AAIS has scheduled two web seminars where AAIS
companies can learn more about complying with a new federal mandate for
reporting certain liability claims.
Under Section 111 of the 2007 Medicare, Medicaid,
and SCHIP Extension Act, liability insurers and other entities are
required to report all payments made for bodily injury and "med pay"
claims to persons enrolled in Medicare.
AAIS has arranged for two providers of Section 111
consulting and solutions to make presentations for AAIS companies. The two seminars are
scheduled for:
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Thursday, May 21, 2:30 p.m. Central time
(3:30 p.m. Eastern), with specialists from Perr & Knight, a Los
Angles-based business services firm that specializes in insurance
compliance; and
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Tuesday, May 26, 1 p.m. Central time (2
p.m. Eastern), with specialists from Crowe Paradis, a
Massachusetts-based firm that describes itself as "the fastest
growing Social Security and Medicare benefit advocacy firm in the
United States."
AAIS member companies will receive information by
e-mail about registering for the web seminars. Participation will be
free of charge.
In relation to Section 111 reporting, the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that the
deadline for insurers to register with the CMS Coordination of Benefits
Service has been extended until Sept. 30, 2009.
That date supersedes a date included in a bulletin
released to AAIS affiliates earlier this week; that
bulletin has been
modified to reflect the new date.
AAIS programs affected by the liability claim
reporting mandate are:
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Personal Lines: Boatowners, Dwelling
Properties (Landlord's Package only), Homeowners, Mobile-Homeowners,
Personal & Premises Liability, and Personal Umbrella
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Commercial Lines: Artisans,
Businessowners, Commercial Liability, and Commercial Umbrella
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Farm & Ag Lines: Agricultural General
Liability, Farmowners, and Farm Umbrella
For more information on Section 111 reporting, go to
the CMS website.
AAIS has initiated a countrywide filing of five new
classes under its Personal Inland Marine Program.
The filings consist of new base forms, endorsements,
manual rules, and loss cost rating information for Golf Carts, Grounds
Care Vehicles, Mobility Assistance Vehicles, Snowmobiles, and Boats and
Outboard Motors. (The last class will supplant the Outboard Motorboats
class currently on file in five states.)
The base forms for each class provide open perils coverage for covered
property indicated on the policy declarations, plus trailers for hauling
the property. Coverage extensions are provided for insuring loss to
detachable equipment related to the operation of the covered property,
as well as for newly acquired and non-owned property.
While collision is an excluded cause of loss in the vehicle base forms,
collision coverage is available as an option by selecting it on the
declarations. Collision coverage is built into the base form for boats
and motors, as is customary in the marine market.
For four of the five classes (excepting mobility assistance vehicles) endorsements are available for adding
coverage for medical payments and property damage liability.
The filings carry a proposed effective date of Feb.
1, 2010. More details are
available in a press release.
For information on affiliating with AAIS for use of
its Personal Inland Marine Program, contact Rick Maka, AAIS director of
marketing, at rickm@AAISonline.com,
or by calling 800-564-AAIS, ext. 222.
First Internet Solutions,
Sheboygan Fall, Wis., is offering AAIS member
companies a discount on its web-based "Equip®"
product suite.
Equip®
includes applications for quoting, processing, rating, and
printing, as well as applications for intelligent underwriting, billing,
imaging, and policy and claims inquiries.
For the remainder of 2009, First Internet Solutions
will waive the Equip®
set-up fee for one line of business in one state. For more information,
contact Kathy Schuette at
kschuette@1inetsol.com, or by calling 920-467-1200, ext. 211.
This announcement is one of the benefits First
Internet Solutions has as an associate member of AAIS. Consultants and
vendors interested in associate membership can contact Rick Maka, AAIS
director of marketing, at
rickm@AAISonline.com, or by calling 800-564-AAIS, ext. 222.
Sheila Morris, AAIS manager
of inland marine, has been chosen to receive a
Distinguished Graduate Award from the Insurance
Institute of America, Malvern, Pa.
Morris received the award for being the graduate
with the highest cumulative grade average on examinations leading to the
designation of Associate in Marine Insurance Management (AMIM). Earlier,
Morris had earned the designation of Chartered Property Casualty
Underwriter, and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the
University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
Since 2003, Morris has developed and managed filings
of inland marine programs for AAIS. Previously, she worked at Aon, where
she rose from assistant product manager to assistant vice president for
underwriting.
A
recent
regulation from the Colorado Division of
Insurance, effective June 1, 2009, requires
certain insurers writing homeowners and
personal auto insurance to submit annual rate
filings in those lines. The mandate affects all
domestic (Colorado) carriers and foreign
(out-of-state) carriers who write more than $10
million in premium in the respective lines.
In its "scope and purpose" section, the regulation
states that "annual rate filings . . . are preferred because of the
prospective nature of the information contained in rate filings. . .
.Rate filings are reasonable and necessary means to ensure that current
rates are appropriate and compliant with Colorado statutes and
regulations."
The filings will be considered "file and use," the
regulation adds, and must be submitted electronically along with
detailed support for assumptions behind the rates, side-by-side
comparisons with existing rates, and anticipated loss ratios.
A recent
supplement to a 2008 circular letter from the New York Insurance
Department (reported in an earlier
Advisory) responds to
questions raised about restrictions on cancelling homeowners' coverage
on unoccupied dwellings.
Regarding the distinction between an "unoccupied"
and a "vacant" residence, the supplement states the following:
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" . . . a 'vacant' residence is one that
typically contains no personal property and no inhabitants, whereas
an 'unoccupied' residence is one that, at that moment, is neither in
use nor being lived in. . . non-occupancy alone would likely not
constitute a permissible ground for cancelling the policy. But where
a non-occupancy were to result from the “abandonment” of the
property . . . the insurer would likely be justified in
cancelling the policy . . ."
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". . . non-occupancy is not a tangible
change to the property. Nevertheless, if the non-occupancy leads
to a physical change, such as the deterioration of the
property’s condition, the insurer could conceivably cancel the
policy . . ."
In other comments, the circular states that the
existence of coverage exclusions due to vacancy or non-occupancy do not,
in themselves, affect restrictions on policy cancellation.
Also,
restrictions on cancelling policies for buildings in foreclosure apply
only to pending foreclosure actions, and not to foreclosures that have
been concluded with the insured having lost title to the property.
An
order from the New Jersey Department of
Banking and Insurance directs admitted insurers
to update their plans for continuing operations
in the wake of a disaster.
Among other things, the order requires insurers to
institute liberalized claims handling processes and provide agents with
at least limited check drafting authority following the
declaration of a disaster or catastrophic event.
Among other directives is one requiring insurers to
"implement policies for social distancing, telecommuting, and related
measures as appropriate to minimize the spread of serious illness within
the organization . . . "
Under an arrangement with the Reinsurance
Association of America (RAA), staff from AAIS member companies can
attend reinsurance education programs at RAA member rates.
The 2009
program lineup includes:
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Re Contracts: The Art of Designing Reinsurance Contracts and
Programs, July 14-17;
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Re Underwriting: An Educational Forum for Underwriting
Professionals, July 30;
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Re Claims: Reinsurance Claims Management, September 24-25; and
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Re Finance: The ABCs of Financial Reporting & Analysis for
Property/Casualty Insurers and Reinsurers, October 7-8.
All of
these events are scheduled to be held in New York City.
For information about each program, or to register, go to
www.reinsurance.org/seminars. When registering, choose "member" as
your "registrant type" to get the tuition discount.
