http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/autoinsurance/kpmg-expert-report-ar2014.html#er-1
News and Views
IBAO applauds passage of Bill 15
A consistently dissenting voice has come from the group FAIR (the fair association of victims for accident insurance reform), which feels that the provision within Bill 15 for reducing the Prejudgment Interest to 1.3 per cent will only serve to encourage insurers to dispute more claims.
“There needs to be more accountability, not less,” FAIR’s board chair Rhona DesRoches told Insurance Business. “Without anything to discourage them, insurers will be incentivized to systematically deny claims through the use of partisan medical reports prepared by their preferred medico-legal ‘expert’ assessors to deflate a claim.
http://www.insurancebusiness.ca/news/ibao-applauds-passage-of-bill-15-185713.aspx
‘So You Think You’re Covered! The Insurance Industry Rip-Off – Surviving the Fight for Long-Term Disability Benefits’
by Jokelee Vanderkop http://www.deniedbenefitclaims.com/index.html
“Based on my own insurance nightmare and successful legal fight culminating in a precedent-setting court ruling, my book guides you through an insurance process that seeks to label the claimant as a ‘scammer’. By mapping out and explaining the assessment process with its numerous insurance medical examinations (IMEs), this book exposes what insurers puts claimants through when it looks like long-term disability and income benefits need to be paid. The advice will help claimants counter some of the more underhanded tactics that insurers employ to deny benefits, and should help shorten the process to procure the benefits owed to you. People not going through this horror also need to know what could happen to them. Learn about the disconnect between paying insurance premiums and receiving insurance benefits.”
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News Release Auto Accident Victims at Risk When Attending Clinics and Assessments FAIR Calls for Better Oversight of Ontario’s For-hire Physicians and Medical Assessors
FAIR is concerned that the victims and survivors of car accidents are exposed to significant risk when attending medical assessments and treatment clinics when regulatory oversight and enforcement is virtually non-existent.
Media Release Auto Accident Victims at Risk When Attending Clinics and Assessments Sept 25 14
Correcting medical information
Concerned about your medical file? The links below are from Information and Privacy Commissioner / Ontario http://www.ipc.on.ca/english/Resources/IPC-Corporate/IPC-Corporate-Summary/?id=667
Oct 03, 2005 | Forms
A generic request form for filing a request to correct your personal health information held by a health information custodian. This request form should be submitted directly to the health information custodian.
Aug 07, 2003 | Forms
A generic request form for filing a request for information held by a government organization or to request a correction of your personal information held by a government organization.
Jan 01, 2005 | Forms
A generic request form for filing a request for access to your personal health information held by a health information custodian. This request form should be submitted directly to the health information custodian.
Jul 11, 2005 | Forms
A form to be signed by a complainant who is represented by someone other than a lawyer.
Oct 14, 2004 | Forms
A form for filing a complaint relating to a decision by a health information custodian in response to a request made under the Personal Health Information Protection Act. The form can be completed online and then printed, or printed and then filled out wi
Nov 15, 2004 | Forms
A form for filing a complaint under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, if you feel your personal health information has been improperly collected, used or disclosed by a health information custodian. The form can be completed online and then
FAIR Response to KPMG Survey
The 91,818 claims were that denied and ended up in the DRS mediation system between 2010 and 2013 represents a shocking number of people unable to access the benefits they need to recover. The public is becoming aware that they are not getting what they paid for and that our government appears to have a greater interest in the health of our auto insurers’ bottom lines than they do for the health of the citizens of Ontario.
OTHER STAKEHOLDER SUBMISSIONS
Ontario Rehab Alliance ORA Response to KPMG Survey
Ontario Trial Lawyers Association OTLA KPMG Submission. July 2014
Freedom Of Information request reveals …….
On February 27, 2014 I requested information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the Social Security Tribunal appeal statistics.
9027 Income Security Appeals are waiting to be heard (these are CPP appeals)
The SST heard 21 CPP appeals in 2013 and 155 appeals in 2014 in the General Division.
The SST heard 38 CPP appeals in 2013 and 40 appeals in 2014 in the Appeals Division.
As of February 2014 a total of 2,802 appeals were received at the Income Security Division of the SST which includes CPP and OAS appeals.
There are 292 Income Security Appeals waiting to be heard at the Appeal Division of the SST.
67 Appeals were heard in person, 82 appeals were by teleconference, 26 were by videoconference, 3 were by way of question and answers.
There were 592 appeals allowed and 134 appeals dismissed at the General Division (interesting because the SST only heard 176 appeals so most of these were CPP driven). http://www.dcac.ca/blog/?page=1
Corruption in Canada
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Canada among the top tenth least corrupt countries in the world.[1] However, in recent years, corruption is increasingly a major issue in government, industry and non-governmental organizations. For instance, in 2013, 117 of the 250 companies blacklisted byWorld Bank “from bidding on its global projects under its fraud and corruption policy” are from Canada.[2] Canada ranks at the bottom of the bribery-fighting rankings, “with little or no enforcement of anti-bribery measures”.[3] While Canada consistently ranks high in relative international indexes, “a large proportion of Canadians see their politicians and their institutions as fundamentally corrupt.[4]