Insurers Use Cutting Edge Technology to Lowball Legitimate VA Personal Injury Claims | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

A report by the Consumer Federation of America revealed a disturbing trend in the insurance industry – companies using technology to manipulate what a “reasonable” offer would be for a person seriously injured in an accident.

Insurance companies are now using a variety of software to calculate what should be paid on a bodily injury claim made by an individual who may have been hurt in a car accident, truck wreck, or motorcycle crash. The three most common, according to the report, are Colossus, Claims Outcome Advisor, and Claims IQ. When insurance company representatives talk publicly about these software systems, the representatives stress that the programs are merely tools that are used to help achieve consistency in bodily injury claim evaluations.

However, what these representatives don’t tell you is that the software can, and is, manipulated by the insurance companies to arrive at the settlement ranges the company believes is reasonable, not the software. Basically, if the insurer determines that the settlement “range’ that the software recommends does not result in the savings that the company was hoping for, the insurer can adjust the software to produce the projected percentage of savings, according to the report. 

How can they do this? Well, they can simply remove higher-cost claims from the sample that would have been calculated by the software, they can prohibit adjusters from entering information into the software about the need for future medical visits, they can require adjusters to run medical bills through a “re-pricing” software so the bills return a reduced amount, and so on and so forth.

What does this all mean? For victims injured in car, truck, SUV, or motorcycle accidents, this means that the insurance company will probably make a lower offer on your bodily injury claim.

Our Virginia Beach personal injury law firm has spent years battling insurance companies and we are used to insurance company claims adjusters employing a variety of delay tactics and tricks to reduce or deny a claim. Adding manipulable software to their bag of tricks is not surprising.

The information in the report reinforces our Virginia injury law firm’s strong recommendation that if you or a loved one is seriously injured in a car accident, SUV wreck, truck crash, or other accident that was caused by the carelessness of another driver, you need to consult with a personal injury attorney. The information above is proof positive that you literally can’t trust what an insurance adjuster tells you over the phone about the “value” of your claim.

To learn more about your legal options after you’ve been seriously hurt in a wreck, take a moment to read this in-depth article which was written by an experienced personal injury attorney in Virginia.