Coalition Against Insurance Fraud

Achievements

View our online 2010 annual report.

 

Uniting the Nation

The Coalition was founded in 1993 as America’s only anti-fraud alliance speaking for consumers, insurance companies, government agencies and others.

This unity of diverse voices gives the Coalition unmatched credibility in working with consumers, legislators, reporters and other influentials around the U.S.

Through its unique work, the Coalition thus empowers consumers to fight back...helps fraud fighters better detect this crime...and deters more people from committing fraud.

The Coalition supports this mission with a large and continually expanding armory of practical tools: Information...research & data...services and insight as a leading voice of the anti-fraud community.

Government Affairs

  • Enact stronger fraud laws. We’re a primary national source of tough anti-fraud legislation and regulations. Our model state anti-fraud laws take a hardline stance against this crime. These models are endorsed by major national groups speaking for state legislators. Nineteen states have passed anti-fraud laws based on the Coalition's model fraud bill, the most-comprehensive model of its kind.
  • Create model bills. Specifically...the Coalition’s model bills make it a crime to recruit people into fraud schemes and to hire recruiters...and creates a state fraud bureau...and requires inspections and photos for used vehicles before the owner buys auto insurance...and offers guidelines for anti-fraud regulations. Also assisted a national legislative group in drafting auto fraud and airbag fraud models, and regularly advise NAIC as it develops model fraud laws and guidelines.
  • Provide strong impact in statehouses. The Coalition routinely advises state legislators on content and strategy for anti-fraud bills. We often testify before key committees as well. We’re also the official advisor to major organizations for state lawmakers, regulators, investigators and consumers.
  • Sponsor major summits. Partner with national and state groups to hold national and state summits that bring together leading fraud fighters from industry, government and elsewhere to focus on key anti-fraud issues, and build consensus about ways to fight back. Advised HHS and Justice Department on national health-fraud summit in 2010, and advised on followup regional summits.
  • Support prosecutions. The Coalition supported stronger state fraud prosecution by filing an amicus brief with the Massachusetts supreme court when trial lawyers sought to undercut funding of fraud prosecutors. The court ruled for state funding, citing the Coalition's language. Co-filed amicus brief for U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with insurer rights to access medical records.

Alerting the Public

  • Earn national news coverage.National news media regularly seek out the Coalition because we’rethe credible voice of consumers, insurers and governments. The Coalition appears in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, Associated Press, Forbes, Fortune, 60 Minutes, 20-20, NBC Today Show, CBS, ABC and NBC news, Prime Time and Court TV.
  • Provide largest online information center. The Coalition’s website is the largest online source of all things insurance fraud. Consumers, fraud fighters, researchers, public officials and others turn to InsuranceFraud.org for essential intelligence. Ranked #1 by Google for the last eight years. Actively spreading anti-fraud messages via Facebook and Twitter further reinforces these efforts.
  • Offer practical consumer material. The Coalition offers straight-talking consumer videos, posters, and full-color brochures. They're titled, Fraud: The Crime You Pay For. Fraud fighters also can stage consumer events using the practical Get a Grip on Fraud idea manual.
  • Sponsor Fraud Hall of Shame. Popular online feature dishonors the year’s worst insurance criminals. Places a human face on fraud so consumers better know the high costs this crime inflicts.
  • Reveal scams. The Coalition continually alerts consumers about predatory scams such as fake health insurance, staged car crashes, dishonest agents and other cons. We were the first national group to alert America about fake health plans being sold around the U.S. The nation’s largest online consumer center and library of scam alerts are full-service sources of consumer empowerment.
  • Unite outreach efforts. A landmark report called United We Brand urges a joint national outreach effort. The Coalition also sponsored a summit exploring a national public-outreach campaign to educate consumers about fraud’s high costs.
  • Inform about latest news and trends. Thousands of fraud fighters stay informed via Fraud News Weekly and Fraud News Daily. Important case updates, trends and legislative news are compiled from around the U.S. The leadership quarterly Journal of Insurance Fraud in America features deeper analyses of fraud trends, issues and research. The articles are written by noted experts. These publications are unique in the anti-fraud community.
  • Honor top prosecutors. Prosecutor of the Year Award annually honors courtroom excellence in prosecuting fraud offenders. The 2011 award went to Dallas County prosecutor Kyson Johnson. He earned dozens of convictions last year, and regularly spoke around the state and nationally.
  • Educate ethnic groups. An outreach campaign educated Asian-Americans how to avoid being fraud victims, and avoid committing fraud. A full-color brochure and workers comp poster also are available in Spanish.

Research

  • Sponsor major research. Numerous research studies and reports about insurance fraud, its causes, effects and how it’s being combated have been published by the Coalition. These landmark studies have made the Coalition a preeminent source of fact-based fraud data and analysis.
  • Publish studies of fraud bureaus. Comprehensive annual study provides indepth data and analysis about these state anti-fraud agencies. It analyzes fresh data on convictions… cases referred for prosecution… investigations… rankings of fraud-bureau results…and other useful statistics.
  • Reveal consumer attitudes. The Coalition’s national study of consumer attitudes reveals ground-breaking insights about people’s intolerance — and disturbingly high tolerance — of insurance fraud.