Business News: Worley Claims Services, Aon, ISO, Workers’ Comp Benchmarking Study

Louisiana-based Worley Claims Services, LLC, an insurance claims services provider, announced the acquisition of Apex Claims Service of New England, LLC, a provider of daily and catastrophe commercial and residential property claims based in Westfield, Massachusetts.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. StoneRidge Advisors, LLC advised Worley on the transaction.

Founded in 2005, Apex has established itself as a leading property claims adjusting and services provider in the Northeast. The company specializes in providing daily and complex loss adjusting services for regional and national insurance carriers.

The agreement with Apex is Worley’s fifth acquisition since 2015. In July of 2015, Worley acquired NCA Group, a provider of daily and catastrophe residential and commercial property claims services throughout the U.S. In October of 2015, Worley acquired Charlotte, North Carolina-based RJMW Claims Services, a regional provider of daily and catastrophe residential and commercial property claims services. In July of 2016, Worley acquired San Jose, California-based Summit Independent Claim Services, which provides commercial/GA and residential property loss adjusting services. Most recently, in August of 2016, Worley acquired Orlando, Florida-based Nexxus Solutions Group, a national managed repair contractor and service provider network serving the property insurance industry in the U.S. and Canada.

Miscellaneous small business segments now have access to a professional liability insurance solution that can help protect them against errors and omissions (E & O). Aon Affinity, the affinity business of Aon plc, recently launched Aon Professional Liability Plus, a nationwide program that provides malpractice insurance to more than 300 classes of traditionally hard-to-place small businesses.

The program, underwritten by an A-rated carrier, offers coverage for more than 300 classes of miscellaneous professional businesses.

ISO recently announced a strategic alliance with IDP, Inc., a SaaS provider for the property/casualty insurance industry, that expands the ISO Preferred Data Partnership – a new program in which ISO collects and refines raw policy data directly from insurers and submits reports on their behalf to regulators across the United States. ISO is a Verisk Analytics business.

As part of the ISO Preferred Data Partnership program, insurers will be able to provide native transactional data on premiums and losses directly to ISO. ISO, with IDP, will then convert the data into usable information and submit statistical and regulatory reports on insurers’ behalf for both basic reporting requirements and special data calls.

The Workers’ Compensation Benchmarking Study’s 2017 annual survey is underway, keeping pace with the industry as it strives to do ever better in managing claims. Now in its fifth year, the study continues its potent method of validating how and what higher performing claims organizations are doing compared to industry peers.

Reprising its 2014 survey questions, the study will not only further specify the high performer’s profile on an expanded set of successful behaviors, but it also will benchmark the industry’s overall progress in the past three years. Finally, the survey will continue its exploration of the emerging “claims advocacy” approach to engaging injured workers.

The study’s 2017 focus was once again guided by its Advisory Council of diverse industry executives.

“This is the only large-scale survey of claims leaders in workers’ compensation and it’s important we substantiate key best practices that are driving better performance,” says Rachel Fikes, vice president and study program director at Rising Medical Solutions. “Similar to mainstream media, communications about our industry often skew to the negative. Capturing the positive behaviors organizations are employing to advance the industry’s delivery of benefits is integral to the study’s mission.”

Since its inception, nearly 1,200 claims leaders nationwide have contributed their collective intelligence to the study’s research on a number of front burner topics such as key performance indicators of success, building talented staffs, and transitioning from process management to outcome management models. Their insights have quantified widespread operational challenges, created a maturing benchmark tool, and pointed the industry towards those differentiating practices yielding the best results.

The 2017 confidential survey will continue throughout June, and is open to management, director, and executive-level leaders who oversee workers’ compensation claim operations for payer organizations. Those who take the survey will receive a copy of the 2017 Study Report which will be published in November. Claims leaders who wish to participate can take the 2017 survey by clicking here.