Report Card from Anti-Fraud Squad
The first ”report card” is out by the Ontario Automobile Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force, which was formed as part of the 2011 Ontario government budget. Out-of-whack injury claim costs - five times higher in Ontario than in other provinces - are believed to result from high levels of auto insurance fraud.
In its December 2, 2011 report, the Anti-Fraud Task Force states, some of the following initial findings:
- The vast majority of the unexplained increase in accident benefit costs occurs in the GTA.
- The fastest-growing parts of auto insurance fraud are premeditated and organized fraud rather than opportunistic fraud (when an individual claimants inflate the value of their claim, not necessarily more than once).
- Some anti-fraud practices have already started happening, such as:
- The “Staged Accident Investigation” optional e-learning package for police officers developed by the Insurance Bureau of Canada and York Regional Police Service.
- A working group investigating a way to let health practitioners verify whether their billing identification numbers have been used without their authorization.
- In the future, the task force hopes to look into how consumers with little to no knowledge about Ontario’s auto insurance system are taken advantage of by fraud organizers - risking their own personal safety by participating in a staged motor vehicle collision for a small amount of compensation or simply have their identity stolen after agreeing to sign claims forms provided to them.
Four days after the Anti-Fraud Task Force’s report, the Ontario Auditor General annual report discussed auto insurance fraud, noting that the total cost injury claims in Ontario rose by 150% between 2005 and 2010, despite the fact that the actual number of injury claims rose only 30% in the same period.
What do you think should be some other next steps for the Auto Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force? Leave your comments here.