January 2017

On behalf of the Illinois IASIU board we want to wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season and wish you a great 2017. I want to start off by thanking all of you who attended all of our presentations in 2016. We want to thank those of you who attended the November 18, 2016 meeting and give a special thanks to Rick Meza from Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale who presented “Tips from a Former Inspector General”. The presentation was very well received and we had great feedback. As always, we hope that you are able to bring back much good information from this presentation and will be able to tell those who are not able to attend what new information is being passed on regarding our daily battle against insurance fraud.

On January 20th, 2017 we will have a presentation by Condon & Cook’s very talented attorneys Mark Ruda and Peter Schoonmaker. They will discuss recent cases Allstate v Mack, a recent First District Court Opinion they handled. The case concerns a UIM claim, their client’s assertion it was entitled to conduct the examination under oath of the claimant and obtain executed HIPAA forms from the claimant, claimant’s refusal to do either and if that conduct barred the claim.  The Court held the claim was barred because of Claimant’s refusal to submit to EUO and sign HIPAA forms. They will also speak about defending against suspicious claims involving pain management doctors when the treatment includes injections, radio frequency and EMGs. There will also be an update on recent case law update on property and SIU issues.

This is YOUR Chapter and you have a dynamite Board serving you. I know that you all will continue to support the Chapter as we move ahead in the coming years and continue to grow and serve our members.  Thanks to all of you for all that you have done and will continue to do.

The Board asks that if you would like to recommend a training topic/speaker, please make your thoughts known to Ron Gottardo, who is our Training Chair for the Chapter. His e-mail is Ron.Gottardo.ba8k@State Farm.com.  It is with such suggestions in the past that our training has stayed on the mark for what the membership needs to be exposed to. Presentations are scheduled from 9 A.M. to 11 A.M.  Networking and coffee will begin at 8:30 A.M.

As a reminder, please mark your calendars for the meeting dates shown on the website so you are sure not to miss a meeting. Keep in mind that our bi-monthly meetings are held in January, March and November on the third Friday of the month, that the Annual Seminar is in May and the Networking meeting / Golf Classic is in September.

Thanks to ALL who make this Chapter the success that it has been and for your support as we go forward. It is YOUR involvement that makes this Chapter what it is.

As always,
David O’Carroll

If you would like to send David a personal note regarding this President’s Corner, feel free to email him at: docarrol@amfam.com