dealt with.  Pick a few items to clear from your long list of tasks and try and get to a clean slate. Here are a few more suggestions:

  • Clear the email folder and organize that in box so the email cascade can be more manageable
  • Look at your pending for older files that can use a little attention, or even better, be closed. Sometimes those older files just need a little push to get them to to the next level. Use any slow down time to reduce that file count.
  • Get through your snail mail. Yes people still send mail the old fashion way and if you spend a few hours a week cleaning and filing away that stack of papers on the the corner of the desk you will be better off before the next push.
  • Meet with your manager and look for opportunities to learn and improve your skills.

3. Claims Executives

Time to break out the strategic plan.  When was the last time you looked into the future? Don’t wait for Lilly pads to take over the lake (see my posting You Can’t Wait Till The Last Minute To Improve You Operation – Planning Starts Now!) take a look at future issues now. Explore your technology needs and look for opportunities to improve your operation. Focus on some key areas to target for lowering costs such as in areas of subrogation and salvage. There are opportunities there to re-tool your operation and get it ready for future growth.

Tell us how you best use slower times to improve your operation!