Ohio: Less Insurance complaints past year

The number of complaints from Ohio insurance-policy holders declined in 2008, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance.

There were 6,506 complaints last year, an 8.9 percent drop from the 7,140 made to the state in 2007.

"It's hard to say exactly why," said Mary Jo Hudson, director of the state department. "But I can say over the last two years we have significantly increased the consumer information released to the public."

As a result of actions the department took after receiving the complaints, it said it saved or recovered $9.7 million for residents.

The 2007 total was $10.7 million.

"This is good news and shows that the industry is responsive to the needs of policyholders," said Mary Bonelli, spokeswoman for the Ohio Insurance Institute, which represents property-and-casualty insurance companies.

She added that the drop in complaints came in the midst of the state's biggest natural disaster in many years, the Sept. 14 windstorm from Hurricane Ike. The storm has resulted in about 230,000 claims and losses estimated at $1.1 billion.

In 2,794 cases, the complaint received by the state department was decided in favor of the consumer; in 2,670, the state sided with the insurer. The remainder were neutral, outside its jurisdiction or routed to other agencies.

The most common complaint was about denial of a claim; that was the subject of 29.7 percent of all calls.

Accident/health insurance policies were the subject of the most calls: 41 percent; second-most common were complaints about auto policies: 24.3 percent.

Hudson thinks the large number of calls related to health-care coverage is because the policies "are becoming more and more limited, people have to pay more, and more claims are being denied due to changes in policy terms."

This is a trend, said UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman Debora Spano.

"Employers are moving more towards consumer-driven health care, and this gives people more responsibility for their own benefits, and they don't fully understand this yet," she said. "We spend a lot of time getting information out to employers and their employees."

The overall reduction in complaints is part of an industry effort toward better customer service, said Phil Urban, president and CEO of Grange Insurance.

"In the old days, I think, companies did the minimum," he said. "Now, customers are more knowledgeable and demanding, and it's become a standard business practice to deliver the best-possible customer service."