The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill renewing and revising the National Flood Insurance Program this week. If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the program would be authorized for five years, starting October 1 of this year. With the property insurance market in Florida in disarray, the prospect of flood coverage should ease some anxiety.
We’re continuing our discussion of health care billing codes, the alphabet soup that appears on medical bills and health insurance explanation of benefits forms. The average consumer may not know or pay attention to these codes, but these numbers and alphanumeric character strings are key to understanding why the insurer has denied or delayed payment of a claim.
When Dan Brown is done with religious iconography, perhaps he can turn his pen to demystifying the health insurance claims process. It’s hard to imagine Tom Hanks as a world-renown health and insurance law professor called in to help the beautiful and equally learned daughter of an HMO claims adjuster who has mysteriously disappeared, but it is not hard to imagine that there are many in Florida saying, “Better him than me.”
This is the last post in our discussion of concrete barrel tile roofs and hurricane mitigation discounts. The current inspection form does not include these roofs, because there wasn’t enough data about their performance when the form was designed. The upshot for homeowners is denial or revocation of discounts on their insurance policies. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has been talking with policyholders and insurance professionals about this and other problems with the form.
We were talking about the issues with Florida’s current insurance inspection form and mitigation discounts. Both homeowners and insurance professionals are complaining that the form does not allow a discount for concrete barrel tile roofs. The denial or revocation of the discount can mean jumps in homeowners insurance premiums of hundreds of dollars.
We were talking about the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf the other day. Someone suggested it was really a metaphor for homeowners and hurricane insurance coverage in Florida. The pigs are the homeowners, and each used different building materials for their little houses. The wolf represents a category 5 hurricane that the pigs hope their homes will survive.
The hurricane season started June 1, and we were talking about the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outlook for 2011. The NOAA’s storm estimates are likely included in the data property insurance companies use in rate-setting – especially in states like Florida that are right smack in the middle of “hurricane alley.”
The Atlantic Hurricane Season officially kicked off at the beginning of this month. This is the time of year when the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) publishes its predictions for named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes. And this is the time of year when Florida’s property insurance companies focus on the NOAA’s big picture summary instead of the detailed report as they justify their requests for rate increases.
The Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology has approved the RMS U.S. Model Version 11.0. Insurers in the state can now use the model as they calculate rates — and rate increases — for the coming year. This is the same insurance model we discussed last month, and this is the same insurance model that insurance companies have been circling with some apprehension since its national debut.
Florida has certainly seen its share of Unum lawsuits. The insurance company has a national, if not international, reputation for denying long-term disability claims to policyholders for no reason. Complaints specifically cite Unum for randomly denying claims in an effort to reduce the company’s exposure.
