Baltimore, Md.— July 19, 2001
The committee presented the Anti Fraud Guides to Ethical Business Conduct to the body of CIC for a vote. This paper was over two years in development by the committee and had been presented several times to the body for input and comment. This "Guide" breaks ethical business conduct down into a few points that a layman or customer can easily understand. As with all guideline papers a lot of work was required by many people to finally make it happen. In reality the industry has won again by setting guides for the ethical conduct of business within the Collision Industry.
The Co-chairmen also presented to the body of CIC as a refresher, the definition of Cost Shifting. The committee as a group had worked long and hard attempting to come up with a presentation on Cost Shifting. Sooner or later in all the discussion it always evolved into a "he said she said" dialog type of presentation so after exhaustive discussions it was agreed upon that the definition by the body of CIC was the best short single presentation that could be made without evolving into that finger pointing situation.
The committee has been contacted by some in the industry wanting the committee to address the "Third Party Administrators" who have been contacting repairers asking for a percentage of the bottom line in exchange for being listed on their "preferred or direct repair list". The question was put to the body of CIC if this is a direction they wanted the committee to go with a possible focus at a future meeting.
With a little role-playing the co-chairs also presented a term that has been around for years but which of recent has had little play "Estoppel". The layman's understanding of the word was given; Estoppel is a legal word that in layman's terms means: When you have an agreement to perform a function or job and you act, starting the job or beginning to do what was agreed on the rules cannot be changed.
For the Anchorage meeting the committee will meet in a teleconference and determine from the input of the body of CIC where they should put their efforts at that meeting. Early results seem to indicate maybe a mix of old and new topics such as further discussion of estoppel, a preparatory report on 3PA (Third Party Administrators) before the Las Vegas meeting, and maybe a quick look at how cycle time effects the issue of fraud.
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