Standing Committee on General Government - April 17, 2013 - Automobile insurance review

I've provided some highlight of the first day of hearings last week on auto insurance by the Standing Committee on General Government.  Full transcripts are available here.

Collision Industry Information Assistance

John Norris

• Repair shops who become preferred providers of insurance companies are expected to provide labour cost discounts and purchase parts from suppliers selected by insurers and who pay the insurer a fee. Local suppliers are often not used which delays repairs.
• Shops often have no choice but to become preferred providers because of the volume of business that comes from insurance companies.
• Companies that rent repair estimating systems to shop sell the data collected to insurers who use it to identify policyholders who have not reported accidents.  The policyholder is rebilled to reflect a higher risk.
• Cash settlements for physical damage claims are not always used to repair vehicles which means unsafe vehicles are on the road.
• Supports self-regulation of the towing industry.
• Repair shops can also identify fraudulent claims if there was an entity to which they could be reported.

FAIR, the Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform

Rhona DesRoches

Tammy Kirkwood

Greg Smith

• Believe that dishonest or corrupt vendors of auto insurer medico-legal assessments or IMEs ought to suffer the same fate as dishonest treatment providers.
• Do not see any difference between opportunistic fraud in the form of falsely inflating the value of a claim by exaggerating injuries and impairments, and the opportunism of falsely deflating the value of a claim by dishonestly trivializing and minimizing serious injuries.
• Propose a three-strikes rule, where if an IME provider has three negative comments about the quality of their reports from arbitrators or judges, they would be denied the ability to continue to provide reports.