Insurance fraud is a very common and a very destructive crime that happens every day. This is the second most common white collar crime, only to be surpassed by tax evasion. Insurance fraud investigations cost the nation millions of dollars a year, and still many fraud cases are not even investigated.
This type of fraud is becoming more expensive for policy holders and becoming a bigger problem each year. In fact, insurance fraud investigations make up a large portion of the work load for the Tom Nickels private investigator agency.
Insurance fraud is when a person tries to get financial restitution on an insurance policy by deception. It happens when a person makes a ¨false claim on his insurance. It can happen on all types of insurance coverage including, automobile, healthcare, fire, home and life insurance.
Studies have shown that almost 10% of all claims are fraudulent. Of all the insurance fraud investigations done by Nickels private investigations, health insurance fraud seems to be the most common. Every year this type of fraud costs the policy holders about $58 billion dollars. Some of these cases are not outright fraud, but are highly exaggerated claims which cost policy holders just as much.
The Insurance Research Council has estimated that 1 in every three bodily injury claims in car accidents are some form of fraud. People believe that when they file a false claim, they are only hurting the insurance company. This idea is the furthest thing from the truth. Every claim that is filed is reflected on the whole industry, including the final consumer. The cost of insurance fraud and insurance fraud investigations is what causes your policy to become more expensive every year.
It is estimated that insurance fraud costs the average consumer almost $1000 a year, this is about $80 billion a year. If we could control this problem that $80 billion a year could pay for one medical examination a year for every individual in the U.S, it would pay for 32 million CT scans, or over 16 million days in an intensive care unit.
Insurance fraud is very destructive and it gets worse with each passing year, and every one of us is a victim to this type of crime.
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One of three?? that’s seems breathtaking! But here in Canada it’s serious topic too. I am dealing mainly life insurance and that’s not so fraud-friendly (it’s not so easy to fake your death…), but for example I hear about a lot of frauds connected to disability insurance. Is there any protection? Even if you catch the offender, investigation costs are high. The best way may be higher punishment, but that’s question for the law system…
Take care
Lorne
You would think it would be more considering all the white collar crime that goes unchecked in this country. Canada has always been more civilized with less crime. So you see we have a lot to deal with her. Since poverty and get rich overnight seems to be US’s motto. Thanks for dropping by.