Erie Lawyers Who Handle Insurance Claims: Colossus Report
Pennsylvania insurance claims lawyers have long known that insurance companies have been using computerized models to value claims and, despite insurance company claims to the contrary, that those models are intentionally used to underpay claims. Now, a new report from the Consumer Federation of America provides convincing evidence that the models are a tool for denying people the benefits that they are otherwise owed.
The report, “Low Ball: An Insider’s Look at How Insurers Can Manipulate Computerized Systems to Broadly Underpay Injury Claims,” focuses on “Colossus,” one of the most popular injury assessment software programs. The report identifies specific techniques that Pennsylvania insurance companies use to unfairly underpay claims, including:
- Without determining whether a reduction will unfairly deny customers benefits, insurance companies have directly reduced payments by a predetermined amount.
- Changing data from medical records to minimize the injury diagnoses made by medical professionals so as to underpay the claim.
- Intentionally ignoring future medical costs.
- Assigning fault to otherwise innocent victims as a way of reducing claims.
The report also refers to information revealed in a recent class action lawsuit, Hensley v. Computer Sciences Corp., including information that the designer of Colossus misled regulators about the purpose of the software. According to the report, the designers claimed that the main purpose of the software was to achieve consistent payouts when, in fact, the main purpose was to achieve enormous savings, at least in part by cheating policyholders out of promised benefits.
A former Federal Insurance Administrate said, “…most of the nation’s top insurers used the Colossus system in ways that put millions of American consumers at risk…top executives at these companies violated their obligation to deliver fair claims’ payment to their own policyholders on a huge scale…”
The lesson to be gleaned from all of this? Regulators may eventually get around to addressing the unfair insurance practices that some Pennsylvania insurance companies are using now, but by then, the companies will have moved on to different tactics. Your best tool to achieve a fair and just resolution of an Erie insurance claim is an experienced Pennsylvania insurance lawyer.
Purchase, George & Murphey, P.C. Will Help You with Your Pennsylvania Insurance Claim
Eric Purchase and Tim George are well prepared to help you with your Pennsylvania auto insurance claim. Before starting his practice helping injured people, Eric worked for 15 years as a defense lawyer and has represented the region’s largest insurance companies. He understands how insurance companies work and he uses that knowledge to negotiate on behalf of his injured clients. Both Tim and Eric teach seminars to other lawyers and to insurance adjustors on insurance topics. Our community looks to us as leaders on personal injury and insurance issues.
Let the Erie car insurance claim lawyers of Purchase, George & Murphey, P.C. put their 41 years of combined legal experience to work for you and let us help you recover the insurance settlement to which you are entitled. Contact us today at 814-273-2010 or via our online contact form for a free consultation.