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Author
 Anthony O'Donnell
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Profile of Anthony O'Donnell

Blog Posts: 2240

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information technology in the property/casualty, life and health insurance industries, following the trends and issues faced by senior technology executives. In addition to reporting and editorial duties for I&T, O'Donnell also serves as a moderator and speaker at industry events and broadcasts. He began his editorial career in the healthcare industry where he reported and edited for medical publications with a variety of audiences, from the general public to physicians and researchers. He has also worked in the healthcare field as a media relations professional and Spanish/English interpreter/translator, and has taught English composition and conversation classes to native speakers of Spanish, both in the United States and in Latin America. O'Donnell lives in the Portland, Oregon area with his wife and two sons.

Articles by Anthony O'Donnell
posted in March 2010

Fidel Castro Applauds US Healthcare Reform

3/26/2010
Castro calls reform a "miracle" and a victory over "lobbyists and political mercenaries," in qualified praise of President Obama, whom he calls a "fanatical believer in the imperialist capitalist system."

New Mexico Chooses Valen's UnderRight

3/23/2010
New Mexico Mutual will use the solution to enhance its already dominant position in the New Mexico workers' comp market through identification of opportunities and precise pricing of risk.

Thoughts on Distribution Management

3/23/2010
Carriers have made significant progress in speed-to-market by implementing rules-based systems and tightening their product development capabilities. They have aggressively moved to create more tailored products marketable through more diverse channels. However, their engagement with those channels is remains challenged by the limitations of their existing distribution systems.

DST Health Solutions Debuts Enhanced ACG System

3/22/2010
ACG Version 9.0 builds on the success of previous releases by identifying members with chronic conditions that are at risk for low adherence to prescription regimens, poor coordination of care among primary care providers and specialists or acute hospitalization needs.

House Vote Addresses Health Insurers' Abuses, Answers Americans' Prayers

3/22/2010
I begin to wonder how my contacts in the health insurance industry sleep at night. Possibly their excesses and abuses leave them exhausted at the end of the day. Fortunately, whether we know what's good for us or not, the President and Congress have found a way to put an end to the tyranny of health insurers. Some things turn out to be easier than they seem.

Don Desiderato Joins Novarica

3/19/2010
Former Prudential and ING divisional CIO has focused on transformational initiatives within the life/annuity industry throughout his 25-year career.

Jackson National Life Selects Thunderhead NOW

3/18/2010
The life, annuities and institutional products insurer will use the Thunderhead platform to streamline the production and delivery of its policy documentation, correspondence and other personalized content.

The Hartford Prices Share Offerings

3/18/2010
The Hartford plans to use the net proceeds of the offerings, together with proceeds from a planned debt offering and available funds to repurchase in full the $3.4 billion of The Hartford's preferred shares issued to the U.S. Treasury Department under Treasury's Capital Purchase Program.

PayFlex Releases New HSA

3/17/2010
PayFlex's new custodian-agnostic product enhances flexibility and control for employers and insurers, while extending its HSA offering to any financial institution, the vendor claims

Verex Implements edge IPK edgeConnect

3/17/2010
The edge IPK product underpins a solution designed to enable Verex to offer a range of branded insurance products directly to automobile manufacturers, dealers and their customers.

Pegasystems Will Acquire Chordiant Software

3/16/2010
Under the terms of the agreement, Pegasystems will make a cash tender offer of $5.00 per share for all outstanding shares of Chordiant common stock for a total purchase price of up to approximately $161.5 million.

Northwestern Mutual's CIO: IT as a Business Asset

3/12/2010
In discussions of the contribution of IT to the insurance enterprise, it's hard not to speak in terms of IT as separate from "the business." IT is an enabler of business process after all, no matter how pervasive and strategic its role has become. Nevertheless, CIOs often insist that IT is part of the business, even as it supports it, and certainly not without reason. Tim Schaefer<

Narragansett Bay Launches New Homeowner Web Site, Agent Portal

3/12/2010
The enhancements fall within the company's APEX project, an agent-focused series of technical initiatives to be completed in 2001 that will allow the company to fulfill new customer needs and provide what the carrier describes as outstanding service to its policies with advanced straight-through processing to its independent agents.

Carriers Must Put Profitability Before Growth

3/10/2010
Companies that effectively leverage analytics to refine their ability to segment risk, have a window into the profitability of customer segments. Those who lag behind in analytic capabilities are flying blind in this respect. And not only are they less able to gauge profitability, they are more likely to be stuck with the worst risks relative to their competitors.

Guidewire Releases Guidewire BillingCenter 3.0

3/10/2010
Guidewire describes its approach to the billing product as shifting from a traditional view of billing as a back-office function to a "front and center" concept that offers increased flexibility to customers.

OneShield Launches Customer/Employee Wiki

3/9/2010
The vendor describes OneShield Wiki as a comprehensive source of training materials, shared documents and resources, contact information and complete documentation on its Dragon policy admin system's components, functionality and architecture.

Selective Makes Officer Appointments

3/5/2010
Technology appointments include John Bresney to VP, infrastructure services and operations; and Robert McKenna to VP, infrastructure architecture and engineering.

Communicating With the Emerging Life Insurance Buyer

3/4/2010
There remains a large untapped life insurance and annuity market, a mass of people who really want to invest more in their future. Carriers have a special opportunity today to reach those prospects, hold their attention and make it easier for them to finally do what they think they should. What carriers can learn today by exploiting this opportunity could make a long-term difference in the way life insurance is sold - and bought.

Striking the Right Tone Online: Style Without Offense

3/2/2010
Frankly, I'm not looking to "built a better future" with my auto insurer, much as I might appreciate that they're trying to pollute less and give something back to communities where they make a profit. I've always considered the pursuit of happiness to be a private matter.

Lessons from Chile and Haiti

3/1/2010
This weekend's earthquake in Chile - following quickly on the heels of the Haiti quake - will no doubt reshape the popular appreciation of seismic risk in North America.

Lessons In Chile's Strength

3/1/2010
San Franciscans also live in a zone where they are reminded frequently by perceptible shaking. That is not the case in the Pacific Northwest, where seismic activity is seldom perceptible and usually associated with volcanic eruptions rather than earthquakes per se. The Chile quake should be a wake-up call to the U.S. Northwest.

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