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Business Insurance's annual guide to alternative risk financing facilities is presented. The guide lists 87 alternative risk financing facilities that wrote a combined premium of $2.59 billion for over 17,000 policyholders in 1992. The 87 facilities had assets of $11.86 billion and policyholder capital and surplus of $6.38 billion at the end of 1992. Individual listings include the facility's name, address and telephone number and a point-of contact. The listings contain information on the risks covered by the firm and policy limits and includes company information on premium volume, assets and the number of policyholders.

Insurance industry executives report that premium rate hikes for property insurance are sticking and that the casualty insurance market is very competitive. The boost in property insurance rates is being attributed to higher rates for catastrophe reinsurance in light of such major natural disasters as Hurricane Andrew. In addition to the property market involving catastrophe exposures, market segments that have seen large increases include aviation, oil and petrochemicals and financial lines.

The market in pollution liability insurance is expanding as large insurance companies offering broad-based environmental liability coverage continue to enter the market. Zurich American Insurance Group is the latest large insurer to enter the pollution liability market. The two major insurers that are already in the market, American International Group Inc and Reliance Group Holdings Inc, are expanding their coverage, increasing limits, and marketing products overseas. United Coastal Insurance, a small insurer, also has expanded its pollution liability coverage.

The market in pollution liability insurance has become stronger as prices have stabilized and businesses become more cognizant of the need for environmental liability coverage. New governmental regulations, stricter lending requirements, and new contractual provisions have fueled the market for pollution liability insurance. The new legal environment has created a market for niche products. Firms offering niche products for sudden and gradual pollution claims include ERIC Group Inc, Environmental Insurance Services Inc, and Environmental Warranty Inc.

California Proposition 166 would require employers to provide health care benefits to employees and their dependents for any employee that works a minimum of 17.5 hours a week or 70 hours a month. The requirements would affect all firms employing 25 or more employees. Proposition 166 is being sponsored by the California Medical Association and is being opposed by a coalition of health insurance companies, business, labor unions, and California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. Opponents of Proposition 166 claim that it will cause a net loss of 375,000 jobs and fault it for not containing effective cost controls.

A survey by Interstudy found that open-ended health maintenance organization sign-up growth has slackened but it still surpasses increases in traditional health maintenance organization sign-ups. Enrollment figures for Jan 1991 to Jan 1992 found open-ended health maintenance organization membership rose from 1.2 to 1.5 million people, an increase of almost 25%. Enrollment figures for Jan 1990 to Jan 1991 found organization membership rose from 858,000 to 1.2 million, an increase of 39.5%. Enrollment figures for traditional health maintenance organizations from Jan 1991 to Jan 1992 rose to 36.1 million from 34.1 million, an increase of only 5.9%.

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Struggling with lean budgets, many employers are delaying consulting projects unless legally required work can't be performed in-house or potential short-term savings outweigh the costs, benefit managers [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Data and communications are two major weapons that employers and health care administrators are deploying to hold down workers compensation prescription drug costs, while the Food and [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ When states began placing limits on physician dispensing of drugs to injured workers in 2007, that squeezed the health care balloon, creating another problem: More physicians are [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ States are taking steps to rein in the repackaging of drugs by doctors who are dispensing them to injured workers at higher costs than pharmacies charge. By [...]

Byline: Louise Kertesz Urine testing at Veolia ES Technical Solutions, a hazardous waste management company, follows the stringent protocols of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Employers offering 'mini-med' plans are examining their options for when the low-cost plans no longer meet federal health care reform law requirements. Several million employees and their [...]

Byline: Louise Kertesz Designs are being developed to provide affordable coverage for employees now enrolled in mini-med health care plans. 'We're working on alternative designs' for the 20,000 to 35,000 [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Layoffs during the recession have resulted in a shortage of qualified workers in specialized areas of construction in certain geographic areas, and the problem will likely worsen [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Even before the term strategic risk management was coined, Frank Fiorille said he had always taken a strategic view of risk management. 'I've been doing risk management [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Whatever the new labels for risk management, the basics still apply at Genentech Inc. 'If you ask 10 people to define what (strategic risk management and enterprise [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ 'The least expensive claim is the one that doesn't happen,' says Joyce Long, global workforce strategies practice leader for Marsh Risk Consulting in St. Louis. And a [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Employers struggling to contain health care costs have found little success with methods based on cost-shifting. Experts say it appears benefit designs encouraging employee consumerism and accountability [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Employers are turning to alternative financing strategies as they face the loss of a federal tax deduction in 2013 for a subsidy they receive for providing drug [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ To motivate its workforce to engage in their new consumer-driven health plan, Vail Resorts Management Co., a mountain resort company based in Denver, highlighted its self-funded status [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ When deciding to self-fund, an employer needs to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using an insurer vs. an independent third-party administrator to manage its benefit plan. [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ With large insurers acquiring third-party administrators and other consolidations in the TPA industry, some sources say they believe smaller TPAs' days are numbered. Others say the talk [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Manufacturers in the consumer products and food industries are facing increased liability claims and product recalls as a result of new laws and growing consumer awareness of [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ American manufacturers buying products from Chinese suppliers are taking steps to protect themselves from product liability claims and ensure the quality and safety of their goods. In [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ Although beauty salons and mortuaries have drawn the most citations and fines for violating the federal exposure standard for formaldehyde among smaller companies, employer awareness of the [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ The Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard that protects workers exposed to formaldehyde applies 'to all occupational exposures to formaldehyde from formaldehyde gas, its solutions and materials [...]

Byline: Louise Kertesz Fundamental obstacles keep nonnative English speakers from investing in 401(k) plans, say experts who work with midsize employers. 'Spanish speakers who spent their formative years in Latin [...]

Univar Corp Risk Manager Leslie L. Seabrook lives and works in Millersville, MD, some 3,000 miles away from her Seattle-based employer. She is connected to Univar through telecommuting technology. Seabrook became Univar's first risk manager in 1991, when she worked in Seattle; previously, all insurance purchases had been done through a senior manager. Seabrook takes a very active role in managing risk and insurance claims for Univar and its 106 locations. Seabrook was retained as risk manager after she relocated with her husband to the Washington, DC-area.

The 1994 Northridge, California Earthquake had different effects on Great Western Bank and Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. Great Western Bank did not carry business interruption insurance, but suffered minimal business interruption. In contrast, the heavily insured Carter Hawley suffered damages in excess of $60 million, as some of its stores suffered extensive structural damage. The store chains' losses were mitigated by extensive planning and a well thought-out insurance program.

The California Workers' Compensation Institute reported that workers' compensation reform regulations have been finalized. The workers' compensation division in California administrative director Casey Young said that a first draft was done quickly to get the revision underway as soon as possible. He also said that many changes were made to the final document, including raising vocational rehabilitation caps to $4,500 and increasing job evaluation costs to $1,200.

Byline: Louise Kertesz Despite the weak economy, which has hit the construction industry particularly hard, large builders say they are still finding opportunities. 'Our clients for the most part have [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ The recession and weak economy hammered the construction industry across all segments, with the sharpest blows hitting builders that specialize in private residential construction, and subcontractors and [...]

Byline: LOUISE KERTESZ To minimize employee confusion from the bombardment of health care reform law news, and because details are still evolving, some employers are communicating only imminent changes in [...]

Health care premium costs will only increase about 5% or 6% in 1994, due to the spread of managed care plans and the anticipation of government health care reform. Health care inflation will be at its lowest point since 1987, due to such factors as more focus on controlling health care costs, competitive pricing and declining inflation. In addition, industry concerns about more government price controls have discouraged providers from raising prices.

The implementation of California's workers' compensation reform could come as early as Jan 1, 1994, and some workers' comp system players believe that the tight schedule may not give regulators enough time to develop a good system. The $11 billion state system is developing regulations on such major issues as medical-legal reviews, and vocational rehabilitation cost limits. The reforms are expected to save $1.5 billion annually.

Insurance brokers and providers of pollution liability insurance claim that pollution coverage is a buyer's market. As the market has grown and matured, underwriters have developed greater facility in tailoring and marketing pollution liability insurance policies. Policies are now more adaptive and creative, and buyer's can find new types of coverage, higher limits and more competitive pricing. However, despite the maturation of the market, many businesses still self-insure their pollution liability exposure.

The corporate administrators of 401(k) salary-reduction savings plans are finding that the federal government's imposition of a 20% withholding tax on plan distributions has not created any significant additional administrative burden. The federal government requires that distributions be taxed unless the plan participant rolls over the distribution into an IRA or other business-based defined contribution plan. Under federal law, businesses must inform plan participants about their distribution options and about any penalties they face.

California Gov Pete Wilson signed into law legislation that reforms the state's $11 billion workers' compensation system. The reforms are expected to decrease workers' comp costs by $1.5 billion while increasing benefits paid to workers by $747 million. The legislation cuts costs by putting a cap on vocational benefits, tightening the standards for stress claims and restricting the use of medical-legal reports. The legislation was supported by employer groups.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued proposed regulations for chemical substitutes for halon in a new report, The Significant New Alternatives Policy Program (SNAP). Halon, which is widely used in fire-suppressants, is being gradually phased out of the marketplace because it damages the ozone lawyer. The SNAP report contains regulations on approved and non-approved halon-alternatives, with the approved halon-substitutes all having very low or negligible levels of ozone-depleting chemical formulations.

The National Committee on Property Insurance (NCPI) is at the forefront of the property/casualty insurance industry's move to create a grading system for property risks related to municipal building codes. By the year 1995, the NCPI hopes to have grades for all communities in the US. The grades will be related to how well communities enforce their building codes and will be used by property/casualty insurers to set rates. The move towards a national grading system has been underscored by recent natural disasters which have shown that much damage was the result of inadequate building codes.

The state of Hawaii surpassed Colorado to become the second-largest domestic domicile for captive insurance companies in 1992. Hawaii added seven new captives in 1992 to bring the number of captives domiciled in the state to 28. In 1993, one new captive already has been licensed and another application is being considered. The premium volume of Hawaii-based captives increased from $69.7 million in 1991 to $82.9 million in 1992. Major captive managers include Becher and Carlson Risk Management Inc, Johnson and Higgins Services Inc, and Sedgwick James Management Co.