Insurance News - Thursday, August 28, 2014

Here are the leading auto insurance headlines from ONTARIO AUTO INSURANCE TOPICS ON TWITTER for Thursday, August 28, 2014:

• Google has recently admitted that its driverless cars are designed to intentionally break the speed limit by up to 10 miles-per-hour.
• A study suggests digital display advertising is nine times better at creating immediate brand awareness for auto and life insurance providers than a commercial on TV.
• A new California rule says that driverless cars are only legal on public roads if a driver is able to take “immediate physical control,” which means that Google is going to have to make a couple of small adjustments to the cars: fitting that missing steering-wheel and pedals.
• A vehicle-to-vehicle transmitter for only $350 could mean the end of car collisions.
• Ottawa police union claims the collision reporting centres give impaired drivers time to sober up.
• Fast-moving technology runs into slow-moving regulators as U.S. Federal regulators are stalled the approval of driverless cars.

HCAI Data: Most Early Treatment Is Provided By Chiropractors and Physiotherapists

The IBC has now published the standard HCAI reports for the first half of 2014. The document provides over 75 pages of aggregate data collected by HCAI going back to 2011. HCAI was made mandatory on February 1, 2011.

The standard reports are published on an “accident half year” basis. In accident half year statistics, the experience of all claims with accident dates in the same accident half year is grouped together. The accident half years are defined as calendar half years, with January to June being the first half and July to December being the second half for each of the stated years.

The chart below sets out the treatment reported on the HCAI system by healthcare profession.  It shows that the majority of claimants see a chiropractor or physiotherapist which is expected since the majority claims are strains and sprains.  But as the claims develop, claimants are seeing additional healthcare professionals.  In the most recent accident half year (first half of 2014) claimants saw an average of 1.5 professionals.  For the second half of 12013, claimants saw an average of 2.1 professionals and in the first half of that year 2.4 professionals.

The largest increases in interventions for older claims relate to physicians and psychologists. Because the data includes both treatment intervention and assessments, this is expected outcome. Older claims are more likely to undergo an independent medical assessment or a psychological assessment.  There appears to be minimal growth in chiropractic and physiotherapy interventions over time.