FSCO makes 39 recommendations to improve Ontario’s auto insurance system

Ontario’s insurance regulator, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), has made 39 recommendations to the Minister of Finance on how to improve Ontario’s auto insurance system.
FSCO has posted a final report on its five-year review of the province’s auto insurance system at http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/english/insurance/auto/5yr-review/default.asp
The recommendations seem to have a little something for everyone — insurers, consumers and trial lawyers alike. Some highlights are as follows:
For insurers FSCO has called for, among other things:
•    a single health professional to direct a claimant’s rehabilitation, reducing the chance of a multiplicity of treatment professionals making interventions in the claims process;
•    capping the cost of completing forms (including any assessment required to complete the form) at $200, and capping all other assessment costs at $2,000;
•    limiting availability of in-home assessments to seriously injured claimants only; and
•    converting mandatory housekeeping and home maintenance expenses and caregiver benefits into optional benefits.
For trial lawyers, FSCO has recommended, among other things, that:
•    The government should reduce the current Cdn$30,000 and Cdn$15,000 deductibles on court awards of up to Cdn$100,000 for non-catastrophic injuries. FSCO recommends limiting the deductibles to Cdn$20,000 and Cdn$10,000, eliminating the deductibles on fatal claims and revoke the definition of serious and permanent impairment found in Regulation 461/96 (the so-called verbal threshold);
•    Further consultation with experts in the field to amend the definition of “catastrophic impairment.”
For consumers, FSCO has recommended that:
•    a forms consultant be contracted to help simplify the SABS application process;
•    insurers be prohibited from using risk classification systems that draw on past claims in which a driver was found to be 25% at fault or less.
•    insurers be forced to accept the dispute resolution process for property damage disputes if the consumer prefers to use this system instead of the courts (currently, both insurers and consumers have to agree to use dispute resolution);
•    it should be more difficult for insurers to deflect claims, thus ensuring that claimants receive accident benefits while the liability issue is resolved.