An iPhone app game that focuses on denying claims to win “points” is reinforcing the negative stereotypes associated with those involved in the insurance adjustment process.
Onyxx Design’s “Claim Denied!” app for iTunes puts anyone with an iPhone or other compatible gadget in the role of a young claim adjuster at a private health insurance company. The player stands on top of a hospital roof and uses a “denied” rubber stamp as a weapon against incoming patients.
The game description on iTunes describes the strategy, explaining that the player will, “Shoot shiny red stamps, throw heaps of paperwork, call in the pre-existing condition clause, and set the blue dogs on the crowds to save your company money and make your future bright!”
Though some may find the jokes and puns amusing, the satire is harsh and disparages the claim adjuster profession. The health insurance industry is the main target of the app’s unabashed criticism, but the game bolsters any public worry that claim adjusters as a whole are out to literally rubber-stamp customers into submission, and won’t help them when they have a claim on any sort of insurance policy.
Though presented in a joking way, “Claim Denied!” shows that there is much work to do to counter the perception and undercurrent of distrust that the public has in the insurance industry, and solving the problem will require a little more than thumb-tapping and scrolling to fix.
