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Data breaches can be costly, but vigorous vendor due diligence can alleviate many problems.

It is common knowledge that mergers and acquisition deals can be riddled with pitfalls for both buyer and seller. However, Thomson Reuters reported earlier this year that merger & acquisition activity in the U.S. alone in 2010 had grown 22.9 percent from the previous year, and several projections for 2011 indicate continued M & A growth as the economy recovers.

It is common knowledge today that managing prescription medication costs in the workers' compensation market includes making sure any medications involved in an injured worker's claim are actually related to the injury.

In today's environment, four major cost containment pain points challenge organizations that self-administer claims-- maintaining high quality data, effective claims administration, managing rising medical costs, and litigation management.

Focusing on Claims Management and Safety is Key to Lowering Total Cost of Risk

A major risk in the construction industry today is understaffing and underbidding, as contractors are tempted to do more with less and underbid to win the work.

When InsurCard transformed the workers compensation indemnity payment process by introducing the first-ever prepaid VisaŽ debit card for injured workers in 2010, its innovative approach broke new ground.

Pain medications, including narcotic opioids, account for over 60% of the drugs prescribed to treat injured workers. Is your PBM identifying and responding to drug-related risks?

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States six years ago, it left more than $81 billion in total estimated property damage. Katrina also represents one of the top five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history, with more than 1,800 deaths caused by the disaster and subsequent flooding.

By now, it's hardly a secret that by most measures the use of opioids to treat pain has created an ongoing problem within workers' compensation claims, both in terms of cost and worker health. And there hasn't been any shortage of data being published illustrating the impact across many different metrics.

The past couple of years have been extremely challenging for the Property & Casualty insurance market, with earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, oil spills and more causing havoc around the globe.

Proactive drug-monitoring programs reduce narcotics abuse, produce better outcomes and lower workers' compensation costs.

Riskonnect Inc. has brought a solution for the "discoverability" issue to the world of risk management, but that's only one part of how Chatter, a new, award-winning collaborative capability is helping Riskonnect and its clients succeed at the business of risk management.

When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) became the law of the land in March 2010, it caused quite a stir to say the least. After all, many consider it the most sweeping change to U.S. healthcare since the advent of Medicare in 1966. Among other things, healthcare reform is expected to significantly increase demand for services. Due to provisions within the law, it is also likely to cause movement away from reimbursement for volume-based care to value-based care. In other words, the PPACA's intention is to have providers deliver quality healthcare in the most cost effective manner possible.

As the healthcare and insurance sectors prepare for big changes in healthcare laws, experts say more transparency might also lead to unwarranted malpractice claims.