Claims Business: ClimateCheck, Mitchell and Crawford & Co.

ClimateCheck, a San Francisco startup, is offering consumers free reports that assess the vulnerability of individual properties to climate-related risks such as wildfires and flooding.

The company said in a press release that ClimateCheck provides five individual ratings for every home — flood, storm, fire, heat and drought. They are combined to create an overall risk rating that assesses the climate hazard form five years to 40 years from now.

Consumers can compare the climate risks of different areas before buying and homeowners can assess their home’s risk and take steps to mitigate the threats, the company said.

“Billions of dollars of real estate are at risk from climate driven events and it’s critical that consumers have the same information as the experts in order to make informed decisions,” stated Skylar Olsen, ClimateCheck’s principal economist. “We’ve democratized incredibly complex analyses and data from leading scientists and organizations into a user-friendly platform. Now we can all understand how climate change impacts us and — even more importantly — what we can do about it.”

ClimateCheck said it has aggregated 27 internationally accepted academic and government climate models to inform risk assessments that can be made for each of 140 million individual properties in the contiguous United States, the company says on its website. Consumers can enter property addresses on its website to produce 40-page reports that provide an overall risk report and individual assessments of each risk.

Mitchell, the international claims technology provider based in San Diego, has launched a new “Provider Data Explorer” product that analyzes medical provider treatment and billing behaviors to identify irregular activities that may signal fraud, waste and abuse.

The Data Exploer uses provider peer-to-peer comparisons that can pinpoint outliers in order to identify potential fraudulent or abusive provider treatment or billing behaviors that auto and workers’ compensation claims professionals may decide require further investigation, Mitchell said in a press release.

The “data visualization tool” tracks a variety of metrics related to provider behavior, including treatment duration, treatment frequency, billing and adjustment behaviors, and procedure codes, Mitchell said.

“This new visualization tool is the first step in an ongoing initiative to help Mitchell clients leverage provider data for improved decision-making,” stated Shahin Hatamian, senior vice president of product development.

Crawford & Co. had launched a “Virtual Assist” portal that provides claims adjusters an online marketplace to request individual services that assist desk adjusting operations.

The Atlanta-based claims administrator said the portal provides access to digital tools including the YouGoLook self-service app for field inspections and traditional field services such as appraisal.

“Claims can now be resolved faster while lowering overall costs,” stated Larry Thomas, global president, Crawford Specialty Solutions.

The solution became available in the U.S.on Oct. 1.