AUTO BODY REPAIRS

Blumenthal Wants U.S. To Investigate Insurers' 'Steering' Of Policyholders To Body Shops

By ERIC GERSHON

The Hartford Courant

September 2, 2009

The federal government should investigate questionable insurance company practices that steer consumers to specific auto body repair shops, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday.

The practices potentially deprive consumers of choice and might violate both existing laws and a 1963 consent decree between the federal government and insurers related to steering, he said.

"Both federal and state law enforcers should send a clear message: your car, your choice," said Blumenthal, who has been trying to strengthen Connecticut's anti-steering law for years.

Auto insurers have long had a system of preferred body shops, which they say can save them money on accident claims, minimize premiums and please customers.

But some in the auto body industry say that the system can lead to hasty work and that it hurts repair shops that don't agree to, or can't, form partnerships with insurers.

"We will slowly be weeded out," said Bob Skrip of Skrip's Auto Body in Prospect, who is also president of the Auto Body Association of Connecticut.

Skrip acknowledged that some of his group's members participate in insurers' programs.

The quid pro quo of the arrangement between insurers and preferred repair shops is that "we will flood you with work, but you're going to repair the cars the way we want you to," he said. "Insurers are not repairers."

Blumenthal plans to forward to the U.S. Justice Department a petition from auto repairers in 48 states that seeks relief from "onerous and arbitrary insurer practices" that hurt body shops and limit choices to consumers.

The Connecticut auto body association began the petition drive in April.