A new study of insurance chief information and chief technology officers from Europe and the U.S. says that a small percentage of insurers are considering the idea of outsourcing portions of their claim-adjusting procedures.

Survey respondents all came from the technology sector, and they were asked several questions about their companies from an IT perspective. When the group was asked to consider the probability of outsourcing operational functions and processes, almost nine percent of U.S. mid-size and large insurers said they would consider outsourcing some of their claim-adjustment procedures. In Europe, that percentage jumped to more than 12 percent. When the question was rephrased to include the probability of outsourcing most of their claim adjusting procedures, however, the numbers dropped to 4.5 percent for U.S. mid-size and large insurers, and 6.25 percent for similar-sized insurers in Europe.

One question that both the U.S. and European insurers agreed on was their top IT initiatives in 2008, which didn't involve claim departments. Overall, the category of claims only rated eighth in importance out of 12 possible answers, with both countries noting it was a priority only 14 percent of the time. The top-ranked response for top priority was policy administration/core systems.