Progress continues across the board. The Public Information Committee is emphasizing three goals that to better-positioning the Coalition to reach larger audiences:
- Visualize fraud
- Expand social media
- Make Coalition website material mobile-friendly
2020 Committee Goals
- Build out the consumer-resource toolkit, and expand marketing to achieve more member usage.
- Partner with more Coalition members and other organizations on joint outreach efforts.
- Develop consumer videos and other outreach material to translate fraud visually.
- Expand social-media footprint, including new social sites and partnering on joint social-media projects.
2019 highlights:
Overall strategy. We pursued three main outreach objectives for 2019: Expand visuals such as videos. … Partner with more anti-fraud organizations. … Grow out social-media footprint.
News coverage. The Coalition earned 635 news stories citing the Coalition this year. The stories covered all lines of insurance. That’s a solid total, yet news overall is declining throughout the U.S. Newspaper circulation has reached its lowest point since 1940. Thus the Coalition must continue responding with more-diverse ways to reach consumers with anti-fraud messages.
Videos, infographics. We’re developing exciting consumer videos and infographics to translate fraud visually.
• The Coalition now offers 17 consumer videos. It’s one of the biggest anti-fraud video libraries in the U.S. We’ve added six videos this year alone, including an opioid video contributed by the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud.
• Four infographics also were added — including contractor, towing, $80 billion and fraud overall.
• Coalition members can adopt the videos and infographics with their own name, logo and URL. It’s an exclusive benefit of Coalition membership.
Outreach resource toolkit. Videos, infographics, consumer alerts and other consumer material are housed in Bright Ideas — a convenient toolkit containing a wide array of material Coalition members can adopt. Bright Ideas responds to member requests for resources they can use to educate consumers — especially during International Fraud Awareness Week.
Partnering. The Coalition is partnering with more organizations, inside and outside Coalition membership. The goal is to multiply our impact. AARP says it’s ready to sign an MOU for 2020. … We teamed with NICB to produce a joint contractor podcast. … An animated slip-and-fall video is being developed with PhotoFax.
• International Fraud Awareness Week (Nov. 17-23). We launched a social-media campaign to alert consumers about insurance fraud. Multiple tweets were sent every day. They contained cool cases, scam alerts and other material that told consumers about fraud. The Coalition & NICB also re-tweeted each other’s messages throughout the week.
Social media. We had another year of slow yet steady growth in traffic on Facebook and Twitter. However, we need to accelerate with a larger leap. This means a more-strategic approach. It should include campaigns … paid efforts … joint efforts with partner organizations … and building a presence on more social platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn.
Hall of Shame. The nine most-brazen convicted fraudsters of 2019 were chosen. Among them were the mastermind of a $32-million slip-and-fall ring … the ringleader of a $1.2-billion Medicare ring. … And a home arsonist whose brother immolated himself after lighting up gasoline to burn down the house.
Prosecutor of the Year. The $1.2-billion Medicare scheme launched by Phil Esformes was one of the largest insurance crimes in U.S. history. The health-fraud team at the U.S. Department of Justice earned the Prosecutor of the Year Award.
• Awards of Distinction went to prosecutors at the Pennsylvania DA after convicting Claire Risoldi for her $20 million of false fire-damage claims. Also, John Philpott at the San Diego DA’s office was honored for taking down a $500-million workers-comp plot.
2020 PIC goals. Grow more consumer-outreach partnerships. … Expand the Bright Ideas toolkit. … Develop more visuals such as videos and infographics. … Grow the Coalition’s social-media footprint.