State Farm's new Select Service DRP program, industry anti-fraud measures and estimating issues highlighted the discussion at the Collision Industry Conference, held in August at San Jose, California. CIC was held in conjunction with I-CAR's annual international conference - Getting Revved Up For Training. A power packed agenda filled the day for over 200 attendees. 

Gary Wano, Jr.

State Farm's Select Service

State Farm Claims Consultant George Avery updated the assembly as to the current status of the his company's new Select Service program. State Farm is implementing a Repair Advisory Council composed of shop owners working with State Farm. "All changes to date in the program are from our opportunity to interact with the industry," Avery stated.

Regarding rollout dates, Avery reported that the information has not yet been made public. "We are not releasing that information because the 13 zones are in control of their own timing. We do know that the rollout will be completed by 2007 unless another Hurricane Katrina hits - of course, then all bets are off."

One example of changes to the program is that when a Multiple Shop Operator has ten shops, State Farm will get the same rate at all those shops. Every shop is subject to 'favored nation status.'

"We want a level playing field," stated Avery. "The bottom line is that if it is insurance work, we will not be compromised on price." He recommends that shop owners go to local State Farm management to get the answers to their questions.

Auto body anti-fraud measures

"What's wrong with this picture?" was the question asked by the CIC Anti-Fraud Committee.

Gary Wano, Jr., G.W. and Sons Auto Body, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Com-mittee Chair started the presentation with the following disclaimer. "This report

CIECA Executive Director Fred Iantorno introduces CIECA's new Membership Scholarship program.

is an introduction of non-scientific findings of actual occurrences reported from businesses around the country, showing that a pattern of underestimating the cost of repair occurs from coast to coast."

The Anti-Fraud committee was tasked in January with investigating nine issues: (1) getting paid to do the job right; (2-5) database manipulation - misleading or improper line estimates; (6) price restrictions and poor quality - how the two go hand-in-hand; (7-8) ignoring P-page logic: overriding database labor times, blending within repaired panels, changing mechanical and structural labor to body labor; and (9) arbitrary capping of materials or operations.

I-CAR Meeting Manager Pat Perren (r) is the person who keeps the rooms full by working on attendance, sending out e-mails to attendees months before the event. Here she is with an attendee from Europe.

Respondents, who unilaterally asked not to be identified, answered these discussion points. Here are some of their observations: there is wide-spread manipulation of the user-defined profiles; third-party "administrators" are making changes to estimates without inspection of the vehicle; insurers are saying operations are "included" when, in fact, they may not be; and insurers are trying to use market averages instead of book times for alignments, glass and A/C service.

Some of the economic and customer relations issues impacted by these practices were: tax revenue shortfall; increased cost to the insurance company; increased cost to the shop; if the vehicle is not repaired properly then the customer is the innocent victim; delays in cycle time for the consumer and the repair facility; and ultimately dissatisfied customers. "We don't want to point fingers at any one segment," concluded Wano. "When is it laziness or lack of skills; when is it fraud? We need to hold estimators accountable."