2006 Annual Report

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Schedule M - Crawford's Annual Report to March 31, 2006

On March 9, 2000, the Courts appointed Crawford Adjusters Canada to act as Administrator of the 1986-1990 Hepatitis C Class Actions Settlement. The administration of this complex class action settlement celebrated its sixth anniversary on March 9, 2006.

The duties of the Administrator include:

1. Developing and implementing systems for receiving, processing, evaluating and making decisions on claims;
2. Supplying claim forms;
3. Assisting claimants and their families in the completion of claim forms;
4. Making necessary inquiries (including consulting medical personnel) to determine the validity of any claim including requiring any claimant to undergo a medical examination;
5. Initiating or expediting completion of tracebacks where such procedures are necessary;
6. Receiving and responding to inquiries and correspondence about claims;
7. Receiving monies from the Trust Fund and forwarding compensation to approved claimants in accordance with the Settlement Agreement;
8. Reporting on operations to the Joint Committee and the Courts.

Year Six

The Centre continued to process “residual claims” and “new claims”, and continued to process a significant number of supplemental claims for out-of-pocket expenses, uninsured treatment and medication, loss of income/services/support, costs of care, and HCV drug therapy.  The number of supplemental claims has remained constant for the last three years.

Some important tasks in Year Six included the following:

• Prepared and issued an Annual Financial Statement to all paid Class Members.
• Provided all requested data necessary for medical modeling and fund sufficiency purposes.
• Processed all claimants’ requests for a disease-level reassessment.
• Continued our research with respect to HCV associated medical conditions and medications for the purpose of updating the “HCV Medication List”.
• Processed claims with evidence of non-prescription drug use as per Court Approved Protocol.
• Prepared files for Fund Counsel, Referees and Arbitrators and attended the appeal hearings.
• Continued to work in collaboration with Canadian Blood Services, Héma-Québec, British Columbia Center for Disease Control, provincial programs and medical experts.
• Worked in collaboration with the auditors from Deloitte to complete the year-end audit process.
• Updated the www.hepc8690.ca Web site on a regular basis.
• Developed and programmed new reports within the customized software application known as CLASS to improve the efficiency of our processes.
• Implemented special projects to assist claimants whose claims were deficient.
• Reported weekly to the Joint Committee.
• Met on a quarterly basis with the Joint Committee.

Since the inception of this project, the Centre has…

• Scanned 799,723 pages of claims-related documents.
• Handled over 142,000 telephone calls via the 1-800 telephone assistance line and responded to a high volume of e-mails via info@hepc8690.ca.
• Processed and issued $477,278,283 in compensation.

Operational Highlights

Summary of Expenditures and Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) by Fiscal Year

Between Year 2 and Year 6, the Centre's expenditures and FTEs have been reduced by 49.9% and 60.5% respectively.

Summary of Payments Processed by Fiscal Year

To date, the Centre has made 22,785 payments to 10,326 claimants.

Summary of Supplemental Payments Processed by Fiscal Year

Supplemental Payments represent over 62% of the payments processed by the Centre.

Notes:

1. The Year 3 amount includes the $14,805,848 that was distributed to 2,603 claimants due to the release of the Level 2 holdback payment that was distributed to Class Members in September 2002.
2. Year 5 totals include the $14,071,956.43 that was paid to 229 claimants as a result of the lifting of the Loss of Income and Loss of Support caps that had been in place since the inception of the program.

Year 7 Outlook

Year Seven should involve a combination of processing “residual claims” and “new claims”.  The number of requests for disease level reassessments and supplemental claims is expected to remain constant.

Service Performance Criteria / Deliverables

Crawford continues to meet or exceed all service performance criteria as per Schedule 3 of the Agreement (Terms of Appointment of Administrator). Some of these criteria include the following:

• Making a decision on a claim and advising the claimant of the decision no later than 30 days after the receipt of all relevant information;
• Compensating all Class Members within 45 days of the payment being approved;
• Capturing all data accurately for reporting purposes;
• Maintaining historical data.

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