Meet the APA’s Media and Communication Coordinator, Caitlin Froom!

For the past year and a half, Caitlin has taken control of the APA’s social media and internal communications. In her role, she works directly with local, state, and national press to execute the APA’s world class media strategy. So, whether you need a question answered, a meeting scheduled or were curious as to who was behind the social media, Caitlin is the answer!

While completing her B.S. in Mass Communication concentrating on Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising from Towson University, Caitlin worked for various local newspapers and mass media agencies.

Following graduation, her background led her to her position with the APA, her first introduction into the insurance space.

Since then, she has since grown to learn the strategies and tactics of insurer fraud perpetrated against consumers.

With that said, she has become not only a strong part of the APA but a great advocate for policyholders.

The APA is the only organization in the country that seeks criminal prosecution, when appropriate, for crimes of insurer fraud. In the past, law enforcement was not trained on insurer fraud nor was it quite frankly on their radar. With all of your efforts and that of APA and your Consumer Protection Unit (CPU), we are slowly raising the awareness of the serious matter of insurer fraud.

Before a case can result in criminal charges, law enforcement must first be willing to open up an investigation. We are slowly successfully meeting this challenge. APA fraud referrals are now being investigated by law enforcement. This is an outstanding first step.

However, much more is needed to accomplish our goal that all insurance fraud must be investigated and prosecuted. Law enforcement must be trained on insurer fraud. Again, APA is taking the lead by providing training on this topic.

In September 2025, our CPU team of retired law enforcement will be providing insurer fraud training to the criminal investigators from the California Department of Insurance who are working the Southern California wildfires. This is another outstanding first step.

I am confident that we will attain our goal that all insurance defrauders will be held equally responsible for their criminal actions. With your help and support, we will achieve this very important result.

The Board of Directors consists of three individuals: Dr. Thomas Vorbach DM, MBA, Amanda Devecka-Rinear and Doug Quinn.

The APA has clear guidelines that no one employed in the business of insurance claims can hold a seat on the Board of Directors. This rule is to help eliminate conflicts of interest and any potential profit motive from impacting the BoD’s objectivity.

While these three individuals are all longtime consumer advocates, there is a distinct characteristic that separates them from our Board Advisors, Corporate and Professional Members.

They are diligently working behind-the-scenes to steer the APA’s mission of justice to policyholders, but they couldn’t do it without you, our members.

All of our Professional Members are boots-on-the-ground industry professionals, a quality that the Board of Directors cannot possess given their position in the organization. Without our members keeping us informed of what is actively happening within the insurance industry – reporting cases, industry trends and looking out for bad actors – the APA would not be where it is.

Thank you to all of you for making this organization such a collaborative success, and thank you to our Board of Directors who dedicate their time and energy into steering the APA as a champion for policyholder rights nationwide.

If you were on our recent conference call, you know the APA team has been quite busy these last few months.

Our testimony with Senator Josh Hawley in the US Senate has spurred a lot of activity. We’ve also testified to the South Carolina state legislature exposing incidents in the industry of deceptive corporate loss claims & shifting of assets thru affiliates.

The APA’s efforts have been at the heart of this issue & you can expect to hear more news in the coming year.

We would like to commend our CPU Chief investigator, Nancy Dodd, and team for training the state of California insurance fraud investigators from multiple jurisdictions on how to detect & investigate carrier-side fraud.

We’re also furthering our efforts on the board of the coalition against insurance fraud to build a collaboration with the insurance industry on eliminating fraudsters in the carrier-hired vendor space such as TPA’s and Engineering firms.

Nationally, there has been a significant shift in negative consumer sentiment toward the insurance industry due to rising premiums and consumer struggles during the claims process. The APA is clear that insurance is a critical financial tool for Americans and healthy, resilient insurance markets benefit us all. We are working to emphasize that the way to restoring consumer confidence in insurance is to acknowledge the problems that exist and work to eliminate them.

Chief among these efforts is to identify, investigate and prosecute carrier-side fraudsters that abuse policyholders for their own gain. The APA‘s message is this: Fraud happens on all sides, and should be equally prosecuted on all sides.

As always, thank you for your support of the APA’s mission to defend the American consumer.