A report from the HYPERLINK "http://www.insurancefraud.org/"Coalition Against Insurance Fraud concludes that state fraud bureaus have been successful in combating insurance fraud, but there is still room for improvement.

The 25-page report, "State Insurance Fraud Bureaus: A Progress Report, 2001-2006," contains a breakdown of key measures of success from 47 state fraud agencies, even though only 40 states currently have agencies established (Washington, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland, and Kansas have multiple departments that focus on different types of insurance fraud).

The key measures studied — fraud convictions, cases opened, referrals received, cases sent for prosecution, and court-ordered restitution — all rose between 2004 and 2005, according to the study. But 18 fraud bureaus reported declines in convictions, somewhat dimming the glow of an overall fraud conviction rate that rose more than six percent. The average docket of new cases also stayed flat since 2001, the Coalition's study said. New cases increased by slightly more than six percent mainly because two new units were formed and began sending cases to courts.