Posts Tagged ‘underwriting’

Cavalcade of Risk #123 and assorted news notes from the blogosphere

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Get your biweekly fix of risk: Cavalcade of Risk #123: High-Yield Edition is now posted at The Notwithstanding Blog. There’s an eclectic roundup of posts and you might take the time to visit the host blog too – our blogger is a Canadian med student studying here in the U.S., and posts “tales from medical school, health policy analysis, critiques of the academic medical zeitgeist, and the occasional bonus Canadiana.”
Misclassification in Maine – analysts in the Maine Labor Department estimate that tax losses to the state resulting from misclassification could be as high as $36 million a year. As in many other states, lawmakers had been looking at establishing guidelines and rules for independent contractors. Newly elected Governor Paul LePage abolished the state’s misclassification task force that had been working on this initiative, stating that he would be introducing legislation based on the federal definition.
Union Demographics – Jeffrey Hirsch of Workplace Prof Blog gives us the latest report on union density for 2010: “Overall union density went down from 12.3% to 11.9%; in the private sector, union density went down from 7.2% to 6.9%, and in the public sector, it went from 37.4% to 36.2%.” See more detail at his post.
Vote for Workers’ Comp Notable People – Lexis Nexis announced the finalists in its Workers’ Comp Notable People 2010 – check it out and vote for your favorites. Voters can select two individuals from each of the three categories. The voting period runs from January 23, 2011 through February 4, 2011. Click here to join and vote in the LinkedIn Work Comp Analysis Group.
Food industryWorkersCompensation.com features an in-depth federal report on Injuries, Illnesses, And Fatalities In Food Manufacturing In 2008, which notes that “Workers in food manufacturing are more likely to be fatally injured and experience nonfatal injuries and illnesses than workers in private industry as a whole. Food manufacturing workers are also much more likely to suffer an injury requiring job transfer or restriction than one that requires days away from work.”
Underwriters – After reading an article on disappearing jobs, Jared Wade of Risk Management Monitor considers whether insurance underwriters are an endangered species now that technology can crunch the numbers.
Sign of changing times? – Roberto Ceniceros discusses how some of the large carriers are letting business walk rather than price it too low. With the combined ratio moving up, many industry analysts have stated that underwriting will make the difference between profit and loss and it appears that some insurers are taking heed.
Technology – Some workers comp insurers are adopting self-reporting options for payroll reporting for employers.
Quick takes

Health Wonk Review and a news roundup

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

It’s deja vu all over again at Managed Care Matters, where Joe Paduda hosts commentary on the rematch of the healthcare reform debate in this week’s Health Wonk Review: Repeal, replace, renew, revise, revisit – what the bloggers say. It’s a great issue with good contributions and diverse opinions on the matter. Check it out!
The skinny on fat – As a follow-on to my colleague’s post on the not-so-hidden-cost of obesity earlier in the week, we offer this visualization – the obesity map from the CDC, which shows the dramatic rise in obesity rates from 1985 through 2009. You can also see a state-by-state breakdown of obesity rates.
Underwriting front and center – Dan Reynolds of Risk & Insurance does a great job of outlining just how much of an underwriter’s nightmare workers comp has become and looking at how much worse it could get – and why. Chad Hemenway of PropertyCasualty360 (formerly known as National Underwriter) reports on a recent presentation by Insurance Information Institute’s Bob Hartwig who says that the industry is at a tipping point, and underwriting will be the driving force in profit or loss for 2011.
Horseplay ruling At Business Insurance, Roberto Ceniceros reports on a recent Virginia high court ruling which allocated benefits to a worker injured during horseplay. The injured employee was a victim, not the perpetrator, of the horseplay. “The state high court also relied on a theory of recovery, which has found that joking actions of co-workers are a risk of employment because humans are playful and from time to time engage in pranks, which can be dangerous.”
Aging & Workers CompWorking Safer or Just Working Longer? – new study by California’s Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation. The report contains a lot of interesting information and notes that “Interestingly, despite the large increases in the fraction of workers 55+, the impact of the aging workforce on expected workers’ compensation costs is modest. Frequency and duration effects partially offset each other and older workers still represent a minority of all workers. The aging workforce will increase workers’ compensation costs only about 2% as of 2030 above the cost if the distribution of workers by age had remained the same as 2000.”
And about those seniors… – Jon Gelman posts about a push to put a cap on workers comp for federal workers based on age. According to Senator Susan Collins, “At the U.S. Postal Service, for example, 1,000 employees currently receiving federal workers’ compensation benefits are 80 years or older. Incredibly, 132 of these individuals are 90 and older and there are three who are 98.” Gelman’s post includes links to states and counties who are also looking at this issue.
OSHAOSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violations for 2010 – In 2010 OSHA issued over 94,000 safety-related citations for violations. OSHA stated that nearly half of the total violations were accounted for by the top 10 safety violations.