SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL July 18, 2012

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, July 25, please email Mike Barry at Michaelb@iii.org

 

Workers compensation insurers are paying out significantly more to cover injured workers in Florida, Maryland, Hawaii and a few other states, because doctors there are allowed to charge workers comp insurers much more than pharmacies for certain drugs, according to this New York Times article, which appeared on the front page of the paper’s Thursday, July 12, print edition. The American Insurance Association made the same argument, on the same day, in testimony before a National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) committee.

The I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig gave an interview on Thursday, July 12, to an Albany, NY-based Associated Press reporter and the following day (Friday, July 13) to WCNY’s Capital Pressroom, an NPR-affiliated Albany radio station, as journalists explored whether standard home and commercial policies were designed to cover losses incurred due to hydraulic fracturing.

The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore will be speaking about The Basics of Response and the Role of Elected Officials on Sunday, July 22, in New Orleans during The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ (NALEO) Educational Fund conference on Emergency Planning and Preparedness. While in New Orleans, Salvatore will also be meeting with numerous reporters at the city’s print and broadcast media outlets with a radio interview tentatively lined up with WWL.

Airbnb, an online marketplace for home rentals, has made arrangements with Lloyd’s of London for a Host Guarantee program that covers homeowners for up to $1 million on most items in their homes, according to this front page USA Today story from Monday, July 16. Meanwhile, RelayRides provides insurance to car owners covering up to $1 million per incident, even as RelayRides may face damage claims in excess of the $1 million limit because of an auto accident that resulted in a fatality in Massachusetts, USA Today reports.

 

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) conducted the first high-wind test of commercial structures inside its Research Center on Tuesday, July 17, and this same-day story in The Charlotte Observer offered details.

The J.D. Powers study measured customer satisfaction with the claims experience for auto physical damage loss and its findings were released on Tuesday, July 17. Overall customer satisfaction increased 10 points, to 852 from 842 on a 1,000-point scale, in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to the first quarter of the year.

Herb Weisbaum, who hosts a consumer-oriented radio program every weekday afternoon on Seattle’s KVI-AM, 570, told the Northwest Insurance Council this week he would like to interview a Council spokesperson on-air about the issues raised in a Monday, July 16, I.I.I. news release on renters insurance….Beth Luberecki, a freelance writer for the Washington Post’s Read Express is also working about renters insurance….Mark Chalon Smith, who writes for websites affiliated with MSN Money Partners, and Richard Adhikari, a reporter with ECT News Network, interviewed the I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters about the insurance implications of doing business with RelayRides….Caroline McDonald of CFO Magazine spoke with the I.I.I.’s Hartwig and Worters for a story she is readying about the prospective insurance issues that could arise if a solar storm were to cause a power outage.

Two Members of Congress from Michigan, Reps. Hansen Clarke and John Conyers Jr., last week introduced the Ban the Use of Credit Scores in Insurance Act, according to this Monday, July 16, article in The Hill.  If enacted, the bill would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act so that reports on consumer credit could not be used to set auto insurance rates.

 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is expected to complete work soon on a proposal to broaden the oversight of approximately 30 credit reporting firms so as to determine whether firms such as Equifax and Experian are adequately responding to consumers’ notification of mistakes in their credit files. Some consumers have complained that it is difficult to get credit-related errors corrected and the CFPB has taken up their cause, according to a Monday, July 16, Wall Street Journal article.

 

The Waldo Canyon and High Park wildfires caused nearly $450 million in insured losses, according to this Tuesday, July 17, news release from the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, which was the news peg for numerous stories, including this Denver Post article.

 

Coloradans whose homes survived the wildfires, but who reside alongside barren landscapes that were burned, may want to buy coverage in the event their properties are hit by flash floods, according to a Monday, July 16, segment that aired on the NBC Evening News.

More than 100 homes and a few businesses were damaged by floodwaters last weekend (July 14-15) in Saint George, Utah, after severe thunderstorm overwhelmed storm drains because of the barren landscape created by the Wood Hollow Fire, according to this Tuesday, July 17, Utah Insurance Department news release. Insurance Commissioner Neal Gooch urged Utah homeowners to secure coverage for flood and mudslide events.

 

Two men were killed in North Houston as the result of a lightning strike on Sunday afternoon, July 15. Houston’s ABC affiliate filed a story on the tragedy.

With at least three California cities having filed for, or expected to seek, bankruptcy protection, reporters, such as this one from Insure.com, are assessing what it might mean for the cities’ insurance coverage, as well as their ability to contest claims and pay out legal judgments.

 

The California Department of Insurance (CDI) issued a news release on Tuesday, July 17, to report that bogus checks bearing the CDI’s logo, and purportedly signed by Insurance Commissioner David Jones, are being circulated and presented as a “payment” or a “refund” from the CDI. The checks have no value but recipients are told they can be cashed for anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000.

 

Ed Wu, an enforcement attorney and six-year veteran of the CDI, has been given the title Public Advisor and will assist the general public, as well as consumer groups, with the Proposition 103 intervenor process, according to this Wednesday, July 18, CDI news release.

The Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s board of governors held a public workshop on Monday, July 16, and is expected to vote on a premium rate increase at its next public session on Friday, July 27, according to this same-day Sun-Sentinel story. The I.I.I. issued a media advisory on July 16, pointing out why all Floridians have a stake in the financial health of Citizens.

Due to numerous complaints the Charleston Post and Courier has suspended an online contest in which they asked readers to share their insurance “horror stories.”

 

The Cuomo administration announced the state’s employers will see a 1.2 percent decrease in their workers compensation insurance premium rates in 2012, the first reduction in this line since 2008, according to this Tuesday, July 17, gubernatorial news release. The New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board outlined in this memorandum why it believed an 11.5 percent increase in worker’s comp rates was actuarially justified, effective October 1, 2012.

 

The I.I.I.’s Monday, July 16, news release on renters insurance is getting great pick-up from insurance agents and journalists on Facebook and Twitter. People are focusing on the fact that though there are many renters in large urban centers, most people neglect to protect themselves properly by getting renters insurance. Some of the discussion on this topic points to the fact that renters are largely uninformed about this type of coverage.

 

Lightning safety continues to be a trending topic this week on Twitter with the I.I.I.’s safety content and its recent animated video being widely shared. Most of this activity was spurred by the death of two soccer players in North Houston, Texas, who were struck by lightning on Sunday, July 15, after they took shelter under a tree.

 

The issue of home burglary is still popping up on Twitter and Facebook this week with insurance organizations sharing the I.I.I.’s editorial content on the subject. The general focus is on encouraging consumers to protect their assets.

 

The I.I.I. is cited regularly in the media as an authoritative source of insurance information. To access the current I.I.I. press clips, click here

 

For an I.I.I. Blog search, click here.