Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims.

While other universities might investigate obviously suspicious claims, California is said to be the first to use a formal verification process.

This makes it hard for the agency to identify suspicious claims and delay those refunds until the claims are shown to be legitimate.

Though insurers try to fight fraud, some will pay suspicious claims, since settling such claims is often cheaper than legal action.

The first step is to identify suspicious claims that have a higher possibility of being fraudulent.

Instead, many companies use computers and statistical analysis to identify suspicious claims for further investigation.

In both cases, suspicious claims are identified by comparing data about the claim to expected values.

In the mid-1990's, he said, Cigna investigators noticed suspicious claims from Southern California surgery centers.

The heightened efforts against fraud include the installation of software that flags suspicious claims, not only by patients but also by doctors, clinics and hospitals.

An industry group newly formed to combat fraud has given the Lawrence police $480,000 to help investigate suspicious claims.