Posted by Benji Riggins on May 15, 2012 under Insurance News | 
North Carolina officials are requiring insurers to expedite the payment of workers’ compensation patients medical and wage-loss benefits or risk being sentenced to jail.
The North Carolina Industrial Commission has ordered more than a dozen employers to attend a May 22 hearing in an attempt to resolve claims that have been dragged though the legal system for decades. Employers who refuse to pay or settle part of a claim will face contempt charges and be ordered to jail.
“In the interest of better serving the employees and employers of North Carolina and enforcing the provisions of the workers’ compensation law, the North Carolina Industrial Commission is reviewing its contempt procedures,” said Pamela Young, chair of the commission that is charged with enforcing the state’s workers’ compensation law.
The commission’s action came within weeks of a study conducted by the Raleigh, N.C-based News and Observers that found that tens of thousands of employers may be operating without coverage.
At issue are the commission’s lack of resources to monitor the many worksites around the state, a lack of communication among state agencies, and an apparent reluctance to penalize employers.
The commission contracts with the North Carolina Rate Bureau to collect the data over the number of employers in the state with workers’ compensation coverage. The bureau reported that insurers provide coverage to 140,000 business with another 117 companies self-insured. That leaves many business without coverage.
By law, employers are required to inform the bureau on of the commission’s behalf, when they purchase, renew or cancel coverage.
For all practicable purposes, however, the information is a one-way street. Commission officials acknowledge using the database to find the insurer responsible for covering a claim, but do not monitor cancellations. As a result, they only find out an employer is without coverage when an injured worker files a claim.
Also, when it comes to pursuing employers without coverage, it has little leverage to enforce the law. The law states that employers found not in compliance with the law can be fined $100 per day and the cost of any benefits and medical expenses the injured worker should have collected.
The Industrial Commission’s Fraud Unit reported that since January 2011, it has only pursued 225 cases where employers where found not to have proper coverage. The unit reported collecting $30,500 in fines, which equals around $135 per case.
That is why North Carolina has decided to approach having proper workers’ compensation not just a civil matter, but a criminal one as well.
“In response to the issues raised, we now have some concrete plans,” said Young.
By Michael Adams
Posted by Benji Riggins on March 31, 2012 under Insurance News |
If all states implemented comprehensive graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, an estimated 2,000 lives could be saved. Further, if all 50 states were to enact comprehensive GDL laws, it could generate savings of $13.6 billion per year.
That’s according to the Allstate Foundation License to Save Report, developed in conjunction with the National Safety Council. The report found that over the last 20 years, graduated driver licensing laws have already saved an estimated 15,000 lives.
The report findings are timely, as Congress readies to consider reauthorization of highway and infrastructure spending – legislation that historically has included public health and safety measures.
Novice teenage drivers are the most likely drivers on the road to have car accidents. In fact, 16-year-old drivers have crash rates two times greater than 18-to-19-year-old drivers and four times that of older drivers, according to the report.
GDL helps new drivers gain experience under supervised and less risky conditions. The most comprehensive GDL laws include nighttime driving restrictions, passenger limits, cell phone and texting bans, mandatory behind-the-wheel driving time, minimum entry age for learner’s permit (16), and age 18 before full licensure. In some states that have enacted strong GDL laws, the incidence of teenage driving related deaths have dropped by as much as 40 percent.
“Teen driving deaths are a real public health crisis,” said Vicky Dinges, vice president of public social responsibility, Allstate. “What’s worse is that these deaths are avoidable.”
More than 81,000 people were killed in crashes involving drivers ages 15 to 20 in the decade from 2000 to 2009, making teen driving crashes the leading cause of teen deaths nationwide.
In addition to the lives lost, the report estimates that the total cost to the nation of crashes involving teen drivers in 2009 at $38.3 billion. These costs include wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses for public and private insurance, police and legal costs, motor vehicle damage, employers’ uninsured costs and fire losses. These costs were paid by employers, state and local governments and by citizens through taxes, fees and insurance premiums.
“Our elected officials do not have many opportunities during their careers to take action that will save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in one legislative action. This is one of those times,” said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council.
The report estimates of lives saved were generated using a 2007 study which analyzed the effect of graduated driver licensing programs to produce percentage reduction estimates compared to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s estimate of the number of young driver-related fatalities in each state.
Posted by Benji Riggins on March 29, 2012 under Insurance News, Uncategorized |
Chances are next year will be another active hurricane season in the Atlantic if an El Niño does not develop, say forecasters at Colorado State University.
The forecast team of Philip Klotzbach and William Gray released its early hurricane season forecast for 2012, saying that it is dispensing with the usual numerical forecast for the number of storms. Instead, Klotzbach and Gray issued their forecast in terms of the probabilities “of the key factors influencing the hurricane season.”
The reason for the change, they say, is the difficulty forecasters have in determining whether an El Niño will occur in the Pacific, which impacts the Atlantic hurricane season.
The team says there is a 45 percent chance that climate conditions that have persisted since 1995 will continue along with no El Niño development in the Pacific. These conditions include warmer water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and reduced vertical wind shear—conducive conditions for hurricane formation.
Should that be the case, hurricane activity would be 140 percent of the average season, which would be characterized as 12 to 15 named storms, seven to nine hurricanes and up to four major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5 with sustained winds of 111 mph and greater), the forecasters say.
The team says there is a 30 percent chance that Atlantic wind circulation remains unchanged and a significant El Niño occurs, which would reduce the tropical-cyclone season to approximately 75 percent of the average season. That would be 8 to 11 named storms, three to five hurricanes and one or two major hurricanes.
There is a 15 percent chance that current Atlantic wind conditions could become unusually strong, and no El Niño occurs, which would lead tropical-cyclone activity of up to 180 percent of average hurricane season—about 14 to 17 storms, 9 to 11 hurricanes and four to five major hurricanes.
And the forecasters say there is a 10 percent chance that current Atlantic wind conditions weaken and a significant El Niño develops, which would reduce the tropical-cyclone activity to 40 percent of the average season—five to seven storms, two to three hurricanes and possibly one major hurricane.
For 2011, the CSU forecast team had predicted that the hurricane season would be well above average. In June the team called for 16 named storms, nine hurricanes and five major hurricanes. The season produced 19 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com
Posted by Benji Riggins on March 10, 2012 under Insurance News |
A cash-strapped businessman torches his home then massacres five people to keep witnesses from testifying. A cop shoots himself to steal workers’ comp money. Two scammers stuff a coffin with a mannequin and cow parts to invent a dead person for a million-dollar life-insurance payout.
These are among the extreme schemers elected to the Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame sponsored by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
The Hall of Shame annually dishonors the year’s most brazen, vicious or plain klutzy convicted insurance criminals. The Hall of Shame helps brand insurance fraud as a socially offensive crime by detailing true-life cases, and the damage caused by these masters of disaster.
Witness the No-Class of 2011:
Executed scheme. Dogged by debt, William Craig Miller burned down his fancy Scarsdale, Ariz. house for an insurance payday. Miller then executed two witnesses in their home. He also gunned down three kids in the home to keep them quiet. Some were shot at point plank, including a 10-year-old boy. Miller received the death penalty.
Daffy diamond heist. Financially strapped diamond merchants Atul Shah & Haveer Kankariya staged a dopey $9-million diamond heist for insurance money. They hired two thugs to dress as Hassidic Jews in beards and black-brimmed hats, then pretend to rob their Manhattan business. But the merchants’ own security cameras recorded them removing the diamonds themselves. The merchants both received up to four years in prison.
Policing fraud. Los Angeles cop Jeff Stenroos said a man shot him in his protective vest. Hundreds of police were diverted to hunt for the phantom shooter. Thousands of kids were locked in their schools for hours without food, water or toilets. Traffic was snarled. Stenroos had faked a painful injury to score paid time off via his workers comp policy. He received four years in jail.
Explosive con. Stuck with a decaying home they couldn’t sell Victor & Olga Barriere hired Thomas Trucios to burn down the Long Beach, Calif. place. But Trucios was an amateur who used too much gasoline. The toxic brew exploded. Flames engulfed Trucios, blew up the house and carved large cracks in the sidewalk. Trucios died from third-degree burns. Victor received 14 years and Olga six years.
Stormy scheme. Lori Sergiacomi was popular Providence, R.I. deejay called “Tanya Cruise,” Sergiacomi had two corrupt politicos bang up her home roof, pool and interior to look like storm damage so insurance would pay for her home remodeling. A crooked adjuster helped grease the claim. But just her luck, one politico spilled the entire scheme while being wiretapped in yet another corruption con. Sergiacomi received four months in a halfway house. Her cronies received varied sentences.
Cow parts & mannequins. Jean Crump and Faye Shilling took out life insurance on Jim Davis, a fake person they invented. “Davis” later died of a heart attack, the Los Angeles duo said. Crump and Shilling staged his funeral, with fake mourners and a burial. Then they dug up the empty coffin when the life insurer got nosey. They filled it with the mannequin and cow parts to fool workers lugging the box to the crematorium to erase the evidence. Crump awaits sentencing, and Shilling received two years in federal prison.
Bad medicine. Armen Karazianis headed an Armenian-American gang that bilked Medicare out of $163 million in one of the largest Medicare scams ever by one criminal gang. The Los Angeles-area man set up 118 fake medical clinics in 25 states, and stole the identities of doctors and Medicare beneficiaries. Karazianis also recruited Medicare patients for bogus treatments, and staged crashes for false injury claims. Karazianis received three years in federal prison.
Blind to honesty. Kevin Pushia was a Baltimore pastor who befriended a blind, developmentally disabled man named Lemuel Wallace. Pushia secretly took out $1.4 million of life insurance on Wallace, then had him shot in a park bathroom. Pushia even stole $50,000 from his own church to pay the hitmen. He also tellingly scrawled “L.W. project completed” in his datebook. Pushia earned life in prison.
Fake FBI agent. Bridget Buckner told her employer that her child and husband died suddenly just months apart, the Chicago woman said. She collected $25,000 in life coverage. Her husband was an FBI agent shot in his lung while on duty, she said. Poor guy died awaiting surgery. But the fraud investigator himself was a retired FBI agent who would’ve heard about the death. Buckner’s innocent hubby wasn’t an agent, and her daughter had died several years prior. A spooked Buckner disappeared but was hauled back for a 10-year jail term.
Tags: auto ins, automobile ins, car ins, home ins, homeowner ins, homeowners ins, house ins, ins fraud, insurance agency, insurance agent, insurance fraud, vehicle ins
Posted by Benji Riggins on March 5, 2012 under Insurance News |
It’s long been said that “dog is man’s best friend,” and many people feel that way about their family pets. They are so attached to their pets, in fact, that they frequently take them along with them in the car—and it’s not just a ride to the vet. They’re taking dogs to dog parks, day care and even play dates with other dogs. This is all well and good, until one thinks about the distraction that having a dog in the car brings.
A survey of drivers who travel with their dogs showed that drivers admit to petting their dogs; using hands or arms to hold dogs in place while braking; using hands to keep dogs from climbing into the front seat; allowing dogs to sit on their lap; and feeding dogs treats while driving.
In addition to the driving distraction that Bowzer presents when he is a passenger in the car is the safety hazard. In an accident, Bowzer becomes a flying missile, injuring himself and others as he bounces around the car. In an abrupt stop, Bowzer will keep moving at the speed the car was traveling. Take a 40-pound dog moving at 60 miles an hour, and the physics of the situation get ugly. The driver, passengers and Bowzer may all be injured.
Remember that as far as insurance is concerned, Bowzer is personal property, so the Auto policy med pay doesn’t cover injuries to Bowzer, and the Homeowner’s policy doesn’t cover animals. Some carriers are now offering coverage for animals traveling in cars. One carrier’s limit is $2,000; however, if you’ve ever taken an animal to an emergency vet, you know that $2,000 may not be enough to treat all of Bowzer’s injuries.
But all is not lost. A visit to most pet stores will provide you with a safety harness for your furry friend. While there aren’t any laws that Bowzer must be buckled up, if you buckle up yourself and your family, you may as well buckle up Bowzer.
About the Author
Christine G. Barlow
Christine G. Barlow is an associate editor with FC&S Online. She has an extensive background in insurance underwriting. She may be reached at cbarlow@sbmedia.com.
