A little while ago, my 92-year-old mom said that she was tired most of the time and was taking more and more naps. After several doctor visits and tests, the diagnosis was that her pulse was around 40 beats per minute, as opposed to a normal rate of 60. Her cardiologist recommended a pacemaker to improve her heart function and quality of life. When she checked into the hospital, it had all her records, history, blood work, EKG printouts, etc. Everything was correctly recorded on physical and digital paper. The staff still hooked her up to an EKG and blood pressure cuff to get moment-by-moment readings. You see, some things are just too important for paper. Before she went into surgery, her pulse was 42, and her blood pressure was very high. The staff gave her two courses of blood pressure meds, which brought it back into range so the surgery could take place. When they wheeled her back into her room after surgery, her pulse was 60. Her blood pressure was starting to creep back up, so they continued with some additional meds that brought it back into range. They kept her on the EKG and blood pressure cuff until she was discharged. I am so thankful that she went home and is back to her old self; out of the house at least five days a week, playing bingo three of those days. My 95-year-old dad still drives them to doctor appointments and worship on the weekends, followed by McDonald's. To celebrate special occasions, my dad drives them to Chick-fil-A or the Olive Garden. While having all documentation, forms and information available in paper or electronic image is helpful to a point, it’s just not good enough. The hospital staff needed something more. They needed to continually monitor my mom, checking her pulse, watching her blood pressure and other vital signs. See also: New, Troubling Healthcare Model   Some things are just too important for paper. Now that she’s back to living a full and active life, a technician has come to her home to set up a device that communicates with her pacemaker. It monitors information on her, the pacemaker and her vitals. On a daily basis, this information is collected and forwarded to her doctor via a secure website. D.O.A The insurance industry has invested untold billions in technology, and who knows where hand-held devices, wearables, wireless high-speed communications, etc. will eventually take us? But there is one boat anchor of a technology that is dragging down speed, accuracy and efficiency while adding cost and waste. That technology is the ubiquitous paper form. Like any form, certificates of insurance are D.O.A. (dead on arrival). Now this might sound harsh, but the reality is that forms are created with information as of a point of time. Because the form is cut off from any possible changes or updates, the cert is potentially out of date by the time it’s delivered. A host of possible changes and informational updates can invalidate the cert. Mid-term endorsement, renewal, changes in limits or forms, cancellation for non-payment and AM Best rating downgrades are but a few of the possible changes that can nullify the cert. It makes absolutely no difference how the form was created (agency, company or third-party software and service providers), everyone creates D.O.A. forms. The delivered method is also irrelevant: Paper, fax, web address link, mobile phone, table, PDF and other digital images all have exactly the same problem. The fact that forms are not plugged into and alive with information pronounces them D.O.A. There is no continuing re-verification of the policy status in conjunction with the needs of the insured and the third-party that needs verification of coverage. Islands of Misinformation There are four stakeholders involved in any proof of insurance, and they are isolated on individual information islands. The carrier, agent, insured and third party are involved with the certificate, yet no one can monitor or have control over the entire process. Each organization has its own needs and desires and its own email system. There are also no controls, follow-ups or monitoring of the process. Everyone hits the ubiquitous “reply all” email command, creating an unintelligible spaghetti string of text that is unmanageable and unintelligible. Business and insurance islands are not known or documented at the beginning of the process. Requirements normally leak out during the process, wasting precious time and money while raising frustration. I’m familiar with an agency that diligently and professionally worked to get a cert out for a client. Everyone was happy when the process was finished -- then the third party sent out yet one more notification, saying the use of “N/A” for "Not Applicable" was not acceptable and needed to be changed to “N.A.” Time and good manners do not permit me to retell the loud and colorful commentary that was heard throughout the agency for a good 15 minutes. Disruption It will take significantly more than a smart mobile device or cloud-based system to solve the systemic problems once-and-for-all. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way the industry thinks about proof of insurance. See also: Customers’ Digital Expectations   We need to declare the certificate D.O.A. and move toward a data-driven digital solution of the sort we have developed at GAPro: a single source where insurance information is automatically housed, updated on a daily basis and integrated with data from all stakeholders in the insurance ecosystem. Carriers send electronic versions of policy transaction data and attached forms for new, renewal, mid-term change, cancellation, reinstatement and billing status to GAPro. GAPro stores and matches policy and form information with data from other insurance-related resources, including AM Best, agency licensing and other sources. Risk profile information describing the insurance business and content needs of agents, insureds and third parties is collected and integrated on a per-policy basis. See also: Can Risk Management Even Be Effective?   It's time for continual monitoring and notification leveraging 21st century technology and insurance-specific capability, wrapped in an easy-to-understand interface. Insurance conformation and compliance verification are too important for paper.

The Future Trends Framework The New Insurance Value Chain The greatest level of activity in insurtech is focused on the front end of the value chain, where new companies are leveraging expectations and capabilities to change traditional insurance distribution. They are focused on making it easier for customers to compare features and prices and get quotes and, for some of them, actually purchase a policy. This first group (in the graphic below) consists of insurance-specific online agencies and comparison sites. A second group exemplifies the blurring of channels across industries, where well-recognized non-insurance brands are getting into distribution arrangements with partnering companies and using their affinity and reach to extend insurance to broader marketing. The second area of focus is disrupting parts of the value chain with new capabilities and solutions. The first group in the graphic below allows customers to get quotes and manage all of their policies, from multiple companies, on digital devices such as a smartphone. The second group applies new platforms and data to specific parts of the value chain like pricing, claims and underwriting This next category includes both new and established companies that are integrating access to insurance within their offerings, rather than having insurance as a stand-alone product or brand. Finally, in this category are the new business models and companies that are looking at the entire value chain, creating completely new insurance business models operationally, financially and competitively. De Novo Options

Operator errors, driving under the influence, and product defects have long been blamed for catastrophic accidents in the transportation industry. However, recent headlines revealed how cyber risk has emerged as a new and disturbing threat to airlines, railways, auto manufacturers and ocean cargo carriers. Those in the transportation sector have embraced the “Internet of Things” and transformed what were once far-reaching concepts into some of the most common components of the cars they manufacture and the planes they fly. They often rely on a secure internet connection to function safely and efficiently. Recent headlines, however, raised concern and started a debate: Can the transportation sector be hacked? If so, what are the consequences? Automobiles In July 2015, Fiat Chrysler announced a recall of 1.4 million vehicles after white hat hackers demonstrated that they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee's braking systems, change vehicle speed and affect operation of the transmission, air conditioning and radio controls. Hackers gained remote access by exploiting a software vulnerability in the vehicle’s Uconnect entertainment system. The stakes have been raised even higher with recent advances made in the development of driverless cars, as more vehicles will become completely reliant on secure technology. Safety concerns were raised after a series of crashes allegedly caused by the failures of Tesla’s Autopilot technology, resulting in the death of a passenger. This prompted Tesla to announce efforts to improve its Autopilot software, including "advanced processing of radar signals." See also: How to Measure ‘Vital Signs’ for Cyber Risk   The Department of Transportation has also recognized the risks associated with technology. In January 2016, the department entered into an agreement with 17 major automakers to enhance driver safety, including information sharing to prevent cyberattacks on vehicles. According to the agreement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will propose industry guidance for safe operation for fully autonomous vehicles. Planes Boeing recently became the subject of a hacker demonstration when a security researcher accessed the entertainment systems of one of the company's planes in mid-flight. Boeing was adamant that the hacker could not have gained access to the aircraft’s critical functions due to segregation of the two networks. However, the incident raised concerns throughout the airline industry, and an FBI investigation followed. Railway Systems German security researchers SCADA Strangelove demonstrated, without naming the rail systems in question, that they, too, are vulnerable. Their December 2015 report highlighted vulnerabilities related to outdated software, default passwords and lack of authentication. Moreover, entertainment and engineering systems were operating on the same network, leading to speculation that if one system is compromised hackers could gain access to the other. Because rail switches are automated and dependent on properly operating networks, the theory of a system compromise leading to a head-on collision with another train was explored in the report. Marine Shipping An investigation by Verizon Risk concluded that modern-day pirates are increasingly relying on network intrusions as a means to carry out crimes on the high seas. Verizon concluded that an unidentified shipping company’s networks were penetrated by hackers, giving them precise information on which ships were carrying the most valuable contents. Hackers then targeted their attacks on specific vessels, using bar codes to focus on individual shipping containers. As of this writing, we have not seen any incidents of bodily injury or loss of life in the transportation sector directly attributed to a deliberate network compromise. Yet the findings of various researchers across multiple transportation sectors lead to some alarming conclusions. Law enforcement and transportation safety regulators have taken these findings seriously and conducted investigations of their own. We can therefore expect with some degree of certainty that the transportation sector may be held to higher cybersecurity standards and will see increased regulatory scrutiny that has been witnessed in other industries, such as healthcare and financial services. When networks containing sensitive data may be compromised, regulators that oversee that industry often propose protection standards that ultimately become mandates. Failure to comply often leads to lawsuits, settlements, fines and significant reputational harm. See also: Protecting Institutions From Cyber Risks   Until then, the transportation sector can start by following the best practices as outlined in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s "A Summary of Cybersecurity Best Practices," published in October 2014 . Key observations and recommendations include:

• Cybersecurity is a life-cycle process that includes elements of assessment, design, implementation and operations as well as an effective testing and certification program.
• The aviation industry has many parallels to the automotive industry in the area of cybersecurity.
• Strong leadership from the federal government could help the development of industry-specific cybersecurity standards, guidelines and best practices.
• Sharing learning with other federal agencies is beneficial.
• Use of the NIST cybersecurity standards as a baseline is a way to accelerate development of industry-specific cybersecurity guidelines.
• International cybersecurity efforts are a key source of information.
• Consider developing a cybersecurity simulator. It could facilitate identification of vulnerabilities and risk mitigation strategies and can be used for collaborative learning (government, academia, private sector, international).
• Cybersecurity standards for the entire supply chain are important.
• Foster industry cybersecurity groups for exchange of cybersecurity information.
• Use professional capacity building to address and develop cybersecurity skill sets, system designers and engineers.
• Connected vehicle security should be end-to-end; vehicles, infrastructure and V2X communication should all be secure.

The transportation sector is yet another industry that must learn to adapt to the systemic nature of cyber risk. Because of ever-increasing reliance on evolving technology, cyber risk will certainly begin to move toward the top of the list of transportation safety concerns. The captains of this industry can no longer claim ignorance to cybersecurity issues or completely delegate responsibility. They owe a duty to safeguard the flow of information that effectively keeps our planes airborne and our cars on the road. Failure to do so could be catastrophic.

By now, you might be getting tired of hearing the term Insurtech. You may also be annoyed at everyone telling you about industry disruption. But there is no question that there is a high level of buzz, excitement, investment and activity in the insurtech space. The question is – does it really matter? Or is this just a phase that will fade away?

At SMA, we believe that insurtech definitely does matter. However, the implications are vastly different by industry segment and for different parts of the insurance business. Sorting out what it means for your little (or big) corner of the insurance industry can be daunting. But you must, whether you are an insurer looking for investment or partnering opportunities, an incumbent tech company assessing new competition or new partners, an insurtech company seeking success or an investor trying to gauge where to focus.

See also: InsurTech Need Not Be a Zero-Sum Game  

You need to create short lists of the insurtech companies most relevant to your particular situation in specific domains. This is imperative, given that there are now well over 500 insurtech companies, and that number is growing every day. Did you know that there are well over 100 companies focused on disrupting distribution alone? Or that approximately 10% of the companies are specifically focused on new solutions or models for the claims ecosystem?

You might believe that these companies don’t really understand insurance and are destined to fail. That will certainly be the case for many. Some have already fallen by the wayside. But making the assumption that it doesn’t really matter to your business would be a serious mistake. The insurtech companies that are successful are bound to make an impact, and no part of the industry is immune to the potential implications of the insurtech movement. Every company, regardless of size or market position, must take a proactive approach to assessing insurtech to understand the both the competitive threats and the opportunities to offer new products and services, improve operations, or even introduce brand new business models.

See also: Matching Game for InsurTech, Insurers  

Does insurtech matter? History will be the judge, but all the signs point to an industry on the verge of disruption, and the many insurtech companies are bound to play a major role in industry transformation.

More information on the new research report, The InsurTech Universe: Understanding Company Positioning and Maturity, is available at this link.

Identity theft and countless other scams often are among the first life lessons learned by newly minted college students. As summer draws to a close, members of the Class of 2020 face an unimaginable number of potential pitfalls. Be prepared to meet the specific challenges ahead. Most incoming college students, at some point, will find themselves feeling overwhelmed by their newfound freedom. With the exception of camp, it will be longest stretch of time many kids have been away from home. And for the majority, it will be the first time they are in charge of getting three square meals a day while staying on top of a busy schedule with a host of deadlines, something that can get away from them in the blink of an eye. On top of all that demanding stuff, it is also the first time many will have to deal with the nitty-gritty of personal finance, health care and all the other facts of life that involve the trafficking of personal identifying information. And these deliverables, if they aren’t carefully tended to, can create major havoc. This is where it becomes important to make sure that your children are aware of the dangers they will confront on a daily basis. See also: Identity Theft Can Be Double Whammy Bottom line: There they are, completely independent, free to study or not, stay out all night at the coolest venues (or not), and free to give their personal information to the first identity thief that comes along asking for it—or not. So, how do you keep them safe? A good place to start is with an actual or virtual sit-down, where you have a serious conversation about the dangers they face. Here are a few not-fun-at-all hot spots that come to mind. 1. Credit cards: real and make-believe While not at the fever pitch of the years preceding the enactment of the CARD Act, when banks littered college campuses with sign-up tables offering every inducement imaginable from free pizza to free T-shirts to extra points toward plane tickets and hotels for spring break, your kids are going to be offered credit cards. Managed correctly, a credit card can help them build the kind of low-risk profile that inspires mortgage and auto lenders to say yes to young people looking to finance their purchase of a home or a car. Credit is their first portfolio. (They can monitor their progress toward building good credit by viewing two of their credit scores for free each month on Credit.com.) But credit also can be bad. There are scams out there that look like credit card offers but are actually nothing more than fraudsters collecting personally identifying information to be used to open accounts in your child’s name. The best way to avoid this is to counsel your child to get a credit card on a reputable site or call the number on the back of one of your credit cards. There will be representatives who can steer them to the credit product that is right for them. (Keep in mind, they may need you to be involved in the process anyway, since the CARD Act prohibits banks for lending to anyone under 21 unless they can demonstrate an ability to repay or have a willing co-signer.) 2. Fake textbook sites Textbooks can be very expensive. If an online book vendor offers deals that look too good to be true, it could well be a scam. Counsel them to never trust, always verify and only use sites that are recommended by people they know or that have been thoroughly reviewed. 3. Scam scholarships There is no such thing as a scholarship that requires an application fee. Tell your kids to discuss all matters regarding scholarships and financial aid with you. 4. Phish ahoy! Often deals or study aids come in the form of a link texted, emailed or floated as a post on social media. The basic rule here should be, When in doubt, check it out. Google is your child’s friend, as is a moment’s hesitation to decide whether this or that offer makes sense. Once again, if it’s too good to be true, and if they take the bait, the joke could be on them. 5. Everything new If it is new to you, you might just hesitate and wonder what the catch is. For your kids—digital natives that they are—nothing new is suspect. It’s expected. Spotting frauds whether they are services, new ways to move money around or apply for jobs, credit or scholarships will all seem like the same old thing to them. Teach them to make phone calls and do background checks on new things before using them, because there are myriad “killer apps” out there. There is no way to fully prepare young people for the threat culture they are about to enter, but with some wise counsel they can be pointed in the right direction, which is a good place to start. Hopefully they’ll listen. This post originally appeared on ThirdCertainty.

What is pain? According to Merriam-Webster, it is "the physical feeling caused by disease, injury or something that hurts the body." Which is different than suffering: “to become worse because of being badly affected by something." Often, these words are treated as synonyms (or as a single word, "painandsuffering") when they are actually quite different. Pain is what happens to you. Suffering is how you handle it. The confusion of these two terms can create issues. The American Pain Society in 1996 described "pain as the fifth vital sign" (giving it equal status with blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature). The phrase created a perfect storm because it coincided with the message being delivered to medical schools and the healthcare industry that doctors had an opioid phobia and were under-treating pain. That was followed in 2000 by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) establishing standards for pain assessment and management. Then the Veterans Health Administration incorporated the new emphasis into its national pain management strategy. So, regardless of where a patient was treated and by whom, the (subjective, patient-driven) assessment of pain was one of the first questions asked and often drove treatment plans. Then the new approach began to be questioned. A 2006 study by the VA found quantifying pain "did not increase the quality of pain management." In June 2016, the American Medical Association recommended removing "pain as the fifth vital sign" and connected the idea to the beginning of over-prescribing of opioids. Opponents of the change say it will "make it even more difficult for pain sufferers to have their pain properly diagnosed and treated." Proponents of the change say "pain is not a vital sign, but more of a symptom, and cannot be measured." So far, pain is still the fifth vital sign. See also: Health Startups Go After 3 Pain Points   The biggest problem is unrealistic expectations - patients often are told or come to believe they will be pain-free. When they're not, and their condition becomes chronic, it sows doubt in the mind of both the patient and clinician. The second biggest problem is that often the circumstances beyond their physical pain is ignored. I am convinced that dealing with what happens between the ears and at home is as important as what is physically wrong with the body (i.e. the biopsychosocial model). So how is "pain as the fifth vital sign" measured? Sometimes it's a scale of frowny face to smiley face. But often it's a comparative pain scale, from 0 to 10. The Health Organization for Pudendal Education (HOPE) offers the best description:

• 0 - No pain - Feeling perfectly normal.
• 1 - Very mild - Barely noticeable pain, like a mosquito bite or a poison ivy itch. Most of the time, you never think about the pain.
• 2 - Discomforting - Minor pain, like lightly pinching the fold of skin between the thumb and first finger with the other hand, using the fingernails. Note that people react differently to this self-test.
• 3 - Tolerable - Very noticeable pain, like an accidental cut, a blow to the nose causing a bloody nose or a doctor giving you an injection. The pain is not so strong that you cannot get used to it. Eventually, most of the time you don't notice the pain. You have adapted to it.
• 4 - Distressing - Strong, deep pain, like an average toothache, the initial pain from a bee sting, or minor trauma to part of the body, such as stubbing your toe really hard. So strong you notice the pain all the time and cannot completely adapt. This pain level can be simulated by pinching the fold of skin between the thumb and first finger with the other hand, using the fingernails and squeezing hard. Note how the simulated pain is initially piercing but becomes dull after that.
• 5 - Very distressing - Strong, deep, piercing pain, such as a sprained ankle when you stand on it wrong, or mild back pain. Not only do you notice the pain all the time, you are now so preoccupied with managing it that your normal lifestyle is curtailed. Temporary personality disorders are frequent.
• 6 - Intense - Piercing pain so strong it seems to partially dominate your senses, causing you to think somewhat unclearly. At this point, you begin to have trouble holding a job or maintaining normal social relationships. Comparable to a bad non-migraine headache combined with several bee stings, or a bad back pain.
• 7 - Very intense - Same as 6 except the pain completely dominates your senses, causing you to think unclearly about half the time. At this point, you are effectively disabled and frequently cannot live alone. Comparable to an average migraine headache.
• 8 - Utterly horrible - Pain so intense you can no longer think clearly at all, and have often undergone severe personality change if the pain has been present for a long time. Suicide is frequently contemplated and sometimes tried. Comparable to childbirth or a really bad migraine headache.
• 9 - Excruciating, unbearable - Pain so intense you cannot tolerate it and demand pain killers or surgery, no matter what the side effects or risk. If this doesn't work, suicide is frequent because there is no more joy in life whatsoever. Comparable to throat cancer.
• 10 - Unimaginable, unspeakable - Pain so intense you will go unconscious shortly. Most people have never experienced this level of pain. Those who have suffered a severe accident, such as a crushed hand, and lost consciousness as a result of the pain and not blood loss have experienced level 10.

How many times have people said their pain is a 9 or 10 (or a 47) when they're conscious, sitting upright and drove themselves to the doctor's office? I have seen that manifold times in hundreds of chronic pain workers' comp claims since 2003. But it's easy to succumb to that kind of self-assessment ... I had the flu in February and went to a CVS Minute Clinic. One of the initial questions the nurse practitioner asked me (having been prompted to do so by her practice management software) was my level of pain. I truly felt miserable -- body aches, high temperature, sneezing. For a brief moment, because I wanted to ensure a prescription of Tamiflu, I wanted to catastrophize ("an irrational thought a lot of us have in believing that something is far worse than it actually is") and say I was a 9 or 10. But then I remembered all the times I had argued against that approach. And I remembered exactly what a 9 or 10 meant. So I resisted the urge and gave myself a 5 rating. I still got the Tamiflu that started the journey to recovery. See also: Better Outcomes for Chronic Pain   Pain is complicated and individual, so there is not a single answer for quantifying and treating it appropriately. However, I have three high-level suggestions:

• Re-calibrate the scale. The clinician should educate patients on the true meaning of 0 through 10 and help them decide on a lower number that better describes their pain. That would require an actual dialogue between the clinician and patient. I understand that pain is unique and personal. But if patients can convince themselves their pain is a 6 instead of a 10 (or a 47), then managing it seems much more achievable.
• Be honest. If there is going to be residual, chronic pain, the patient should know it. And own it.
• Manage the pain. In my opinion, "pain management" is a term that is often misused. You can't manage your pain if you're comatose (i.e. sedated on opioids, benzos, muscle relaxants, et al.). Yet we often see "pain management" as a series of pills or injections that are passive and repetitive (in some cases, I think pain management clinics have become "addicted" to the repeat office visits). At some point, patients need to manage their pain rather than allowing the pain to manage them, and be taught how to do that. That could mean yoga, an active lifestyle, better nutrition, biofeedback, proper sleep hygiene, deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, volunteer work or any number of other methods in combination or isolation that work for the patient. The key is an internal locus of control ("he or she can influence events and their outcomes").

I'm not saying pain isn't real. For those dealing with chronic pain, it is very real. But I've chatted with and observed too many people with significant chronic pain who overcome it on a daily basis to live productive and happy lives. I know that chronic pain does not have to win. Instead, we need to re-define pain, re-define suffering and help people take back control of their lives. I will finish with this wisdom from Dr. Stephen Grinstead:

• Thoughts cause feelings
• Thoughts + feelings = urges
• Urges + decisions (choices) = actions
• Actions cause reactions
• Reactions could help or hurt management of pain

In other words, how you think about pain influences how much power pain has over you. So think differently.

Once disaster strikes, the first priorities are always safety and preservation of property, but there are priorities to consider ahead of a loss to avoid unexpected surprises. Disaster mitigation and restoration is a critical service after property damage, and how you manage it may affect the outcome of your claim. Though there are many capable firms that specialize in property damage clean-up and restoration, there are some that will make mistakes, and others may even take advantage of the situation. When it comes to recovering the cost of mitigation and restoration services for an insurance claim, any mishaps can create big problems that may leave you stuck with the bill. See also: Are You Ready for the Next Disaster?   Here are five techniques to prevent potential problems before they arise:

1. Vet your emergency response team prior to loss -- Preparation is the key in any endeavor, and with property damage claims you cannot be too prepared. Recovery service providers should be identified and interviewed. Make sure the company you choose will be able to handle your potential issues. Involve your insurer during vetting. There are “approved” vendors that insurance companies recommend; however, just because they are “approved” does not mean there will not problems. Notify the insurance company of who you plan to use, as well.
2. Clarify and document scope of work -- Be clear on scope of work with the recovery firm and make the adjuster part of that conversation. Often, emergency response does not follow the normal protocols of a typical project. There likely won’t be time for detailed estimates, so try to get the adjuster to approve work in real-time to avoid second guessing.
3. Take a hands-on approach -- Your property may still be underwater, but once access is granted you must be hands-on. No one should have access to your facility without the presence of a company representative. Assign a property supervisor to the affected site to keep track of who is there and what they are doing. It’s your property and your responsibility. The bigger the loss, the more people there will be coming in and going out, so it is vital to have a company representative onsite to observe and answer questions.
4. Audit contractor charges before approving -- The first weeks after a loss are chaotic. It’s important for policyholders to put controls in place to monitor activity and to verify that work has been completed to specifications and according to the terms of the agreement. Reimbursable insurance expenses should be separated and audited prior to payment for proper detail and accuracy. This needs to be done efficiently in real-time. If you don’t have the resources, this step can be completed by your claim preparation accountants, i.e. forensic accountants. Having forensic accountants on your team, along with your technical experts, can let you process this information in the context of insurance recovery. Don’t assume your forensic accountants will automatically audit invoices. Identifying errors or, worse, fraud is critical to avoid delays in payment or project completion.
5. Address issues immediately -- When the first invoice arrives, insurance companies may act surprised and even deny coverage, especially if the steps above have not been followed. Make sure to get the parties together to discuss the issues. Don’t procrastinate and don’t assume. It is important to be proactive with any potential discrepancies. The policyholder is responsible if there are unresolved differences. If the adjuster disagrees with the work performed and the invoices are paid, it may be difficult to recover all your expenses.

See also: A Real Checklist for Real Disasters   The immediate aftermath of a disaster is stressful and hectic. Preparation and communication can help you weather the storm and minimize unwanted surprises when you’re looking for claim payment. Having an experienced and independent forensic accounting team will reduce the stress, the workload and reimbursement issues. Per the tagline for one of the largest restoration firms, in the end you want it to be “Like it never even happened.”

During my tenure at both British Petroleum and Walmart, I tried various forms of wellness, but to no avail. There were never any savings, participation was low, employees didn’t like it, and administration was complex. I’ve continued to follow the wellness industry but could never see any genuine success stories. The gratifying news is that I’m not the only one to notice any more. The Los Angeles Times called wellness a scam while Slate just recently called it a sham. And Al Lewis, my co-author on Cracking Health Costs, would say they’re being polite. Most recently, he has noted that the 2016 Koop Award is going to a vendor whose own data shows they made employees unhealthier. See also: The Yuuuuge Hidden Costs of Wellness   Speaking of Al Lewis, he has now entered the employee health field directly with Quizzify, which transforms the boring but long-overdue task of educating employees about health, healthcare and their health benefit into an entertaining trivia game. As a colleague and co-author, I have an obvious conflict of interest as I describe my impressions below, so don’t take my word for any of this. Just go play the sample short game right on the website, and ask yourself if you’re learning anything useful, right off the bat. Click here for a link to Quizzify. Do you think your employees already know this stuff? It’s doubtful. Americans vastly over-consume healthcare; it’s almost free at the point of service once the deductible is satisfied, and they are being bombarded with ads and marketing, as are their doctors. Nothing can solve this massive problem, but Quizzify can help, and is about the only vendor even trying. Backed by doctors at Harvard Medical School and a 100% savings guarantee, Quizzify provides a plethora of shock-and-awe, “counter-detailing” questions-and-answers (with full links to sources) that will educate even the savviest consumers of healthcare and entertain even the dourest CFO. Nexium? Prilosec? Prevacid? You wouldn’t believe the hazards of long-term use. Then there is the sheer waste and possible harm of annual checkups, well-woman visits, PSA tests and so on. Speaking of hazards, CT scans emit as much as 1,000 times the radiation of an X-ray. Uninformed people are going clinics that will give them a “preventive” CT scan. If a doctor suggested patients have a series of a thousand X-rays for “preventive” reasons, there would be a stampede out of the office. On the other hand, there are instances where people should go to the doctor but don’t. Swollen ankles? Painless, perhaps, but you may have a circulation problem, possibly a serious one. Blood in your urine, but it goes away before you even make an appointment? That could be a bladder tumor tearing and then re-attaching itself, especially if you smoke. And show me one health risk assessment that correctly advises people over 55 or 60 to get a shingles vaccine if they had chicken pox as a kid. Then there are the health hazards of everyday life. Those healthy-sounding granola bars are full of sugars cleverly hidden in the ingredients labels. And whoever says vaping is safer that smoking better not be pregnant, because for pregnant moms, incredibly, vaping could be worse for the unborn baby. Just as with the shingles vaccine, chances are your HRA is silent on the texting-while-driving (TWD) issue while obsessing about seat belts, but TWD is by far the more underappreciated hazard. See also: Wellness Promoters Agree: It Doesn’t Work Your HRA is probably also silent on the health risks of loneliness, poor spending habits, boredom and most of the other major health risks Robert Woods, PhD, and I describe in our book, An Illustrated Guide to Personal Health. Quizzify has many questions on spending habit, but, if I had one complaint, it would be that (at least in the questions I’ve seen) Quizzify doesn’t address these risks we’ve described in this book. One of the largest health risks that workers have is being in a job you hate. You won’t see that question on anyone’s HRA either, or in Quizzify. That issue could lead to mass resignations in some pressure cooker companies. Scores and scores of people have told me they fudge answers on HRAs, anyway. Interestingly, they feel they are on the ethical high ground to do that because of the goofy, nosy and intrusive questions they are asked to answer, e.g., asking about your pregnancy plans in the future. Quizzify, on the other hand, encourages people to cheat. Quizzify wants you to look up the answers because that’s how you learn. So instead of denying human nature, Quizzify channels it. Conclusion: if you offer old-fashioned wellness, walk, don’t run, to the nearest exit. If you want to look at something that shows huge promise, check out Quizzify.

In my post last month, I discussed why the insurtech revolution should be focusing more on addressing the protection gap, thereby growing the pool of insurable risks, rather than figuring out how best to eat the insurance incumbents' lunch. A

t a conference in February, Tom Bolt of Lloyd's noted that an increase of 1% in insurance penetration can lead to a 13% drop in uninsured losses and a 22% drop in taxpayers' share of the loss. The key to increasing penetration is lowering distribution costs to make products more affordable. That is where insurtech can come in.

Many recent startups have business models looking to tackle the excessive intermediation costs that exist in the current insurance value chain. Sadly, when a catastrophe strikes areas of low insurance penetration, those communities not only suffer from the difficulties of having to seek aid—which can take three-plus months to reach affected zones—but also face the prospect of a significant drag to economic growth.

It is unsurprising, therefore, that governments in vulnerable countries are keen to improve their “resilience” and seek solutions to better prepare themselves for catastrophes by working with the likes of the World Bank, the UN and the recently established Insurance Development Forum (IDF). Interestingly, AIR Worldwide announced recently the Global Resilience Practice, which will be led by former U.S. presidential adviser Dr. Daniel Kaniewski.

See also: InsurTech Need Not Be a Zero-Sum Game  

As well as providing low-cost distribution models in new markets, a related opportunity I see for insurtech is working together with the insurance industry in the growing field of resilience analytics. As Robert Muir-Wood recently pointed out on RMS' blog, the claims data gathered by insurers — which historically has been used for the pricing and managing of risk — have the potential to also be used to reduce the potential for damage before the event.

Insurtech companies could work with government authorities to pool this claims data, leveraging it with other key data from external sources and then using the results to influence urban resilience strategies. There are inevitable doubts over the willingness of insurers to share their data, but agile and thoughtful startups are likely better placed to be able to find insights in a world of abundant unstructured data than the more technologically challenged incumbents.

The current size of the protection gap is a failure of the insurance industry, and any companies that can help address it will not only be first movers in new markets but will also be adding social value and much-needed resilience to vulnerable communities all over the world.

Building on T.J. Geelen’s blog post about the thriving fintech ecosystems in Asia, I’d like to share with you some insights relating to the emerging insurtech ecosystem in the region. Although insurtech in Asia is in its infancy, since 2015 we’ve seen a surge of interest. By the way, I’m a big believer that Asia has a real potential to power the next wave of global insurance innovation.