If you’ve been involved in an accident, you file a claim with your insurance provider and assume that it will act in good faith and protect you. However, just because “good faith” exists doesn’t mean your claim won't be denied. Has Your Claim Been Denied? Nothing feels quite as disheartening as finding out your claim has been denied when you were sure your insurance company was on your side. If that happens you have the right to know why. See also: Power of ‘Claims Advocacy’   A car accident, for instance, might be denied because: the accident was avoidable; there was no complaint or treatment at the time of the injury; or there was a pre-existing condition. What’s Next? Often, a denied claim can be a simple mistake, so, before you settle for your insurance company’s decision, don’t be afraid to ask questions and get some clarification. If you have double-checked that the information you submitted is correct or have fixed some errors on your claim (and your claim is still denied), you have the right to dispute the denial. See also: Bad-Faith Claims: 4 Ways to Avoid Them   If you choose to appeal a denied claim, a common procedure for some insurance (such as health insurance) involves writing a letter explaining why you believe your claim should be covered. When explaining your claim, be as detailed and specific as possible and include any evidence or information the insurance company may not have asked for or considered. You should also keep copies of everything you send to the insurance company and keep detailed notes of when and whom you spoke with. Considering Legal Action If you don’t know how to proceed with a denied insurance claim, you may want to consult a lawyer who specializes in insurance cases. If your insurance company still refuses to accept your claim after your appeal, legal assistance may be your best course of action, as you may be able to file a “bad faith” case against your insurance company.

As we think about the changes that will inevitably happen within the insurance industry, we also have to recognize that these changes will be reflected in a transformation of the leadership function. Of course, we have to distinguish between leadership and organizational power. "Power" usually comes from the ability to influence and give direction to others and through hierarchy. The leadership role is often viewed as some form of organizational hero who has the ability to take an organization from a status of failure or inertia, to one of success. But is this hero model still valid, and will it be valid going forward? Isn’t one of the main problems that the pace and complexity of change is so dramatic that so-called leaders are no longer able to draw on their own experience to help create a compass for the organization? And without experience or adequate understanding, is there a risk that traditional leaders might simply revert to what they know, and create a drag on the business rather than provide the catalyst to drive it forward? In creating this drag, don’t the leaders themselves run the risk of personal criticism if their performance or ambition starts to dwindle? See also: Inventing Your Future: A 3 X 3 Approach   The paradox is that leadership can be both the cause of organizational weakness and also the cure if implemented effectively. Emerging theories of leadership point to a more devolved, flexible and decentralized model of leadership, a model that demands a shared, distributed and relation-based leadership ethos with the emphasis on collaboration – as opposed to the old hierarchical model. Has leadership become a process rather than a position? If that is the case, then does such an environment present us with the opportunity for a more fluid, richer leadership environment? No more Eureka moments, but rather that the leadership of an organization is constantly shifting and is a reflection of the culture and shared values of the business? And does it mean that anyone with the word "leader" in their job title – like mine – is toast? Yes, probably, unless as a leader you are personally prepared to change. If leadership is to exist in any form, then it will be by example. Leaders need to show how to collaborate, innovate and be agile. Leadership is no longer about holding the sword and shouting "follow me" or "do what I say." See also: The Future of Insurance [Infographic]   As we increasingly focus on a world of data and analytics, and the associated democratization of understanding and insight, we have to accept that this has the potential to create the collapse of organizational hierarchy. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Data and democratized analytics inevitably force us to think about leadership in a different way. It might also force us to think about our own careers and professions in a different way, as well. How we communicate these very major issues is also critical. If we accept that the big data genie is out of the bottle, then we must also accept that the metaphorical Pandora’s Box has been opened. Classicists will know that as Pandora’s Box was opened, then all the evils of the world were allowed to escape from that box. Of course, it’s not quite so dramatic – but will big data and analytics provide the catalyst for a revolution in what we mean by leadership?

As an American and the de facto administrator of my family’s health insurance, I am reminded routinely of some of the complexities of the methods we employ to maximize health and pay for care in this country. Forces are driving individuals, providers, insurers and employers to change their approaches or suffer the consequences. InsurTech companies that take aim at the U.S. healthcare industry by using software and data to improve efficiency and outcomes can benefit from this opportunity. Depending on whether you are an optimist or pessimist, the healthcare sector is the land of endless opportunity or unsolvable problems. Because the scale is huge, even small steps forward, aimed at opportunity pockets, can translate into significant wins. Let’s view the situation through four lenses: the health of the American people, marketplace trends, the role of regulation and the players. You can unpack any one of these and understand why Venture Scanner has identified more than $26 billion in funding that is being poured into 1,300 health-technology companies across 21 categories and 48 countries. The issues and implications arising from any of these categories are intertwined, so even startups focusing on health insurers cannot disconnect from what is happening in the rest of the ecosystem. This post focuses on health insurance in the U.S., not the broader healthcare space or other geographies, because the U.S. is a) a massive market and b) a different structure from markets in Europe and Asia). Americans, overall, do not live a healthy lifestyle The U.S. came in last place in a 2013 ranking of affluent countries’ health in a Mayo Clinic Proceedings study that included four factors in its definition of “healthy lifestyle”: diet, exercise, weight and smoking. Americans are getting fatter. More than one-third of the adult population is obese. Every single state has an obesity rate of more than 20%, adding an estimated $200 billion to the national healthcare tab. A piece of good news from the Centers for Disease Control is that the percent of adult smokers has dropped steadily from 42% in 1965 to 17% in 2014. The trend among students has been less stable, but generally downward, peaking at 36% in 1997 and dropping to 16% in 2013. This is a huge and shifting marketplace Consider just a few dimensions:

• Healthcare spending represents 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product, $3.2 trillion, or about $10,000 per person. As the population ages, government spending in the sector is expected to increase. Also consider that 30% of Medicare dollars go toward the 5% of beneficiaries who become very ill and then die each year.
• Employers are taking action to shift costs to employees, and slow spending. Employers provide coverage to 150 million Americans. And, according to the 2015 Kaiser Family Foundation total average annual premium per employee has increased from $5,791 to $17,545 since 1999. Employees are being asked to pay more, or to avoid doing so by trading down to high-deductible plans. This creates near-term savings back to healthy families who don’t run into any medical surprises. What is rarely highlighted, however, is how many families are effectively assuming the financial risk of facing a large deductible in the event of, say, an unanticipated hospitalization. Because 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and 21% have no savings, the potential is real for individual families to face serious financial consequences as a result of this choice.
• Only one in seven Americans understand the insurance plans selected yet are held increasingly responsible to manage decisions that could have implications not only for cost, but also for quality of life.
• Insurance carriers have benefited from ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare, formally named the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) because of how the statute has expanded the market and provided premium subsidies for lower-income households. At the same time, insurance companies remain the least trusted of the healthcare subsectors.

Regulations focus on changing behavior, protecting patient data and stimulating innovation ACA, signed into law in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012, is watershed legislation that set the sector up for reinvention. ACA takes both a carrot and stick approach to increase coverage and care effectiveness while lowering costs, e.g.,

• If as a user you don’t purchase coverage, you face penalties.
• If as an employer of 50-plus people you don’t offer coverage, you face penalties.
• Health care providers are being given incentives to make "meaningful use" of electronic health records to create efficiencies and improve care decisions, and face penalties if they fail to use such tools
• Primary care providers and general surgeons are being given incentives to move to low-coverage geographies.

These are just a few examples of how ACA is attempting to get people to change how they select, use and administer healthcare payments and services. Two other regulations affect health insurers:

• The Health Information Privacy and Protection Act, better known as HIPAA, the privacy, portability and security rule designed to protect patient health information, while improving data portability. HIPAA affects how data is stored, protected, used and transferred.
• The HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) was enacted to support the development of a nationwide health IT infrastructure, as well as define and maintain standards for health information technology products and how they interact with each other.

Any health care player -- incumbent, startup or investor -- must understand how the regulations work For those who question whether ACA might be repealed, consider that, while this year's election suggests anything can happen in politics, there have been more than 50 failed attempts by Republicans in Congress to undo the legislation. So, better to understand how the incentives and disincentives relate to any potential new business model, and appreciate how big a departure ACA’s core principles are from the traditional way in which the U.S. healthcare system has operated. The latter is vital to understand the dynamics of the new playing field and how individuals, providers, insurers and employers are responding. The winning business models will be those that exhibit four characteristics:

• Link to the regulatory levers – carrots and sticks for individuals and providers – and move them. This is where the commercial value lies.
• Prove they can deliver better outcomes at lower cost.
• Demonstrate potential to scale, by itself, via B2B partnerships, or via exit to a scale incumbent.
• Have a viable basis for underwriting and risk management.

Success will be a function of software + data + tactical knowledge of the levers – both the regulations and how to motivate behavioral change where people are being asked to make radical changes.

In the past, customers tended to ignore their insurance after they purchased it. They interacted with their agents only a couple of times a year — to purchase a policy or file a claim — and then they forgot about it. Now, technological advancements give consumers the ability to connect with their insurance products and services at all times, creating highly personalized services that are in high demand. In fact, 77% of consumers are willing to provide usage and behavior data in exchange for lower premiums, personalized coverage recommendations or faster claims settlements. The following five new technology trends will change the future of insurance for carriers and consumers alike. 1. Vehicle Telematics Vehicle telematics transmit real-time data directly to insurers through devices installed in vehicles. As a result, consumers receive more accurately priced premiums and better risk assessment that isn’t solely based on demographic information. Telematics can also help align your auto insurance premium with your driving usage. This is known as usage-based insurance (UBI). By 2020, it is projected that 70% of all auto insurance carriers will use telematics and some form of UBI. 2. Mobile Health Mobile health, or mHealth, refers to apps and wireless devices that can be used in healthcare for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Both insurers and consumers can benefit from mHealth, and its popularity is demonstrated by the fact that the industry’s revenue is expected to reach $26 billion by 2017. Mobile health allows insurance companies to sell policies that are specific to their consumers’ health data as well as their adherence to medications and treatment plans. Consumers can use mobile fitness apps to monitor and improve their health, ultimately reducing premium rates. See also: 4 Technology Trends to Watch for   3. Gamification Gamification incorporates different aspects of games to add some fun to the insurance consumer’s experience while solving real-life issues. Insurance companies recognized the lack of customer engagement and have sought to improve this through gamification. Though gamification techniques are fairly new to the insurance world, they are likely to benefit consumers. Gamification can turn formerly tedious activities — like tracking healthy habits or filling out a health risk assessment — into engaging games that result in rewards and continue to motivate consumers to live healthy lifestyles. On top of its consumer influence, gamification will be used to improve the workplace. Forty percent of the Global 1000 top companies will use gamification as an incentive and to transform business operations. Keeping employees engaged, especially during a transition, can be highly difficult. Gaming technology is pioneering this issue. In 2012, the gamification market was $242 million. According to a M2 Research study, the market will be $2.8 billion by the end of this year. In other words, we have a lot to look forward to when it comes to interactive engagement as consumers and employees in the insurance world. 4. Drones and Aerial Imagery While drones are often used as devices for personal enjoyment, they are also transforming the way insurance companies evaluate claims. In the past, insurers needed to visit a physical location to estimate damage and losses. However, drones can now capture aerial images that allow them to more quickly respond to catastrophic events and process claims. Cognizant, a consulting firm, estimates that drones will make insurance adjusters’ work flow 40% to 50% more efficient. The insurance industry’s growing use of drones will help improve safety practices in the aftermath of a disaster by having fewer people — insurance agents and consumers — on the ground taking photos. Drones also allow insurance carriers to better assess how an event occurred and the resulting damages with high-resolution images from all angles. 5. Home Automation As consumers continue to adopt smart home technology, from voice-controlled lights to sensors that detect pipe leaks, they will benefit from home insurance premiums that are more directly tied to their lifestyles. Some insurance companies offer discounts to homeowners who use smart home technology that can decrease their home’s risk of damage or burglary. Smart thermostats, smoke detectors, security systems and deadbolt locks can all improve a home’s safety and can decrease your homeowners or renter’s insurance bill. See also: How Technology Breaks Down Silos   Insurance companies will continue to adapt as this technology continues to popularize. More and more homeowners are investing in smart home technology — 45% of all Americans, in fact. New technology has paved the way for a more personalized experience for insurance customers. As a result, insurance companies are shifting away from transaction-based services and are moving toward building relationships with their always-connected consumers.

In a high-profile case that highlights the potential for insurance fraud, a Los Angeles woman who was featured in Season 4 of the “Bridezillas” television series pleaded no contest to 14 counts of submitting fraudulent documents and making false claims to receive workers’ compensation benefits. Anita Maxwell, 55, was sentenced to one day in county jail, three years of summary probation, 200 hours of community service and restitution in the amount of $11,873.79. Maxwell, a clinical partner, had alleged a neck, back and shoulder injury while assisting a patient. She lied to her medical providers in a recorded statement obtained by Probe Information Services, where she denied she had any prior injuries to her neck, back or shoulders. Maxwell’s prior medical records were located by Probe Information Services in a medical canvass, and those records were presented to her medical providers. Medical providers confirmed Maxwell had denied any prior injury or treatment, thereby concealing information in an attempt to obtain WC benefits that she was not entitled to receive. Her primary treating physician testified that, had he known about the concealed information, he would have provided a different opinion as to apportionment of permanent disability. Based on her attempted theft of permanent disability benefits, Maxwell was charged with insurance fraud for multiple counts of material misrepresentations. Maxwell was featured in the first episode of the fourth season of WE Television's “Bridezillas” in 2007, where she was humiliated after being left at the altar. She isn’t the first reality TV star to be charged with workers’ comp fraud. In 2011, “Real Housewives of Orange County” participant Devon Lynn Kile pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a $30 million premium fraud scheme. In 2012, James Frank Smith, who was a participant in the History Channels’ “Ax Men” series, was charged with fraudulently claiming he was unable to work. See also: How Should Workers’ Compensation Evolve?   Maxwell had been charged in 2014, but the case languished until she pleaded no contest this month.

Before they ever step foot in a dangerous situation, first responders get a lot of training on how to handle a wide range of potential hazards. But what about second responders? Adjusters, inspectors and other claims professionals are often the next group to visit the scene of a car accident, fire, flood or other disaster, and the area may contain debris and possibly be dangerous. But the training they get on these and other safety hazards in the field is often far from comprehensive. Here are four hazards claims adjusters should be on the lookout for and develop ways to avoid: 1. Physical attacks Adjusters encounter all types of people in the field, many of whom are going through tumultuous times in their lives. When traveling to dangerous areas, claims pros should be accompanied by partners whenever possible. It's essential that workers in the field leave a detailed copy of their day's schedule at the office and call in during preset check-in times. There are also several apps available to reduce risks when meeting new people and traveling to unfamiliar areas. These apps incorporate features such as GPS, SMS, video, alerts and alarms, all aimed to keep claims pros safe when they are by themselves. Another way to reduce risk in these situations is to meet claimants in public places when feasible, rather than in the claimants' homes. 2. Falls Whether from a ladder, roof or icy patch of ground, falls are a common source of injury for adjusters and workers in many fields. In fact, falls from heights and slips, trips and falls are the second and third most common sources of all workplace injuries. Falls from ladders are one of the most prevalent causes of these injuries, with the majority of these falls being avoidable. Follow the Occupational Safety and Health Commission's specific guidance on safe ladder use:

• Always inspect the ladder before using it.
• Avoid electrical hazards by not using a metal ladder near power lines or exposed energized electrical equipment whenever possible.
• Always maintain three-point contact (two hands and a foot or two feet and a hand) on the ladder when climbing. Keep your body near the middle of the step and always face the ladder while climbing.
• Do not use the top step/rung of a ladder as a step/rung unless it was designed for that purpose.

If the damage is extensive and complex, it may be helpful to hire an expert (such as a structural engineer). The expert can help with various safety issues, such as the presence of toxic materials while also assisting in evaluating the claim. See also: Risks of Malpractice Claims (Video)   3. Electrical hazards Damage to physical property from flooding, fire or other disasters can create electrical hazards — from exposed wiring to standing water near sources of electricity. Before heading out to a site, an adjuster should verify with the local utility company that power to the property has been shut off if a risk of electrical hazards is present. At the site, adjusters should thoroughly inspect the exterior to identify potential hazards. Inside the property, watch for potentially dangerous spots and always wear proper safety gear, such as boots, goggles, gloves and hard hats. 4. Animals Wild animal hazards — from snake and alligator bites to bee stings and mosquitoes carrying dangerous diseases — pose serious threats to adjusters, especially if an environment has been disrupted by a flood or natural disaster. But while encountering a poisonous snake might be scarier than encountering a dog, adjusters should probably be more concerned by sightings of a Fido, Spot or Rover. A seemingly friendly pet dog might be hostile to a stranger snooping around — and just because the animal was peaceful during an adjuster's first visit doesn't mean the animal will act the same way the next time around. To reduce the risk of injury, adjusters should ask claimants about pets when they schedule their visits and further ask that any animals be contained during inspections. If adjusters do encounter pets, the Humane Society has some tips on recognizing when animals might attack. If the adjuster is bitten by an animal, he should seek medical attention immediately. Even if a bite seems minor, the risks range from rabies to deadly venom. Many of these safety hazards aren't going away any time soon. But technology has already made the job of a field claims adjuster much safer over the years. Cell phones allow adjusters to be in constant contact with the home office and can be the difference between life and death in an emergency situation. See also: Power of ‘Claims Advocacy’   In many cases, technology is eliminating the need for claims pros to be exposed to the hazards in the first place. After Hurricane Katrina, many firms used GPS to pinpoint the exact location of properties and damage. As the Institutes Community covered previously, drones pose a significant opportunity for the claims industry, as well, giving adjusters the ability to inspect dangerous areas from a safe distance. This is a far-from-comprehensive list of the hazards adjusters face in the field. Others include a risk of cuts (the most common injury after many natural disasters, including Hurricane Sandy), exposure to dust and the risk of chronic illness from mold and other airborne contaminants. Whatever the hazards, adjusters should start by being prepared and, above all else, trusting their instincts. If a situation looks unsafe, claims pros should stay away until they can return with the right equipment or with a partner. No claim is worth putting an adjuster in danger.

Connected automobiles are just like any Internet of Things device, in that they have an identifying address on a network and are susceptible to being targeted. Vehicles are built with several electronic control units (ECUs) that manage such systems as the infotainment setup. These systems require connection to a back end, typically, the automaker, which will “push” patches and data to the system remotely through cellular transceiver stations (BTS). The same goes for cellular networks, where identifiers are on SIM chips. Exploitation of vulnerabilities is not limited to the mobile device, but also to the communication infrastructure. See also: Insurance and the Internet of Things   In tests of IoT devices that Brier & Thorn has performed, information technology security is lagging. Many systems seem to implicitly trust anything that communicates with them; connected automobiles can fall victim to attacks via transmitted communications that have no authentication. Many nodes for attack Like a mobile phone, an electronic control unit that uses cellular to communicate with its back end is going to automatically associate with its closest base station or cell tower, and trust it. That’s where hackers could strike in a number of ways. Of particular concern is the kill chain model of attack. This involves a pattern of transaction activities that, when linked, work together to compromise a system. In it studies, Brier & Thorn looked at an electronic control unit connected to its back end over cellular using a built-in SIM chip. The attack vectors depended on: the ECU’s communication connection with SIM chips for connections to mobile service providers’ cellular base stations; Wi-Fi for connections with its head unit within the car; Bluetooth; and the physical attack surface. An ECU within an automobile is connected to a controller area network (CAN), which is designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate in an application without a host computer. Crooks in driver’s seat Unfortunately, having the ability to send or receive CAN signals in a car gives someone “root” privileges. They might gain the ability to control the car and make it do whatever they want. Such a hack also might give a system within the automobile the ability to send and receive commands with the car itself, opening another door to hackers. Vulnerabilities to connected automobiles can be found in the infrastructure and in applications.

• Infrastructure vulnerabilities: Electronic control units trust cellular base stations they associate with through cellular networks; they use the network infrastructure to communicate with any outside system. If the ECU links to a rogue BTS, a hacker could perform a “man-in-the-middle” attack by intercepting messages between the ECU and the back-end system.

• Application vulnerabilities: Many ECUs will leverage SMS (Short Message Service) to send and receive commands to back-end servers, which depends on an encryption cipher employed on the network. This leaves them open to attack via cellular networks.

Other areas of concern depend on which generation of technology a network is using. They can range from 2G to 4G, with each using a different type of encryption cipher. Keys to criminals When a connected automobile is camped on a cellular base station, it’s susceptible to numerous attack vectors, including the ability to capture the SIM chip identifier and intercept traffic to and from the ECU via SMS. Depending on which network the system uses, SMS text messages can be captured, and hackers can crack the codes, giving them access to communications between the back end (an automaker) and the ECU. Hackers have access to several tools that can intercept and decipher these messages. See also: How Safe Is Your Data? ECUs are more secure when camped on 4G LTE networks, but unfortunately, especially in the European Union, the prevalence of LTE networks is low. Because automobiles have unrestricted travel capacity to areas with spotty coverage, the probability of a car’s electronic control systems camping on a 2G or 3G network is quite high. This article originally appeared on ThirdCertainty and was written by Alissa Knight as a guest essay. More stories related to connected cars: Cheat until caught? VW hack raises ethical questions Who’s in the driver’s seat? Car hacking worries multiply Is the price of convenience loss of control?  

As a lover of all things tech, I also love science. Recently, while thinking about the future of the insurance industry, I was taken back to something I learned about in my sixth grade science class: the concept of mutualism, where two species “work together” and each benefits from the relationship. For instance, an oxpecker (a kind of bird) eat ticks off the bodies of large mammals, such as a hippo, zebra or giraffe. The concept of mutualism is being embraced by some of the world’s most successful companies. In fact, perceptive leaders at P&G, Nestlé and GE Digital have all recognized that mutuality and interdependence with partners fuels growth. So how does mutualism apply to the independent insurance channel? While huge efficiencies have been gained by insurers and independent agents who are using digital technology for internal process automation, this alone is simply not enough to grow and thrive. We live in digitally driven, hyper-connected times. Thus, it is critical for agents and insurers to extend their use of technology beyond their own offices and form an insurance ecosystem whereby everyone involved — agents, insurers, MGAs, wholesalers and, ultimately, insureds — wins. Digitally connected agents and insurers can exchange accurate data for quoting, market identification, underwriting, billing and customer service. Agents can work more efficiently with insurers to provide access to advice, product range, insurer choice and localized personal service. Ultimately, there are better, mutually beneficial relationships between agents and insurers, which increases the value of their service to insureds. As key business partners in the insurance lifecycle, agents and insurers have an irrefutable interdependence on one another and therefore have a stake in each other’s success. To fully capitalize on this mutualism and fuel growth, agents and insurers must increase their connections by using automated data exchange technologies such as download and real-time and market search tools that will reduce expenses, speed service and strengthen business relationships. See also: Why the Agent Will NOT Be Disrupted   The good news for agencies and carriers is that all of these connectivity services are available today:

1. Download: This data exchange solution enables insurers to automate delivery of information from their systems directly into an agency management system. Download eliminates the need to rekey data into multiple insurer web portals to verify information. Recent research indicates 60% of agents save at least one hour per day using ACORD eDocs and ACORD Messages download services. With more than 1.8 million download connections available and only 41% activated, there is immense opportunity for agencies to take advantage of the time-saving and customer service benefits of receiving all available download services from your insurers.
2. Real-time rating, service inquiry and claims: An automated data exchange can provide instantaneous lookup of data in an insurer system from within an agency management system or comparative rater, enabling agencies to quote; inquire on a policy, bill or claim; submit a First Notice of Loss; obtain loss runs; and more in real time. By making these requests through the management system, agencies can reduce duplicate keystrokes and respond to clients quickly and easily, without having to log into an insurer web portal or waste an insurer’s time responding to one-off requests. This not only saves time and effort by eliminating manual entry, it also minimizes errors, provides an E&O trail within the agency management system and enables agencies to deliver rapid, more efficient service to meet the expectations of today’s consumers. According to the 2013 Agency & Brokerage Technology Survey, agents recognize 53 minutes of time savings per employee per day when using real-time tools. With more insurers adopting real-time technology for comparative rating and service, they can increase the opportunity to showcase the advice and value of working with an independent agent by providing clients and prospects the best policy options and overall improved customer service.
3. Market search tools: These can enable you to find more and better markets for an insured’s risk. A long-time industry challenge has been identifying and easily communicating insurer appetite for commercial risks. The process has historically been costly both in time and money, and nearly 60% of commercial submissions are declined by insurers. Automated technology available today matches insurers and agents based on appetite for new risks and renewals using a Google-like search. Market search tools increase insurers’ in-appetite submissions and improve an agency’s productivity by reducing time spent on traditional ways of identifying market appetite, such as referencing outdated insurer risk guides, accessing insurer websites, historical agent experience or directly contacting individual underwriters.

See also: Find Your Voice as an Insurance Agent As key business partners in the insurance lifecycle, agents and insurers depend on one another and, therefore, have a stake in each other’s success. To fully capitalize on this mutualism and fuel growth, agents and insurers must increase their connections. To further explore how insurer connectivity can drive greater business success, download Applied’s Insurer Connectivity ebook now.

So many wellness industry misdeeds to expose, so little room on the internet. This posting will start out as one of my typical shock-and-awe postings featuring a wellness vendor raising the bar for dishonesty and employee harms. Uniquely, though, we will close with a surprisingly uplifting slam-bang conclusion that could change the wellness industry forever…but only with your help. The Bad News It’s that time of year again, when traditionally the C. Everett Koop Award Committee bestows an award upon a fellow committee member or award sponsor, in recognition of doing the best job of fabricating dramatic savings while making only trivial improvements in employee health. That’s par for the course, and isn’t even news any more. See also: The Yuuuuge Hidden Costs of Wellness However, this year, the Koop Award Committee apparently decided that actually improving employee health was too high a bar for a wellness program to clear, so the committee gave the award to a committee colleague, Wellsteps, for a program in which the health status of Boise School District employees deteriorated. We’ve done the arithmetic so you don’t have to. The award application below shows that 5,293 employee biomarkers improved, while 6,397 got worse. In addition to the objective failure of the program, consider employee self-reported health. The single most important question to ask to gauge the state of someone’s health is: “How is your health?” Wellsteps buried the answer to that question at the end of a long list, but squint hard enough and you can see that Boise employee self-reported health status declined, by a small but statistically significant (p=0.0007) amount: There are many other problems with this program, too. Wellsteps is shaming even the lightest drinkers, attributing massive savings to improved health despite the deterioration in health, suppressing data showing increased health spending and flouting clinical guidelines. All that is covered in this Linkedin Pulse. In all fairness, here is the response from Wellsteps’ Troy Adams (best known in the wellness industry for posting that ”It’s fun to get fat, and it’s fun to be lazy”) to my initial observations that Wellsteps is harming employees and fabricating savings. Surprisingly, I agree with both points:

1. Yes, the Wellsteps data is “rock solid;” and,
2. Yes, having just walked into from 92-degree heat, I am at least temporarily full of “hot air.”

The Good News Fabricating savings is part of the Koop Award DNA, but bestowing an award on a vendor that actually harmed employees crosses a bright red line. Rather than complaining about it (or more accurately, in addition to complaining about it), I thought it might be time to take steps to prevent this type of performance from being considered acceptable, let alone prizeworthy. So I convened a group, including WELCOA‘s respected and forward-thinking new CEO, Ryan Piccarella, and leading wellness gurus Jon Robison and Rosie Ward of Salveo Partners. Together, we crafted a very simple and minimalist Code of Conduct. (I don’t want to take more than my share of the credit. This was a joint effort. I just happened to be the one who initiated the email chain.) In full, it appears below. It is definitely “minimalist,” a Code of the first-do-no-harm variety. And yet, as low a threshold as it is, many vendors – including Wellsteps and many previous Koop Award winners – would not be able to meet it. What we would ask of ITL’s readership is:

1. Circulate this posting/the Code widely;
2. As brokers or customers, insist that your vendor(s) follow the Code of Conduct…and add it as an actual contractual term;
3. As brokers or vendors, announce that you will be following the Code. (While this blog is my own effort, I am also affiliated with Quizzify. Quizzify will be announcing this week that it intends to make this Code of Conduct a contractual term, meaning that failing to adhere to it would constitute a breach of our obligations under the contract.)

The Employee Health Program Code of Conduct Our organization resolves that its program should do no harm to employee health, corporate integrity or employee/employer finances. Instead, we will endeavor to support employee well-being for our customers, their employees and all program constituents. Employee Benefits and Harm Avoidance Our organization will recommend doing programs with/for employees rather than to them, and will focus on promoting well-being and avoiding bad health outcomes. Our choices and frequencies of screenings are consistent with U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and CDC guidelines and Choosing Wisely. See also: Wellness Promoters Agree: It Doesn’t Work   Our relevant staff will understand USPSTF guidelines, employee harm avoidance, wellness-sensitive medical event measurement and outcomes analysis. Employees will not be singled out, fined or embarrassed for their health status. Respect for Corporate Integrity and Employee Privacy We will not share employee-identifiable data with employers and will ensure that all protected health information (PHI) adheres to HIPAA regulations and any other applicable laws. Commitment to Valid Outcomes Measurement Our contractual language and outcomes reporting will be transparent and plausible. All research limitations (e.g., “participants vs. non-participants” or the “natural flow of risk” or ignoring dropouts) and methodology will be fully disclosed, sourced and readily available.

The persistent, pervasive badness on the internet is made possible by the existence of a vast, self-replenishing infrastructure of botnets. Cyber criminals go to great lengths to keep their botnets running at high efficiency. ThirdCertainty asked Tim Helming, director of product management at Domain Tools, to outline how and why botnets continue to thrive—and what the good guys are doing to deter them. Here’s a summary of our discussion: Botnet basics A typical botnet is composed of tens of thousands of infected computers communicating back to a single command-and-control server, from which a human attacker issues instructions. Botnets are routinely instructed by their human controller to: • Spread malware and infect more computers • Carry out phishing, ransomware, account takeover, click fraud and denial of service attacks • Siphon crown jewel data from business networks via advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks Domain name game Each command-and-control server and each infected computer, or bot, has an IP address and a domain name. The good guys have perfected blacklisting tools tuned to quickly identify and cut off any IP address or domain name previously observed carrying out malicious activity. See also: Dark Web and Other Scary Cyber Trends   These blacklists are fed into firewalls, email gateways and intrusion prevention systems, forming a first line of defense that automatically blocks any known bad domains and IP addresses. So the criminals counter by registering new, replacement domains en masse. Botnets run domain-generation algorithms (DGAs) that spit out fresh domain names composed of random alphanumeric strings, by the hundreds. “This lets them register new domains in bulk,” Helming says. Additionally, botnets also get instructed to create domain names in recognizable word or word patterns. This is done when a domain name is needed that a human victim can read to fool someone as part of a phishing or ransomware attack. Reputation scoring Blacklists can only do so much. They are limited to blocking domains previously observed doing bad things. So Domain Tools also has come up with a reputation scoring system that assigns a risk score to each newly created domain. Very new domains with alphanumeric names, for instance, get an elevated risk score. So do domain names that are slight misspellings of the official domain names of legitimate websites. A decision can then be made as to whether to block a new domain that seems benign before it is put to malicious use. “We look at things like how old the domain name is, whether the domain name makes any sense linguistically,” Helming says. “Those are intrinsic properties that can show us domains that are tightly connected to bad ones, and also one-offs that might not have that connection.” Predicting vs. detecting Cyber criminals can get lazy. And the good guys are striving to capitalize on that trait. For instance, it still is a common practice for criminals to use quirky, bogus information to register domains—such as Superman, 123 Anywhere Lane, Anytown, USA, 11111—and then use that name and address over and over. See also: How to Measure ‘Vital Signs’ for Cyber Risk   But detection technology is continually improving. Machine learning is being applied to not just identify such patterns, but also correlate them to other data. The goal is to help network defenders more accurately predict whether a domain is likely to commence malicious activity long before it does. “Prediction is where everybody is trying to get,” Helming says. “Being able to predict badness is really important and really valuable. I call it looking back to look forward.”