Risk & Insurance articles from May 2004

Risk & Insurance archives from May 2004

From the editor.
May 1, 2004... The president, in an ambitious initiative to put his stamp on the universe, wants to explore the heavens like no president has before him. But who wants to go? Not me, and probably not you either. It's not because the universe isn't...

New comp cost study.(News & Notes)
May 1, 2004... For every $1,000 of revenues, U.S. businesses spend an average of $2.32 on insurance and other measures to manage their workers' compensation, auto and general liability risks, according to a new study by Marsh Inc. On average, workers'...

Court limits recovery.(News & Notes)
May 1, 2004... The Connecticut Supreme Court has determined that when a bystander's emotional distress is the result of witnessing the bodily injury of a third party, the only available recovery would be under the third party's per-person bodily injury limits...

TRIA extension favored.(News & Notes)
May 1, 2004... Eighty percent of the leading commercial property/casualty insurance brokers say the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) should be extended when it expires at the end of 2005, according to a survey released today by The Council of...

Broker to move to new HQ.(News & Notes)
May 1, 2004... Willis Group Holdings has announced it will occupy a new headquarters building in London's insurance district. The high-tech facility, which will be known as the Willis Building, will be located at 51 Lime St., across from the Lloyd's...

Upcoming events.(News & Notes)(Calendar)
May 1, 2004... MAY 23-25 ACORD-LOMA This event will highlight the industry's most important opportunities and issues, including globalization, regulation, knowledge management and outsourcing. More information is available at www....

Quote of the month.
May 1, 2004... "... it is overly optimistic to believe NASA will tackle something relegated to an 'observation' when it has a record of ignoring recommendations."

Workers' comp disparities called 'perverse': at a recent hearing, Postmaster General John Potter illustrated the disparities in the United States Postal Service's workers' comp benefit system.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... Two workers, each age 55, each with 30 years of service at the end of 1993, and each of the same rank end up with very different benefits. One selects optional retirement from the active workforce and the other continues to receive workers'...

Jordans sue over mold at Highland Park home; homeowners with mold problems: you are not alone. Michael Jordan--millionaire athlete, marketer, mansion owner--understands your frustration.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... Jordan and his wife, Juanita, have filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the maker of a "synthetic stucco" system, alleging that it allowed in and trapped moisture that led to extensive rot, mold and other problems at their...

Former CIAB leader calls for immediate reform; influencial voice dismisses state regulators as too slow in a fast changing world.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... A past chairman of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers has told a House subcommittee that Congress needs to remove state regulatory requirements on insurance brokers and carriers in the interest of long-term viability of the industry. ...

Hospitals headed the way of managed care? With hospital costs over the past two years a leading indicator of health care inflation, the employee benefits world has been designing new controls modeled after managed care. But this time around, the benefits world is looking to apply the models to hospitals.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... Some ideas being tested around the nation sound downright esoteric. Experts talk about tiered hospital networks, centers of excellence, physician group tiering, closed networks and hospital report cards. A dominant model has not yet emerged, in...

Jury out on HIPAA and claims: when Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996, the risk management community perceived it as regulating health insurance coverage provided as part of an employee benefits package.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... Few, if any, saw in the new legislation a threat to the ability of loss adjusters to obtain the information needed to settle workers' compensation and third-party liability claims. Those provisions were there nonetheless and lay dormant until...

Worth repeating.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the nation)
May 1, 2004... "Workers comp claims are stressful to everyone... the employee, their families and the state agency that lost an employee but still has to do the same work." Sue Keener, director, Office of Workers' Comp, Virginia Dept. of Human Resource...

RRGs' global hegemony.(Alternative Risk)
May 1, 2004... In the captive world, one do-it-yourself branch of insurance currently making headway is the risk retention group. The technique allows birds of a feather to flock together to take control of and share their liability exposure, but nothing...

Thinking of caps.(The Law)
May 1, 2004... The alarming and ongoing medical malpractice debates have placed the insurance industry and the health care profession squarely front and center. Daily accounts of physicians abandoning their home states because they can't buy malpractice...

Strange bedfellows.(Workers' Comp)
May 1, 2004... This may be a facet of our times, but in the workers' compensation field the mundane and the catastrophic sleep in the same bed. As a regulator turns a page in Harrisburg, Concentra receives a case referral in Charlotte and an underwriter in...

Nowhere to hide.(Benefits)
May 1, 2004... Just as defined benefit retirement plans are beginning to recover from the equities market downturn of a couple of years ago, new accounting rules are challenging employers to disclose more about how and why they invest the way they do. And as...

NASA under siege.(Cover Story)
May 1, 2004... Had the National Aeronautics and Space Administration applied proper risk management guidelines, the destruction of shuttle Columbia last year might have been averted. In an investigation, it was revealed that the risk of flying with damaged...

Three's (grudging) company: for now, incremental change is the only chance for insurance industry reform coming out of Washington. Given the fractious nature of the industry and the archaic laws which govern it, that may end up pleasing no one.(Regulation)
May 1, 2004... The insurance industry, whether it likes it or not, is facing the most far-reaching regulatory reforms since the end of World War II. Globalization, the Internet and vicious internecine competition within the financial services sector, is...

A wallet's wallop: will consumers force the cost of health care down if they have to use more of their own cash to pay for it? That's one of the big questions behind the move toward consumer-directed health plans. But will this strategy prove any more effective than more traditional options?(Benefits)
May 1, 2004... Are consumer-directed health plans, a new favorite among pundits and industry leaders, the answer to spiraling health care costs? Perhaps. Even if they don't turn out to be health care's panacea, they are receiving a great deal of attention. At...

Choppy waters: John Keogh, president and CEO of National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., the nation's leading writer of directors' and officers' liability insurance, calls the D&O market "unpredictable." He sat recently for an interview with Risk & Insurance. Our questions and his answers follow.(D&O)
May 1, 2004... What is National Union's position in the D&O market? We're the largest underwriter of this product line in the country. We're almost exclusively a lead carrier, so we set terms and conditions for everyone else to follow. In the last two...

Keeping a vital practice alive: Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Co. recognized that without a process in place for improving risk selection, the company would continue to struggle in today's economic climate. Given its situation, ILM knew it had to explore risk assessment technology solutions.(Technology)
May 1, 2004... An inconsistent investment environment and changing loss patterns have forced insurance carriers to focus on the foundation of their businesses: underwriting. According to A.M. Best, only a small percentage of insurers have managed to keep...

A time to lead: the next frontier for PRIMA and its new president, Cindy Davis, will be educating some of the organization's newer members who have joined since Sept. 11. They include small towns, municipalities and other public entities that don't have full-time risk managers.(Special report: public risk)
May 1, 2004... Let's face it: scandals make for good headlines; following risk management policies and procedures just don't. Ask Cindy Davis, the new president of PRIMA, the Public Risk Management Association. She would know, she's also director of...

Crossing their fingers: whatever price the marketplace will dictate this time around, risk managers Craig Smith and Nancy L. Chambers feel they've done their duty in their fight to keep the impact on taxpayers to a minimum.(Special Report)
May 1, 2004... The last time Craig Smith of the Waterloo Region Municipalities Insurance Pool in Ontario, Canada, went to renew his municipal insurance, market forces were working in his favor. This time, it's a very different story. Smith and Chambers...

'Work as therapy': Sue S. Keener, workers' compensation guru, prevents employees from turning "soft and squishy.".(Special Report)
May 1, 2004... Using three decades of risk management skills and the caring attitude that made her once yearn for a career in psychology, Sue S. Keener has helped Virginia save more than $43 million on its workers' compensation costs over the past five years....

Flying high: thanks to Boeing's job modification initiative, the company now enjoys a tenfold return on its injury reduction investments. It's also enjoying big boosts in productivity and employee-employer relations.(Industry risk report: aerospace-defense)
May 1, 2004... Like other manufacturing companies that came of age in the middle of the last century, the Boeing Corp. didn't consider human factors when designing its plants in the Pacific Northwest. The emphasis, quite understandably for the times, was on...

Risk management & benefits consultants buyer's guide.(Directory)
May 1, 2004... DIRECTORY RISK MANAGEMENT & BENEFITS CONSULTANTS BUYERS' GUIDE Below is a guide to risk management & benefits consulting services. This list is not intended to be a complete directory but is an overview of some of the services...

Agents & brokers at odds: implement a federal charter now; a federal charter is "essential" to the insurance industry, say the brokerage community's big guns.(Point: Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers)
May 1, 2004... I believe that it is critical to the long-term viability of the U.S. insurance industry that Congress pass legislation creating an optional federal charter for insurers. Broader reforms to the insurance regulatory system are necessary to...

Agents & brokers at odds: a federal charter goes too far; fix state insurance regulations and we'll all be better off, a coalition of independent brokers claims.(Counterpoint: Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America)
May 1, 2004... Enactment of financial services modernization, coupled with continuing frustration over the lack of insurance regulatory reform, has sparked new interest in insurance regulation reform. Three options have evolved for achieving reform: work...