PIANY Congratulates NYSID on Success of IIES System, More Effort Needed on No-fault Fraud

The Professional Insurance Agents of New York State Inc., has issued a bulletin congratulating the New York State Insurance Department and the Department of Motor Vehicles on the recent success of the Insurance Information & Enforcement System (IIES), and also called for more efforts to fight fraud.

PIANY President T.J. Derella, CPIA, called on the two departments and on state lawmakers to act with similar resolve in passing tough legislation to combat no-fault medical fraud. “We are pleased with the success of the IIES system and the good work the DMV and the NYSID have undertaken toward its implementation,” Derella stated. “However, the same amount of resources, including legislation, must be invested to impact no-fault fraud. The mounting problem of fraudulent medical claims submitted under no-fault automobile insurance coverage is robbing New Yorkers’ wallets at a horrifying rate. Suspected fraudulent no-fault insurance claims have increased by far more than 200 percent in the past 10 years.” He should be pleased by today’s announcement from the NYSID (see previous article).

The bulletin said that Derella’s praise had been prompted by the announcement last week of the arrest by the New York Police Department and the Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau of a “fraudster” from Queens who was caught selling fake auto insurance ID cards (See IJ Website Sept. 24). Superintendent Gregory V. Serio indicated that “the crime of fraudulent ID cards is being effectively eliminated because of the bar-coding system.”

Derella commented that, “though the success of the IIES system is to be applauded, New York can’t be allowed to sit on the laurels of a partial success.” He called on the Legislature and the governor to show the same resolve in passing tough legislation to combat no-fault medical fraud as they did to establish the IIES, and urged lawmakers to pass, by year-end, the common elements in the differing no-fault reform bills passed by each house separately earlier this year.

“According to the NYSID, Nearly half (48 percent) of the 19,196 reports of suspected insurance fraud received by the Bureau in 1999 involved no-fault auto insurance,” Derella noted. “It’s time to focus our attention on this problem.”