NICB Reports 10 Percent Rise in New York Suspicious Claims

In 2008, a total of 6,378 New York QCs were referred to NICB from its member insurance companies compared with 6,726 in 2009 and 7,026 in 2010. That represents a 10 percent increase in 2010 from 2008 numbers as reported by The National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) 2010 questionable claims (QC) referral reason analysis for New York.

The report examines QCs associated with New York and referred to NICB between January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2010.

Of New York’s 7,026 QCs reported in 2010, 4,016 of them—57 percent—were from New York City alone. The rest were scattered around the state with the next highest number—145—originating from Buffalo.

With respect to referral reasons, most were for “faked/exaggerated injury” followed by “excessive treatment” and “staged/caused accident.”

Under policy type, “personal automobile” was the single most cited policy generating 5,838 QCs in 2010—83 percent of all New York QCs in 2010. Viewed another way, in the three years covered by this report, a total of 20,130 QCs came from New York and 16,009—80 percent—were personal automobile policy types.

SOURCE: National Insurance Crime Bureau