HCAI roll-out anticipated for 2010

Health Claims for Auto Insurance (HCAI), an electronic claims system funded by insurers to the tune of $20 million, is expected to be rolled out in 2010, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has announced.

HCAI was designed to be a significant upgrade over the standardized, paper-based, medical-rehab insurance system implemented in Ontario in 2001.

Currently, the HCAI system is in the shop for repairs. At the request of the IBC, Ontario’s auto insurance regulator suspended use of HCAI in April 2008. Many insurers had reported serious disruptions in their claims adjustment process arising from the technical problems encountered by HCAI. The problems are now being “remediated,” the IBC has announced.

“Once remediation is complete, professional testers at IBC will carry out a series of acceptance tests on the system,” the IBC said.

“As part of the remediation process, and to ensure that HCAI is re-introduced under the highest standards of quality control, third-party reviews will be performed at several points between now and relaunch of the system.

“Furthermore, HCAI will undergo stringent testing prior to re-launch in order to ensure that it will perform efficiently even with the highest possible volume of transactions.”

Testing will occur during the summer of 2009.

“Upon successful completion of the test phase, HCAI will be re-introduced as a pilot,” IBC says. “Depending on the performance of the system in pilot, full roll-out is anticipated to occur sometime in 2010.”

Regular HCAI updates will be provided at www.hcaiinfo.ca.