Poll suggests public concerned with personal injury fraud

A new poll, conducted by Pollara, suggests that almost one in four Canadians knows someone who has committed personal injury insurance fraud. These results, commissioned by the Canadian Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CCAIF), go hand-in-hand with an earlier CCAIF study that revealed 26% of all personal injury claims are fraudulent.The new poll also shows 92% of respondents do not approve of submitting a false insurance claim, and 46% believe it is easy to do so.Perhaps most surprising, almost 80% of respondents said they would be willing to wait longer for claims to be paid out in order for more thorough investigation to take place.One of the elements of the study was to assess the public’s view of health care practitioners and their role in preventing insurance fraud, says Nancy Tibbo, director of the CCAIF. The study suggests 85% support health care providers taking a more active role in insurance fraud investigation.One disappointing finding for the insurance industry was the lack of public awareness of its efforts to deal with fraud. “Given that only 11% of those polled are aware of the insurance industry’s anti-fraud programs, it’s clear that more has to be done to educate Canadians about personal injury insurance fraud and the serious impact it has on insurance costs,” says Tibbo.