EQC revises reporting of remaining claim numbers

MEDIA RELEASE

15 May 2018

The Earthquake Commission has revised its reporting of the number of open claims it is working to settle after upgrading its claim management system.

Chief Executive Sid Miller says that EQC has identified an additional 949 claims that had not previously been included in its reporting but they are being worked on.

“We want to ensure that we are providing as much transparency as possible and that there is confidence in the figures we are reporting. To this end, we are revising the total number of open claims we are reporting on to include an additional 949 claims. This brings the total number of claims to resolve as at 10 May 2018 to 3,617.

“The additional claims are at various stages in our resolution process. This means that although we have not been capturing them in our reporting, these claims are being actively managed. 80 per cent of the additional claims have had activity on them this year and I can assure all of our customers that their claims will be settled.”

Mr Miller says that EQC has upgraded its claim management system and has transferred data to the new system which will enable a more efficient case management approach.

“The move to case management has involved reviewing our data and allocating claims to specialist Settlement Managers and this led to the discovery of previously unreported claims.

“We are disappointed to find that we have under-reported our claim numbers. The fact that this error has occurred is frustrating and further demonstrates the need for us to continue improving our reporting processes.

“We can confirm that no remedial requests or claims were lost and there has been no slowdown in the rate at which we are resolving remedial requests because of this issue. So far this year, we have settled more than 2,000 claims.”

EQC has commissioned KPMG to complete an independent review of data.

“KPMG is currently undertaking an independent assessment of the degree of confidence EQC can have in the Canterbury claims position reported at the beginning of May 2018. The objective of this engagement is to assist in providing confidence to the Chief Executive, Board and Minister about the completeness and integrity of the reported information”.

“As part of this we are taking all possible steps to make sure we have the right resources and systems in place,” says Mr Miller.

“If the position changes again, we will proactively update the publically available information at this time”.

Claim Reporting Questions & Answers

What have we found?

EQC has been very open around the need to improve our reporting processes over recent months. We want to ensure that we are providing as much transparency as possible, and that people can have confidence in the figures we are reporting. To this end, we are revising the total number of open claims we are reporting on to include an additional 949 claims not previously reported on. This brings the total number of open claims to resolve as at 10 May to 3,617.

What impact will this have on customers?

With the exception of five claims, these claims have all been worked on, they just haven’t appeared in reporting. The five customers affected have now been contacted.

Why were the claims not previously reported on?

We have recently upgraded our claim management system and migrated data across two separate systems for the purpose of claim management and workflow. This process has led to the discovery of previously unreported claims. These claims are all open and have an active settlement path. This means that whilst we have not been capturing them in our reporting, they have still been worked on and will continue to be until settled.

Is this another example of EQC being completely unaware of how many claims it has to resolve?

• Our remedial numbers will go up and down as we work to resolve all of our remaining claims and we have been very open around the need to improve our reporting processes over recent months.
• The upgrade to the new claim management system demonstrates our push to improve our reporting and transparency.
• We are continuing to review what measures and processes are in place so we can improve the accuracy of our reporting and improve the analysis of our data. As part of this we are taking all possible steps to make sure we have not just enough resources, but the right resources.

So this means that EQC’s customers are waiting longer for their claims to be resolved?

We can confirm that no remedial requests were misplaced from the information systems and there has also been no slowdown in the rate at which we are resolving remedial requests because of this issue.

How can customers have confidence that EQC is actually working to settle claims if some keep getting lost?

EQC is still committed to resolving all outstanding claims and all of our customers will receive their full EQC entitlement.

What are you doing to fix the problem?

We are internally checking all of our data so that the claim information that we hold is up-to-date and claims are being actioned correctly and in a timely manner. Additionally, we have commissioned KPMG to complete an independent review of data.

External settlement and claims management providers have been contacted and we are in the process of procuring additional settlement resource. We aim to have it in place within the next four weeks.

How much more will it cost to resolve these additional claims?

There will be the cost of bringing in external providers to help manage the claims and we have not finalised that cost at this stage.

What will be the case load?

Our original modelling was 100 claims and we are now aiming for 50 claims per Settlement Specialist.

How can we be certain there are not more claims unreported?

We have commissioned KPMG to complete an independent review of data.

When did EQC’s management first know of this issue?

CE Sid Miller and the management team were informed of this issue on Monday 30 April and the Minister and the Board were informed at a meeting on Wednesday 2 May. Since then, we have been working to get further confidence in the data, including getting an independent high-level review. If the position changes, we will proactively update the publically available information at this time.

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