On Jan. 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) is in effect. So, too, is the law governing so-called data brokers. To understand the CCPA, it is sometimes important to suspend belief. What follows is a parody, a form of communicating that seems particularly appropriate for the CCPA and its $55 billion compliance price tag. California Attorney General Announces Issuance of Subpoenas Over Privacy Law Violations Feb. 1, 2020 SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Justice today announced that North Pole Enterprises, LLC, dba “Santa Claus” has been issued an investigative subpoena to address concerns over widespread misuse and improper collection of personal information. The potential numerous violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) include: Improper collection of biometric data. Santa Claus is alleged to know when consumers are sleeping and when they are awake. When this biometric data, as defined in Civil Code § 1798.140(b) to include, “an individual’s physiological, biological or behavioral characteristics” is collected, upon information and belief, Santa Claus has shown a pattern and practice of failing to inform consumers as to the categories of personal information to be collected and the purposes for which the categories of personal information shall be used as required by Civil Code § 1798.100(b). The violations of this part of the CCPA may also extend to biometric information indicating when California consumers are naughty or nice, are bad or good or are pouting or crying. Improper collection of geolocation data. Santa Claus delivers gifts on Christmas Eve to consumers throughout California. To do this, Santa Claus has developed a comprehensive data base of consumers’ residential locations. This is within the definition of “personal information” as defined in Civil Code § 1798.140(o)(1)(G). Santa Claus obtains this personal information through soliciting and receiving “Christmas Lists” from California consumers, which generally contain attestations that the consumer has been “nice,” which is, and noted above, also biometric information. See also: Vast Implications of the CCPA   To the extent these lists and the personal information contained therein are generated by traffic through the Santa Claus website, upon information and belief there are no posted online privacy policies to advise consumers of their rights under the CCPA. This is a violation of Civil Code § 1798.130(a)(5). Failure to provide notice of right to opt out. The gifts Santa Claus delivers on Christmas Eve are allegedly crafted in a workshop at the North Pole. Upon information and belief, the workshop is a cooperative corporation, “Santa’s Co-op Workshop” (SCW), located just outside Alturas in Humboldt County. As such, Santa Claus is selling personal information, as defined in Civil Code § 1798.140(t), to a third party without giving California consumers notice of their rights to opt out of the sale of their personal information. This is a violation of Civil Code § 1798.120 and Civil Code § 1798.130. In addition, if Santa Claus is selling the personal information of California consumers to third parties, it is acting as a data broker and as such has failed to register with the Department of Justice as required by Civil Code § 1798.99.82. To the extent Santa Claus is selling the personal information of minors to third parties, additional violations of the CCPA may have taken place. The Department of Justice reserves the right to revise its charges once there is compliance with the subpoena. It should be noted that there is an allegation by the members of SCW that they are operating exclusively for and under the control of Santa Claus and as such are employees of Santa Claus per Assembly Bill 5 (Gonzalez). (See: “Potential Labor Law Violations”, below) Denial of goods or services. Upon information and belief, Santa Claus may be engaged in a pattern of discrimination against California consumers who have not attested to being “nice” in their Christmas Lists as noted above. If Santa Claus is discriminating against California consumers because they have exercised their right not to disclose personal information, this may be a violation of Civil Code § 1798.125. Potential labor law violations. Upon information and belief, SCW may not be a bona fide business, as that term is used in Labor Code § 2750.3(e). As such, per the Supreme Court’s decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903, and Assembly Bill 5 (Gonzalez), the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) has opened a concurrent investigation of Santa Claus for possible wage and hour violations and failure to maintain workers’ compensation insurance. See also: How CCPA Will—and Won’t—Hit Insurance   California takes its consumers’ privacy seriously, as it does the violations of its laws protecting workers. Potential penalties under the CCPA, if not cured, could reach $2,500 per violation. Because each California resident has had its personal information collected by Santa Claus, total penalties could be as high as $100 billion, assuming no violations were intentional. We will keep you informed as events develop.

The benefits of advanced claims intake for commercial insurance can seem obscure, cloaked in a mix of digital hype and theory. It’s not surprising that until recently it’s been hard to win buy-in from business leaders to move toward optimizing claims intake. But consider this concrete idea: What if you could ask fewer but better questions during the claims intake process? What if you could continually reduce the number of questions, and achieve greater accuracy? There is a way. The problem plaguing claims intake Backlash around contact center inefficiencies is not specific to one industry. Contact centers hear complaints about wasted time, repetitive questions and unhelpful service members regularly. The claims intake process is long and arduous, unnecessarily so. Traditionally, the formula for insurance claims intake has been to spend as little as possible to get an adequate outcome. The assumption has been there’s no demand for major innovation in claims intake and that low cost is the key to success. But this is not the case any more. See also: How Robotics Will Transform Claims   Driven by digital transformation, 87% of insurance carriers and TPAs said there is an ever-increasing need to inject innovative and highly configurable services into the claims intake and dissemination process, according to a recent NetClaim survey, “Testing Basic Assumptions Claims Intake on the Cusp of Innovation.” Why does it matter? A large portion of carrier claims are outsourced – and that percentage is increasing. This means it is more important than ever to have a buttoned-up claims intake contact center to prove to clients that you are efficient and innovative. Carriers know a more digitally focused claims intake is coming – and they desire it – according to the research. But they said efficiency, quality and innovation are key. They desire a vendor that can guide them through transformation. Time is the key to excellent claims intake program management and profitability. Spending too much time asking questions that either don’t need to be asked or that don’t provide any useful information is a waste of time and money. The most significant factors driving innovation are demand for greater quality, efficiency and reduced expenses, as 71% of respondents agreed that these factors were driving changes in the insurance claims intake process. How to fix it? The auto insurance industry is working to simplify large amounts of data using AI to calculate risks or determine liability after an accident. The commercial insurance claims process is following the lead of auto insurance and moving to address issues related to program management and profitability. Here are a few things to consider while making that transition: 1. Look at your call script critically Are you asking questions and not getting relevant answers in return? Are two questions saying the same thing? Just because you have asked the same questions for the last 10 years does not mean that they shouldn’t be revised and rewritten. Eliminating frustrating questions can make clients happier. 2. Determine where time is being wasted One NetClaim costumer said that its claim intake calls were taking too long. After creating a digital report, we determined that 17 questions were either unnecessary or redundant for this client. We were able to shorten the call by 30% – resulting in a happy customer. 3. Have a consultative intake partner that can run time waster reports An intake partner should be able to run time waster reports, look at your program as a whole and recommend ways to continually optimize. If you are bringing ideas to your partner, but they are not bringing ways to streamline and deliver more value, they’re not the partner you need at the onset of the fast-changing era. 4. Look at your program as a whole It can be easy to look at your program on a part-by-part basis, but real meaning comes from a sum of these parts. Understanding how effective your program is as a whole is a vital part of the process. See also: Claims Advocacy’s Biggest Opportunity   5. Tell your clients why you are doing what you are doing Don’t assume it’s obvious that there should be fewer questions. Be prepared to show how scaling back on unanswered questions is a good solution and leads to a more productive and shorter call with better accuracy.

The insurance industry, which relies heavily on repeatable processes, is embracing robotic process automation (RPA). Gartner projects that global RPA software spending will reach $2.4 billion in 2022. But organizations need to understand that RPA is a primitive technology. And it represents only a small part of what’s needed to scale and enable straight-through processing. What businesses need for end-to-end automation is an integrated automation platform (IAP). RPA Is Very Basic – And Does Not Know How to Learn Bots based on RPA can open spreadsheets and databases, copy data between programs, compare entries and perform other routine tasks, the Boston Consulting Group says. But BCG adds that “RPA is a Band-Aid.” The firm explains that RPA can lead to a proliferation of spot fixes that threaten IT architecture and integrity. BCG also notes that RPA bots don’t get smarter with time and experience. “When rules conflict with reality or when unexpected events occur,” the firm says, “a human needs to intervene.” As a Result, RPA Greatly Limits What Organizations Can Automate Insurance and risk automation companies currently use RPA as a data transport layer. That involves taking data from structured input sources and bringing that data to a target application by employing robot software. This is a simple task that doesn’t involve any exception handling. But there’s far more to do. Insurance companies and other organizations also need to analyze, contextualize, enrich, read and understand their data. However, insurance and risk processes are often complex and involve using data from various varied, unstructured formats and sources. See also: Next Big Thing: Robotic Process Automation   With unstructured data come multiple exceptions, which require cognitive ability and intelligence to bring out meaning and insights. This is where RPA fails. RPA falls short because it is hard-coded and rules-driven. RPA is unable to scale and adapt to these more complex unstructured processes. When organizations need to use unstructured data – which has not been prepared or contextualized, or changes in target applications and sources – to power their automation efforts, RPA-based bots just don’t work. That’s Why Now Is the Time for Insurance Organizations to Embrace IAP To enjoy the benefits of straight-through processing, businesses need RPA, data availability and data usability. Yet RPA does not deliver these last two functions. Meanwhile, IAP does it all. The data availability feature of an IAP solution ensures the data is made available and is accessible for automation. It includes technologies such as document classification and indexing, image pre-processing and machine vision for digitization. Data usability – which an IAP solution also supports – makes sure the available data is ready for business processes. It prepares the data using business rules; data certainty; enrichment lookup; and natural language generation, modeling and processing. IAPs Bring All the Automation Functions Businesses Need Together Businesses can buy point solutions from separate vendors to address each of these functions. But working with multiple companies and systems needlessly creates complexity. It entails multiple contracts and integration efforts. And it leads to finger pointing when problems arise. See also: How to Automate Your Automation   That’s why insurance and risk management companies are looking to IAPs. They automate end-to-end business processes quickly, easily and in a scalable manner. With IAPs, insurance companies can read and interpret data from unstructured documents – whether those documents are printed or handwritten, inferred or image data. Organizations using IAPs benefit from automation processes that grow smarter over time. And businesses that implement IAP solutions can leverage multiple technologies to drive data velocity to enable optimal business and customer outcomes faster.

Social media can be a great tool for insurance agents. It can help connect them with current and potential customers, grow their network of industry colleagues and share and be aware of timely information that affects their business. However, being active on social media as a professional is easier said than done, for both new and experienced users alike. Our team has outlined some key do’s and don’ts that agents should keep in mind: DON’T disclose anything proprietary. It’s imperative that agents understand what is confidential when referring to their clients. You also don’t want to give away any trade secrets, your business growth strategy or the names of your partners that would give competitors a leg up. DO use case studies on social media. They can be a great way to illustrate a point or show how you were able to bring a creative solution to a client problem. Just make sure the case study is generic, broad and doesn’t mention any participants specifically. See also: Important Perspective for Insurance Agents   DON’T use inappropriate language. Curse words are a given to steer clear of, but the importance of the language you use extends far beyond that. Make sure the language you use is concise and clear and, what’s more, that what you say is tailored to your audience. Using too much industry jargon and posting about things that your audience can’t relate to will alienate readers. Lastly, don’t be self-promotional or sales-y – for example, capitalizing on selling your flood insurance program after a natural disaster. DO present yourself as a thought leader. Providing industry expertise by sharing timely articles on industry news and trends and commenting in a smart way on others’ posts when you can will set you apart on social media. Be timely and provide quality content – not just fluff. Give your audience something that is useful to them and, when appropriate, invite them to respond to what you post with a call to action, such as signing up for a webinar you’re hosting or joining you at a local networking event. DO interact with your network. It can be intimidating at first to put yourself out there and interact with your network, but doing so is an important part of maximizing the potential of social media. Liking, commenting and sharing posts that you see in your newsfeed or that are posted by colleagues are the easiest ways to interact with your network. In turn, be sure to respond to those who comment on your posts. DON’T let negative comments or posts linger. Arguably even more important than responding to positive interactions on social media is addressing the negative. While your first reaction may be to ignore a negative comment or post, knowing when and how to address them makes the situation much less daunting. First, always respond in a timely manner – but make sure you have your thoughts together and don’t respond brashly. Second, take the conversation offline as soon as possible. This can be as easy as responding with a polite comment and offering a direct number. It’s also important to recognize that each negative comment should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis – there is no one-size-fits-all approach. DO measure your social media activity. Agents should have metrics in place so they can measure against true success on social – likes and follows don’t always mean success! One key way to do this is to be knowledgeable about engagement rates. For example, it’s much more meaningful to know how many people have seen your content and are taking an action on what you share (i.e. liking, commenting, sharing) – or, better yet, navigating to your website! – than if you’ve added one or two followers. DO stay authentic. Independent insurance agents are based on community – the more you can be active on social media, the more you’ll raise engagement with your brand as a professional and with your business. That being said, show personality. People want an agent who is a human, not a social media robot. See also: Find Your Voice as an Insurance Agent   DON’T get intimidated. Social media is somewhat intimidating to independent insurance agents, in general, especially the ones who aren’t as familiar with social media and who are older. Regardless of age, don’t hesitate to get started. This is vitally important because, to be successful in today’s world, you have to meet your customers where they are. Ramping up your activity level on social media can be slow – break things down into manageable tasks. For example, start by spending 20 minutes per week on the platform connecting with people or sharing an article, or liking or commenting on three posts. This article is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended to provide individualized business, insurance or legal advice. It is not intended to be a substitute or replacement of any workplace policy on the subject matter.

When it comes to implementing new technology, the insurance industry is rarely considered an early adopter. However, insurance companies have been taking early strides, somewhat in a migratory manner, to adapt to technology advances to help better run operations, improve underwriting and risk management, enhance customer offerings and services and profitably grow the business. Taking into account this early progress, we look to 2020 and several trends in the industry that have begun to take shape and will accelerate this coming year: From RPA to IPA Whether stemming from insurance carrier frustration that basic robotic process automation (RPA) — bots mimicking human tasks — hasn’t produced savings relative to carrier aspirations, or from insurance carriers’ increased understanding of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, the industry will see an increase in "intelligent" process automation (IPA) that is more robust and combines the bot with learning, evaluative and decision-making capabilities for greater impact. This shift will be driven by carriers looking for higher business returns by solving a wider range of problems in the manual activity value chain with automation. From Point Solutions to Digital Ecosystems While today’s "exploration era" in insurance — characterized by new technology proofs of concept, use of point-solution providers and insurtech accelerators — has generated some progress and buzz, it comes with a down side. Single-solution or shiny software objects that address an individual problem or portion of the business will soon become too confusing and difficult to manage, actually creating a gridlock in carrier movement to true transformation. The fact is that no single solution can bring about transformation on its own and will instead require a sum-of-the-parts approach managed in a smart ecosystem. Similar to a conductor’s role in astutely incorporating the needed instrument — which in and of itself can only perform one thing, as a trumpet can only make trumpet noises — so too will orchestrated digital ecosystems begin to take priority as carriers look at enterprise platform solutions versus traditional bolt-on approaches. See also: 3 Phases to Digital Transformation   From Data Warehousing to Data-in-My-House As an anonymous poet once said, “It is a great day when one discovers the beauty that lies within oneself.” So, too, will carriers be focused on unlocking the value of their own information that has accumulated over time. The focus on data infrastructure, lakes and warehouses now takes aim at using the very data that has been collected or can be mined — particularly the plethora of historical in-house data that has been generated by the carrier itself in the execution of risk evaluation, providing coverage, taking losses, servicing inquiries, etc. Content management systems and capabilities will start to transform into intelligent management systems with outputs infused into future-facing decisions and actions. Using AI and content mining capabilities to convert traditional in-house "flat" files — policy, risk and loss reports, correspondence, etc. – into usable insight, combined with the continued use of outside data and emerging sources (such as the Internet of Things), will enable carriers to take a significant step in becoming analytics-driven businesses. From Digital Customer Experience to Digital Risk Management While the term "digital" is used — and even overused — in a variety of contexts, many would agree that the digital movement was and is centered on digitizing the customer experience. Making things easy for the customer, creating experiences that will keep them coming back, and identifying customer service as a top priority are all common objectives in insurance, and a great deal of digital emphasis is placed on these initiatives. However, the heartbeat of an insurance company is effective risk management — and quite often, the most reluctant to join the digital parade are chief underwriting officers (CUOs), not because they’re grumpy progress-stompers, but because they want to ensure that good risks are put on the books and that underwriting disciplines and philosophies are upheld. Not enough digital ambitions have been focused on the CUO world, and that is where digital convincing needs to occur to bring them on board and excite them about digital. As a result, while digital customer experience will remain a priority, emphasis will broaden toward using digital technologies — be it AI, data analytics or risk assessment technologies — for a better underwriting result. Digitizing phases of the underwriting process to optimize underwriting time capacities and drive consistency of risk assessment and decision-making will be more in focus, adjacent to making customers happy. From Call Centers to Intelligent Customer Interaction Centers Customer servicing enabled by natural language processing, AI and voice assistants, such as Alexa or Siri, will become more common. This customer call automation, combined with web and email channel automation technology, will move carriers toward omnichannel customer interaction management that is driven by technology engines. This shift will be driven by carriers looking for efficiencies in workforce management, faster customer issue resolution and tracking of customer interaction data to improve products and services. Given these other trends, carriers will be looking more to an outside perspective —outside of the insurance industry, outside of traditional insurance approaches and outside of traditional insurance vendors and suppliers. Insurance companies move as somewhat a pod, and, historically, the benchmarks of what constitutes progress and advancement has been focused on others in the pod. Over the next year, we’ll see a shift toward the new benchmark, which is now the broader world, other industries and the digital economy being built outside of insurance. This is the economy customers of insurance carriers are experiencing in their worlds — whether they are individual or commercial buyers of insurance — and their expectation of what insurance should be or should look like is shaped by these outside forces. As a result, insurance carriers will need to rely more and more on partners in 2020 who may not be traditional vendor insiders, but outsiders who have helped create digital ecosystems in other industries and enabled digitally born companies.

There’s keen focus in the insurance industry about overhauling obsolete IT infrastructure to support innovation, along with the resulting costs and benefits. Yet few people talk about the benefits of top industry talent in the same quantified manner. For innovation to truly scale, the industry needs to be able to attract and retain the best talent. With the proliferation of the Insurance Careers Movement, we’ve seen insurers take important steps in trying to attract new talent to the industry, but struggle to put that talent on a path to succeed long-term. With the insurance industry’s unemployment rate down to just 2%, finding the right people to fill newer technology-driven roles, particularly those in data analytics or advanced AI, is proving to be increasingly challenging. According to an independent study conducted by Insurity Valen Analytics, 73% of insurers find it moderately to extremely difficult to find new talent in data and analytics, and the reasons for this difficulty haven’t changed much over the years. Two recurring reasons include a disinterest in insurance careers and more enticing opportunities in other tech startups or data-driven companies. The top reason has consistently been difficulty finding talent in the geographic area of the insurer. Even when insurers manage to capture elusive tech talent, the total turnover in insurance is 12%. Turnover is expensive for employers and speaks to the inadequacies in employers’ strategies for identifying, acquiring and grooming new talent. Let’s explore some best practices for employers in the insurance space to find and retain the best talent. Engaging in the Early Career With 25% of the workforce in the industry set to retire in the next few years, the U.S. insurance industry is in dire need of a new and reliable talent pool equipped with advanced technological skills. But it’s also not just about backfilling roles left open by retirees. A combination of diverse skill-sets and out-of-the-box thinking is key to fostering an environment of innovation, while combating this talent shortage. Millennials are perfectly suited to offer both but generally haven’t shown much interest in insurance industry employment. According to Pew Research Center, only 4% of millennials show interest in an insurance career. It is also estimated that, early in their careers, people remain in their jobs for just 12 to 18 months on average—a trend that has proven true from one generation to the next. So how do insurers turn new hires into tenured employees? See also: How to Scout and Draw the Best Talent   It is critical to find ways to resonate with younger talent by understanding the issues important to this generation. Today’s job seekers want positions that align with their values and offer viable, meaningful career development opportunities. They seek flexibility in the work schedule and location, which works to the insurer’s benefit when they are unable to find talent locally. Other critical elements to engaging with younger workers are pay parity, diversity and inclusion. In 2018, women earned 85% of what men earned in the U.S. While the gender pay gap is closing, there’s still much room for progress, and, as an industry, insurance can lead the change. By emulating tech companies and constantly encouraging new thinking to foster an innovation culture, insurers have the opportunity to appeal to high-level talent. Mapping Out a Career Path “Career pathing” is an integral part of talent management. One of the primary reasons people leave jobs is to advance their careers. The key to attracting and retaining top talent is giving prospective hires not just what they ask for, but what they haven’t thought about yet. This includes carving out possible career paths for them, complete with road maps of employees’ career goals, performance metrics and training needs. When people feel like their employers are invested in their personal futures, they tend to stay where they are, longer. The importance of this concept is amplified in an industry where finding the right talent is challenging. A career pathing strategy keeps the existing talent pool engaged and makes the company more attractive to those looking for their next career move. A company that walks the walk of innovation is one that always encourages learning and development, but this can also be done strategically to equip existing employees with skill sets that are in high demand. For example, five key areas have a rising need for new talent within insurance: sales, underwriting, customer services/admin, technology and claims. Employers should consider investing in training opportunities to groom existing talent to learn these in-demand skills. Managing the Management Fostering a positive and engaging work culture is important in motivating and retaining employees. It is vital that employees are able to communicate and collaborate with their colleagues and immediate managers or supervisors. Oftentimes, it’s a manager's inability to make co-workers feel supported that can lead employees to seek or be vulnerable to other opportunities. See also: 10 Essential Talents to Leverage Insurtech   Offering congratulations on a job done well or keeping the team apprised of coming plans and projects can make a huge difference. Employees should benefit from the leadership of their managers and receive the training and resources needed to excel at their jobs. It is just as important to equip the managers with the right tools to engage with and motivate both the new and existing team members. The insurance industry has the opportunity to define how technology and evolving economies will define their business strategies. This creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for next-generation talent who want to make a difference, and sending this message front and center in their hiring narratives can go a long way.

When the New Year arrives, so, too, will a new standard for privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act—and its recent amendments and draft regulations—will soon govern how entities around the world are allowed to collect and process data. Although CCPA is limited to the data of California residents, the ultimate impact is much greater than it at first might seem. California represents the world’s fifth-largest economy and the nation’s first state to pass comprehensive privacy legislation. As a result, CCPA will likely influence privacy laws domestically and abroad, and could even begin the push toward federal regulation. Much of CCPA is based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, but the two landmark privacy laws differ on an important issue. While GDPR requires individuals to provide consent before their data can be collected, CCPA instead assumes consent and requires it to be revoked if an individual wishes to opt out. In other words, entities can collect the data of California residents as a default, whereas those same entities would need permission before gathering information about EU residents. This key philosophical difference benefits businesses by putting the onus on consumers to manage their privacy preferences—and that’s not the only way the California law is pro-business. The “financial institution” exemption Originally drafted as a ballot initiative by real-estate-developer-turned-privacy-activist Alastair Mactaggart, CCPA was designed to protect the privacy of consumers against the financial interests of large technology corporations. CCPA allows individuals to prevent the selling of their data, creates greater transparency in companies’ data-collection practices and increases penalties for improper data-security measures. However, for some industries—such as financial services and insurance—where the collection and processing of personal information is necessary for operation, the law carves out exemptions for specific data types used in those instances. See also: Vast Implications of the CCPA   An example is the exemption of data that is considered “personal information collected, processed, sold or disclosed pursuant to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and implementing regulations,” as referenced in Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.145(e). Referred to as personally identifiable financial information (PIFI), this data is addressed specifically by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and subject to its regulation. CCPA finds the controls laid out in GLBA to be sufficient and therefore allows itself to be superseded by the federal law. PIFI is defined as any information:

• Provided by a consumer to acquire a financial product or service
• Used or referenced to perform a financial transaction
• Gathered during the process of provisioning a financial product or service

As one might gather, data that might qualify as PIFI in one instance is not guaranteed to be considered PIFI in another context. For example, only data collected and directly related to the provision of a product or service constitutes PIFI. So, if that same data is collected solely for the purpose of marketing or business analytics, it would not be considered PIFI. Any non-PIFI data that “identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household” would be subject to CCPA, according to Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140(o)(1). As one might imagine, this distinction can become cloudy in some applications and results in considerable gray area. To address this uncertainty, it is recommended that organizations work with their legal teams to review all of the data in their possession and re-evaluate their regulatory compliance obligations under both CCPA and GLBA. So, what is subject to CCPA? Within the insurance industry, any type of personal information that does not fall within the parameters of PIFI is subject to CCPA—if the entity collecting it meets the law’s established criteria. According to CCPA, any organization that has a gross annual revenue of over $25 million, processes at least 50,000 California residents’ records for commercial purposes or can attribute half of its revenue to the selling of personal information must follow the requirements of CCPA—or risk facing substantial fines and other penalties. This likely includes most decent-sized insurance companies. Although much of the information processed by providers is shielded against CCPA, the data possessed by policyholders is not. The total cost of cyber insurance premiums worldwide is projected to increase to $7.5 billion next year, and CCPA is a big reason. Because CCPA gives teeth to fines and other penalties for data breaches, many organizations will be looking to expand their cyber insurance coverage or purchase policies if they don’t have one already. See also: Where to Turn for Cyber Assistance? As the privacy landscape continues to shift with the development of new laws domestically and abroad, risk minimization must be prioritized by both insurance companies and their policyholders. Whether you’re concerned about CCPA compliance or preparing for the next wave of privacy regulations, we recommend deploying tokenization as a risk-reducing solution to protect sensitive data. When implemented properly, tokenization can significantly reduce the likelihood of a cyber event and, as a result, a claim. It’s an affordable investment that can better protect data and improve an insurer’s ability to provide reliable coverage.

In the midst of a crowded Democratic primary field, one of the most complex and contentious issues at play is the candidates’ positions on the future of American healthcare, and a new study by insuranceQuotes shows that public sentiment is divided and slightly perplexed. According to this year’s annual State of Healthcare and Politics report, which was conducted via telephone in September, 62% of Americans “most strongly support” a U.S. healthcare system that includes both public and private insurance, while 25% favor a Medicare for All system that ends private insurance altogether, and just 9% favor a system that includes only private insurance. These figures come on the heels of the Oct. 15 Democratic primary debate, where Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders continued to pitch and defend their plans for universal Medicare — and the eventual elimination of private health insurance — while other candidates made more nuanced appeals to the notion of combining public and private health insurance options for Americans. The insuranceQuotes study findings resemble those in other polls, where support for Medicare for All seems to be waning. For instance, a recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 51% of Americans back Warren's and Sanders’ Medicare for All proposals, which is down five percentage points since their last survey in April. The insuranceQuotes survey, which tracked responses from 1,009 people, generated these additional takeaways on Americans’ outlook on healthcare-related issues.

• 58% believe that undocumented immigrants should have access to insurance, while 39% believe they should not.
• 50% of Americans say that, since President Trump took office, the U.S. healthcare system has stayed about the same in quality, while 28% say worse and 18% say better.
• 43% assert that Medicare is at risk of going bankrupt in the future, while 43% assert that it is not.
• 34% are unaware that Obamacare is still in effect.

The future of U.S. healthcare will undoubtably feature prominently in the 2020 presidential election, so what do these figures tell us about the pulse of American sentiment regarding key health insurance matters? See also: Health Insurance for Self-Employed People   Public, private or healthcare combo? In the days following the October Democratic primary debate, a great deal of time and energy was spent parsing the potential viability — and messaging strength — of both Sanders’ and Warren’s plans to eliminate private health insurance in lieu of a Medicare for All nationwide insurance plan. And while the insuranceQuotes survey shows 25% of respondents support this approach, according to Dr. Tarek Hassanein, professor of medicine at University of California San Diego’s School of Medicine, the survey data supports the broader perspective Americans have about wanting a more incremental approach to health insurance reform. “We cannot go from private insurance to totally government-based insurance, knowing our attitudes toward government-run activities,” Hassanein says. “The idea that we will have both available makes a lot of sense, and it keeps public insurance competing with private.” What’s more, Hassanein believes that there are age demographic differences at play in assessing this particular point, and that voters understand the competitive value in allowing both private and public health insurance to coexist. “If you have young people voting, they will vote on public, not private. The older people who really need care will go with the private insurance — or a mixture,” Hassanein says. “They are really seeking the services. The combination lets them choose according to their needs and financial abilities. I think competition is the future — you need the public and the private at the same time so you can control the expense. The private will never increase their rates if the public is giving a good service with public rates.” But according to Harvard health economist and epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, it’s difficult to extrapolate too much from polling data about this issue because Americans are generally underinformed when it comes to the complex nuances of something like Medicare. “If you talk to someone under the age of 60, I guarantee you they know almost nothing about Medicare. It’s incredibly complicated and comprehensive,” Feigl-Ding says. “And I don’t blame them. You have 12 [Democratic primary candidates] up on stage, and they don’t have time to go into detail. And they don’t want to lose people so they keep things as generic and vague as possible. But that doesn’t actually educate the public in a meaningful way.” As a result, Feigl-Ding says that polling Americans about their feelings toward Medicare for All is like asking, “Do you want to live on Mars?” “The average person doesn’t know anything about Mars and its air pressure, its average temperatures or the magnetic shielding that makes it impossible to grow crops on the surface,” Feigl-Ding says. “And Medicare is like Mars to anyone under the age of 60. People just don’t know about the complexities.” Nonetheless, Feigl-Ding says the insuranceQuotes study reveals two interesting things about public sentiment. First, that people want incremental change. Second, that they really don’t trust the private health insurance sector. “When you have 62% saying they favor a combination of private insurance and Medicare for All, that shows how people don’t want to move the needle too much. They want to move it a little but also stay with what’s familiar,” Feigl-Ding says. “The fact that only 9% said they’d favor a completely private system tells me that people have had really bad experiences with for-profit health insurance companies. They simply don’t trust them.” Health insurance for undocumented immigrants Feigl-Ding says the fact that 58% of Americans believe that undocumented immigrants should have access to health insurance reflects a growing understanding that a healthy American immigrant population is always going to be better for the country at large. “Putting aside the human rights issues here, this is all about productivity,” Feigl-Ding says. “People get sick regardless of their immigration status. And there are a lot of jobs being held by undocumented workers in this country. Do we really want them getting sick and going to the ER or not having the means to vaccinate themselves or their children? In this instance, I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and people should support health insurance for these immigrants. It’s better for the country on the whole.” For Hassanein, this issue hits close to home. Earlier this month he hosted a free health event in Chula Vista, a border town south of San Diego, allowing immigrants—documented or not—to receive free health scans and interact with insurance experts to understand the system. He says that “the system has to deal with their health issues, no matter what their status. “The bottom line is that they need to have [health insurance],” Hassanein says. “They need vaccinations so they don’t get infected and infect other people. Pregnant people need to get the care they need. There are consequences if you deny them. Everyone needs basic insurance.” Current state of Medicare and the Affordable Care Act The fact that 43% assert that Medicare is “at risk of going bankrupt” also comes down to faulty information, according to Feigl-Ding. “Healthcare costs are skyrocketing out of control, yes, but Medicare can’t go bankrupt,” Feigl-Ding says. “Medicare is a non-discretionary budget item, which means the U.S. government has to fund it, and it can issue as much debt as it needs to. Could the U.S. theoretically default on its debt? Sure, but it never has, and I don’t think there’s a risk of that happening any time soon.” See also: Social Determinants of Workforce Health When it comes to the state of healthcare more generally — and the Affordable Care Act more specifically — this is where experts are a little more concerned. Feigl-Ding says the fact that 34% are unaware that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is still in effect is partly because "the Trump administration has done everything it can to kick as many legs out from under the Affordable Care Act as possible. For instance, they don’t advertise for open enrollment anymore. And they eliminated the tax penalty for not having health insurance, so while there’s still a law saying you need health insurance there’s no penalty for not having it. "As a result, you don’t have the risk pool of young, healthy people participating, which means premiums and deductibles are increasing while choices are decreasing. So I think this study reflects people’s frustration, but I’m not sure enough people actually know the source of why this is happening.” Similarly, Hassanein blames people’s confusion about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the divisive political rhetoric that’s been injected into this conversation over the past three years. “First, let’s not call it Obamacare. It’s called the Affordable Care Act. People think these two are different things, I’m sure of that,” Hassanein says. “The public thinks Obamacare was canceled. It’s just political rhetoric. There is very little truth being told. The ACA is still in place! But the government is saying we will not fund it anymore, so insurance companies are trying to save as much money as possible and thus are trying to pay for as little as possible. The rhetoric is helping the insurance companies. This affects the lives of all the people. And it’s a shame.” You can find the article originally published on insuranceQuotes.com.

While I generally emphasize the need to innovate, it's worth stepping back from time to time and realizing that every project is a bet, and that not every bet pays off, no matter who you are. 

The point about the inevitability of at least occasional failure has been driven home by the recent troubles for the Vision Fund at Softbank, run by the legendary tech investor Masayoshi Son. The fund was the biggest investor in WeWork, which had hoped for an IPO at a capitalization north of $47 billion, the last valuation at which money had been put into the company. WeWork positioned itself as a high-tech company building a new sort of community, a la Airbnb and Uber, rather than, ya know, an owner and renter of office space. But investors thought otherwise: They put a valuation more like $10 billion on the company, and WeWork pulled the IPO. The Vision Fund took a writedown of more than $9 billion on its roughly $10 billion investment in WeWork and invested a further $9 billion to make sure that WeWork could simply remain a going concern. 

Another huge investment by the Vision Fund, in Uber, has tumbled in value as the stock has crashed more than 40% this year. Other big investments by the fund are also raising eyebrows. Wag, an on-demand dog-walking service, hasn't separated from the competition despite a $300 million investment from the Vision Fund. Nor has Fair, a car lessor for which the fund led a $380 million round, or Plenty, a vertical-farming startup in which the fund invested $200 million. (The old headline writer in me imagines my erstwhile colleagues sharpening their proverbial pencils and preparing to go with lines like, "Fair Is Lousy," "Progress at Plenty Is Scarce" or "Problems Dog the Wag.")

The Vision Fund may face even deeper problems than some (really big) bad investments. Because Son was raising an audacious $100 billion for the fund and, seemingly, believed his own PR, he guaranteed investors (largely Saudi) a 7% annual return through bonds he issued them. So far, the fund has paid $1.6 billion to the investors on those bonds, but only $400 million has come from returns on the fund's investments. The rest has come from the capital in the fund—essentially, investor money is being used to pay the guaranteed return to the investors. 

The returns at the fund will have to improve greatly, or it will face a capital call totaling billions of dollars that could force Softbank to bail out its fund.  

The Vision Fund laughs off the idea of capital problems, pointing to unrealized gains at portfolio companies such as Slack, a popular messaging platform. And Son certainly has a track record, going back to his very early investments in Yahoo and, in particular, in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant where Softbank's stake is valued at some $150 billion. 

In any case, veterans in an old-line industry like insurance are far more likely to underinvest in innovation than overinvest, so I'm not trying to dampen the collective enthusiasm for the insurtech movement, in particular, or for innovation, in general. I've just seen a lot of silly bets over the years and want to make sure we all realize that even the greats, like Son, need to keep their eyes open and their wits about them. 

Cheers,

Paul Carroll
Editor-in-Chief 

What were you afraid of this Halloween? That your customers might disappear like ghosts? That your competitors might pick them off like vultures? That it’s all going to drive you batty? In the spirit of All Hallows’ Eve, Watermark Consulting brings you… The Top 10 Ways to Spook Your Customers: 10.  Respond to customer requests like a zombie. Are your responses to customer inquiries heavily scripted like they came out of some low-budget horror movie? Might your customers feel like, no matter what they say, they get form letters and teleprompter-like messages in response? Remove active listening, critical thinking and personalized problem solving from your front-line and you miss a huge opportunity to impress your customer. If your front-line personnel perform like zombies, you can guarantee that customers will run from them. 9.  Communicate in gobbledygook (or, on Halloween, goblin-dygook). Having trouble reading a billing statement? Or your health insurer’s explanation of benefits? Or correspondence from your financial institution? You’re not alone. Businesspeople are steeped in the practices and language of their respective industries. As such, they often forget to translate their communications for easy public consumption. Instead, they convey their messages using jargon, terminology and acronyms that make their customers head for the hills. 8.  Cut expenses and operate with a skeleton staff. Particularly in times of economic distress, many companies’ first reaction is to slash investments in post-sale operations, because these areas are not viewed as revenue-driving and therefore become easy targets when profits need to be propped up. But while skeleton staffs might offer some immediate gratification in expense reduction, they also foster negative impressions that could snuff out your company’s true brand. Bare bones operations translate into long checkout lines, miserable 800-line hold times, overall inattentive service and visibly overworked and irritated employees – characteristics that are hardly the best ingredients for great customer experiences. 7.  Embark on monstrous transformation projects. Business transformation is overrated. It’s good to have high aspirations and stretch goals, but you’ve got to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Big, hairy, audacious projects have a tendency to be ill-defined and nearly impossible to manage. Plus, most companies suffer from “organizational A.D.D.” and have trouble staying focused on a three-month project, let alone a three-year one. Transformational projects make for good annual report copy, but they often fail to deliver valuable improvements to employees and customers. (Sometimes, all they deliver is disruption and dissatisfaction.) Yes, have a long-term vision – but never underestimate the power and efficiency of incremental advances toward that destination. 6.  Never do a post-mortem. In the whirlwind of daily business activities, people rarely take the time to dissect and diagnose customer annoyances. Customer complaints present a wonderful opportunity to not just recover gracefully (and perhaps win back a consumer’s loyalty), but to also dig up the root of a problem and fix it, once and for all. What’s even rarer than post-mortems on customer complaints? Post-mortems on customer compliments. There’s great value in pinpointing what employee or practice generated customer delight and then figuring out how to replicate that outcome more routinely. Post-mortems can yield silver bullet-like learnings that forever eradicate customer frustrations or permanently institutionalize loyalty-enhancing business practices. 5.  Create a workplace that sucks the lifeblood out of people. To create happy, satisfied and loyal customers, you need happy, satisfied and engaged employees. Create a work environment where employees don’t feel appreciated, respected or well-equipped to do their jobs – and you’re guaranteed to make their energy and passion go away faster than a vampire at dawn. And if you don’t think your customers will notice that difference in your staff, then you really are starting to hallucinate. 4.  Don’t tell your customers what’s lurking around the corner. Creating satisfied, loyal customers is a lot about managing expectations. People’s frustration (or delight) with a business is closely tied to the expectations they had of that interaction. Customers don’t like ambiguity or unpleasant surprises. If you don’t tell them what to expect – how long they’ll be on hold before speaking to a live person, how much paperwork they’ll need to fill out for a mortgage application, what information they’ll need to provide to get an insurance quote, etc. – then they’re more likely to be annoyed when the interaction isn’t as quick, simple or straightforward as they anticipated. 3.  Give your customers tricks and never treats. Do customers walk away from dealings with your business feeling good about the interaction? Do they get what they expected; do they feel like they got a good value? For lots of businesses, the answer is no. Customers will rarely tell you that, choosing instead to just vote with their feet (and wallet) and do business elsewhere. From products that don’t work exactly as expected, to special offers that exclude desirable merchandise, to fine print that can’t even be understood – these are examples of “tricks of the trade” that may draw consumers in momentarily but certainly won’t create a foundation on which to build loyal customer relationships. Contrast that with the indelible positive impressions left on customers who experience treats – pleasant surprises and personal touches that they never expected or anticipated. That’s what legendary, customer-centric brands are made of. 2.  Avoid ownership and accountability like the plague. A gruesome ailment has descended on the business community, eradicating all vestiges of ownership and accountability. Customer calls are not promptly (if ever) returned. Commitments are not kept. Obligations are forgotten. Here’s a little secret: Customers don’t care if your store is immaculate, if your employees have smiles, if you send them fancy newsletters or any of that fluff if your product doesn’t work as advertised and your people don’t follow through on their promises. Want to create a brand experience that outshines all others? Start by nailing these basics and making sure your customers feel cared for. And the No. 1 way to spook your customers… 1.  Put scary people on your front line. Who’s interacting with your customers on a daily basis? Is your front-line composed of superheroes who go the extra mile for your customers, or soulless automatons who frighten your customers with their discourtesy, uselessness and utter inability to deliver on promises? No matter how sophisticated your customer relationship management systems are, or how spectacular your retail store looks, or how advanced your customer segmentation strategy is – it means nothing if the people interacting with your customers are not professional, responsible and genuinely helpful. *** No right-minded business sets out to spook its customers. But that’s inevitably the outcome when companies lose sight of what’s important and valuable to the people they serve. Are you haunted by the prospect of your customers defecting to a competitor? Do something about it before your worst nightmares become a reality. Let these 10 tips serve as your guide, and, before you know it, you’ll be casting a spell on your customers that’ll have them coming back for more. This article first appeared here.