2007 Annual Report

Schedule M – Crawford’s Annual Report for the Period Ending December 31, 2006

Appointment

On March 9, 2000, the Courts appointed Crawford 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.

Duties of the Administrator

The duties and responsibilities of the Administrator as outlined in the Settlement Agreement include:

1. establishing and staffing "The 1986-1990 Hepatitis C Claims Centre";
2. developing, installing and implementing systems and procedures for receiving, processing, evaluating and making decisions respecting Claims including making all necessary inquiries (including consulting medical personnel) to determine the validity of any Claim and requiring any claimant to have a medical examination;
3. reporting to the Joint Committee and the Courts respecting Claims received and being administered;
4. providing personnel in such reasonable numbers as are required for the performance of its duties, and training and instructing them;
5. keeping or causing to be kept accurate accounts of its activities and its administration of the Plans, preparing such financial statements, reports and records as are required by the Joint Committee, Fund Counsel and the Courts, in form and content as directed by the Courts, and submitting them to the Joint Committee, Fund Counsel and the Courts monthly or so often as the Courts direct;
6. receiving and responding to all enquiries and correspondence respecting Claims, supplying claim forms, reviewing and evaluating all Claims, making decisions in respect of Claims, giving notice of its decision, receiving compensation payments on behalf of the Class Members out of the Trust and forwarding the compensation in accordance with the provisions of the Plans within a reasonable period of time and communicating with a claimant, in either English or French, as the claimant elects;
7. assisting in the completion of claim forms and attempting to resolve any disputes with claimants;
8. maintaining a database with all information necessary to permit the Courts to evaluate the financial viability and sufficiency of the Trust Fund from time to time; and
9. such other duties and responsibilities as the Courts may from time to time by order direct.

Year Seven (April 1 to December 31, 2006)

Some important tasks in Year Seven included the following:

• Continued to process “residual claims” and “new claims”.
• Prepared and issued an Annual Financial Statement to all paid Class Members.
• Provided additional reports and data for 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”.
• 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.
• Implemented special projects to assist claimants whose claims were deficient.
• Reported weekly to and held quarterly meetings with the Joint Committee.
• Participated to the bi-weekly conference calls with the Joint Committee and to the periodic conference calls with Fund Counsel.

Operational Highlights

Since the inception of this project, the Centre has…

• Scanned 848,647 pages of claims-related documents.
• Handled over 149,714 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 $507,566,327 in compensation.

Key Claims Evaluation Statistics as of December 31, 2006

Total Funds Disbursed to Date	$507,566,327
Claims Received to Date	14,129
Claims Approved to Date	11,237
Claims Denied to Date	2,123
Traceback Requests Initiated	4,391

Summary of Payments Processed by Fiscal Year

As of December 31, 2006, the Centre has made 24,460 payments to 10,902 claimants.

	Total Amount Paid	Number of Payments Processed
Year 1	$72,341,110	1,661
Year 2	137,263,842	5,265
Year 3	91,603,092	6,272
Year 4	60,634,359	3,543
Year 5	65,060,633	3,307
Year 6	50,375,247	2,737
Year 7 (9 months)	30,288,044	1,675
Totals	$507,566,327	24,460

Summary of Supplemental Payments Processed by Fiscal Year

Supplemental Payments represent over 65% of the payments processed by the Centre. The number of supplemental claims has remained constant for the last four years.

	Total Amount Paid	Number of Payments Processed
Year 1	$2,616,364	319
Year 2	27,598,639	2,071
Year 31	41,016,719	4,397
Year 4	23,551,805	2,582
Year 52	35,739,222	2,680
Year 6	26,343,162	2,409
Year 7 (9 months)	14,007,882	1,399
Totals	$170,873,793	15,857

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.

Service Performance Criteria / Deliverables

Crawford continues to meet or exceed all service performance criteria as per the Terms of Appointment of the 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.