Insurers have a new analytical tool to identify potentially suspicious claims with nationwide access to insurance industry pooled data.
The not-for-profit organization Canadian National Insurance Crime Services, or CANATICS, went live on Friday, with a particular focus on combating fraud in the auto insurance industry.
“Our mission is simple – to combat insurance crime for the benefit of Canadians,” said Ben Kosic, the newly appointed CEO for CANATICS. “We’ll do that by providing individual insurers, and the industry, with superior intelligence derived from analytics on industry pooled data.”
Kosic, a former Partner at KPMG Canada, has a background which covers more than two decades of management and information technology consulting experience, and a knowledge in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics.
Automobile insurance fraud is a significant cost to consumers across Canada, and particularly in Ontario. A report by KPMG Canada, prepared for the Ontario Auto Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force, estimated that as much as $1.6 billion per year is paid by insurance companies in response to fraudulent or inflated claims. The Anti-Fraud Task Force recommended that “Insurers should move aggressively to establish an organization that would pool and analyse claims data in order to identify potential cases of organized or premeditated fraud.”
While insurance companies identify, and prosecute fraudulent activity, said Kosic, it is consumers who ultimately pay for this criminal activity through increased insurance premiums.
“By uncovering networks of connected claim activity across insurers we will help ensure that investigators focus their investigations on the right claims,” he said.
