News to help protect your business and people Employer Perspectives November 2004 The Hartford and CNA Integration Update Welcome to Employer Perspectives, The Hartford’s group benefits newsletter for employers. This newsletter provides Successfully integrating CNA business is a top priority for The regular updates about our products and Hartford. As part of this effort, The Hartford is introducing services, trends and developments, and enhancements to former-CNA statutory disability plans in New other timely information that may be of York and New Jersey. interest to you and your employees. The Hartford offers a wide range of products and services with plan design choices to meet your needs, including: Closing Ceremony Wraps Up Paralympic Games • Short Term Disability (STD) The 2004 Summer Paralympic games of Athens are now • Long Term Disability (LTD) officially written into the sports history books. And what a story it was! • Integrated STD/LTD • Term Life • AD&D • Travel Accident • Senior Medical • Stop Loss Satisfied Claimants Most products are available on a contributory and non-contributory basis. Nine out of ten disability claimants are satisfied with their claims experience with The Hartford, according to the most recent independent survey. The Hartford® is The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries, including issuing companies Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company, Hartford Life Insurance Company, and CNA Group Life Assurance Company (pending name change to “Hartford Life Group Insurance Company”). News to help protect your business and people Employer Perspectives November 2004 The Hartford and Enhancements to Statutory Disability Plans in CNA Integration New York and New Jersey Successfully integrating CNA business is a top priority for The Hartford. As part of this effort, The Hartford is introducing enhancements to former-CNA statutory disability plans Update in New York and New Jersey. Enhancements Coming Soon Valuable new services will soon be available to you, Enhancements and new services will soon be including: 1 available to you as a valued Hartford customer . • A new bill—an improved look to your statutory In addition to changes and enhancements, however, plan bill, many aspects of your statutory plans will remain unchanged. There are no changes to policy • Electronic billing option—a convenient new numbers, billing cycles, claims payments, or forms. payment option for employers with quarterly We have worked hard to minimize unnecessary billing, and changes, provide valuable new services, and make • Employer View®—a secure website designed the transition to The Hartford as seamless as for The Hartford’s group policyholders, providing possible. quick and easy access to helpful resources, including billing and claim information. More Information To Follow Employer View In advance of any changes, you will receive a detailed The Hartford offers this helpful online service to give you easy communication package titled: Changes…For the access to information that is important to you, including case Better. This package will provide a clear picture of information, electronic billing, and reports. what will change, what will not, and how The Hartford can make it easier for you to manage this transition. To log on, simply visit www.employerview.com and register online after you receive your new bill. You will be asked to We are committed to delivering consistent, high-quality enter your access code or basic information from your bill. service, and quickly addressing any issues or concerns. You can then choose a user name and password—a process If you have questions or need more information, please that takes just a few minutes. contact your Hartford account manager. 1There are a number of statutory plans in New York and New Jersey, administered out of our Maitland, Florida office, which are not included in this effort. Check with your account manager for details. 2 News to help protect your business and people Employer Perspectives November 2004 Closing Ceremony Wraps Up the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens The 2004 Summer Paralympic games of Athens are now officially written into the sports history books. And what a story it was! About 4,000 athletes representing 125 countries converged on the ancient city of Athens for the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games for 11 days of international competition. And while not every athlete was able to return home with medals, through hard work and dedication, they all were able to realize their dreams of representing their country at the second largest sporting event in the world. The Hartford’s Group Benefits Division, as part of its commitment to the disability community, is the founding corporate partner of U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee created to provide training and competition for elite athletes with physical disabilities. The athletes of U.S. Paralympics embody The Hartford’s focus on an individual’s abilities—instead of his or her limitations—to empower success in all aspects of life. U.S. Athletes Had Excellent Showing The US Paralympic team had a contingent of 245 See More Details Online athletes and was able to garner the fourth highest medal tally of the games with 88 medals, 27 of them gold. China led the way with an astounding 141 You can view medal counts, see photos of medals during the competition. Paralympic athletes in action, read summaries of each day’s events, and much more by In team competition the U.S. came away with a gold visiting www.athens2004.com. medal in women’s wheelchair basketball, a bronze in women’s sit volleyball, a bronze in men’s archery, and a bronze in quad rugby. 3 News to help protect your business and people Employer Perspectives November 2004 Through its partnership with U.S. Paralympics, The Hartford works closely with a number of elite athletes Closing Ceremony Wraps Up the 2004 Paralympic to raise awareness of the value that individuals with Games in Athens (continued) physical limitations bring to the workplace. The Hartford’s Ongoing Support of the Paralympics Helps Boost Popularity A number of these athletes returned to the United States having achieved their dream of winning one With nearly full venues during each day of competition in the 2004 Athens Games, attendance records or more Paralympic medals: were at an all-time high as interest in the Paralympics continues to grow on an international scale. The next Paralympic Games will be the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino, Italy, followed by the 2008 KELLY CROWLEY (San Jose, Calif.) Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. 1 Gold, 1 Bronze – Swimming Host an Athlete on Our National Ability Tour RON WILLIAMS (Birmingham, Ala.) The Hartford also continues its National Ability Tour, which kicked off in the spring of 2004. An ongoing 1 Bronze, 1 Silver – Cycling initiative in partnership with U.S. Paralympics, the tour’s mission is to promote hiring and retaining PAUL MARTIN (Boulder, Colo.) employees with disabilities. Hartford offices host forums in which employers and brokers can meet and 1 Bronze, 1 Silver – Cycling be inspired by these athletes, whose focus on their own abilities has led to exceptional professional CHERI BLAUWET (Larchwood, Iowa) and athletic success. 1 Gold, 2 Bronze - Wheelchair race If you are interested in hosting an athlete at your location, contact program manager John Carideo at [email protected] for more details. The Hartford’s Kevin Szott Wins Bronze in Judo Szott, a sales representative for The Hartford’s New York office and the U.S. flag bearer in the opening ceremonies (see photo), ended his Paralympic career by winning a bronze medal in the Judo competition. Szott is legally blind. 4 News to help protect your business and people Employer Perspectives November 2004 Delivering Results: Claimants Give The Hartford High Marks Nine out of ten disability claimants are claimant’s interactions with The Hartford, such as satisfied with their claims experience with the overall ease of filing a claim and the clarity of The Hartford, according to the most recent the process. independent survey1. Listening, Sharing and Improving 1 Satisfaction Levels Consistently High As part of an ongoing telephone survey process , each claim center at The Hartford receives monthly Consistent service delivery has been one of the reports detailing customer satisfaction performance trademarks of The Hartford’s approach to claim levels. The survey also includes the option for handling. Disability claimants, who are surveyed the claimant to request a follow-up call from The about their claims experience, have consistently Hartford to address any issues or concerns. given superior ratings to the service they received. Overall satisfaction with claim service has been The Hartford has been conducting telephone consistently at or above 90% for two years running1. interviews with disability claimants since 19971. Throughout the history of the survey, it has always “We are very pleased with these results,” said Harry focused on giving claimants an opportunity to tell S. Monti Jr., Vice President of Benefit Management The Hartford how they felt about the service they Services at The Hartford. “Generally, 80% received. And just as consistently, The Hartford has satisfaction levels are considered good and 85% always taken what the claimants have told us about satisfaction levels are considered outstanding within service seriously and incorporated their feedback this industry. We’re very happy to be exceeding into strategic and tactical improvements in claim industry benchmarks with a 90% and higher average service delivery. customer satisfaction score over the past two years.” In addition, the survey provides more than just a single overall satisfaction level. It also asks about 1 The Disability Claimant Satisfaction Survey has been conducted on specific components of the claims experience, an ongoing basis by the Bourget Research Group since 1997. The most including measures that address other aspects the recent results are from third quarter, 2004.