Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’

Allstate Requests Rate Hike on Louisiana Homeowners Policies

January 25th, 2012 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance, hurricane insurance, rate watch

Allstate Corp., the second-largest home insurer in Louisiana, has asked for an insurance rate increase for 144,000 homeowners who get their coverage from two of the corporations local subsidiaries.

According to the Louisiana state insurance department, Allstate wants an average increase of 5.9 percent for 73,000 homeowners with policies from Allstate Indemnity Co, and an 11.3 percent rate increase for 71,000 homeowners with coverage from Allstate Insurance Co. Added together, these rate hikes represent $17 million.

If Jim Donelon, the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner, approves the rate increases, they would go into effect with new and renewal policies effective March 1st.

Allison Hatcher, speaking on behalf of Allstate, explained that this rate increase is meant to cover the corporations cost of reinsurance, which is basically the coverage that Allstate takes from other companies in order to help cover damages caused by catastrophic events like hurricanes and floods. Such reinsurance charges are usually built into homeowner’s policy premiums, and are generally higher for homeowners in coastal areas.

Allstate’s last rate increase in Louisiana was in August, 2010, when the higher rates ranged from 2.9 percent to 11.6 percent depending on the specific Allstate branch writing the coverage.

State Farm, the state’s largest insurer of private homes, has already asked for and received a rate hike of it’s own this year.

Commissioner Donelon has 30-45 days to consider Allstate’s request before making his decision.

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News Brief: LA Parish Gets Flood Insurance Break

June 13th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in flood insurance

It’s often said that improving property can help save money on insurance, but it’s rare that doing so saves money for an entire neighborhood, and yet, in a sense, that’s exactly what’s happening in Louisiana.

Residents of an unincorporated part of the state, St. Tammany Parish, are going to receive a decrease of $1.9 million in premiums for federal flood insurance, and it’s because the parish’s flood rating has been improved, which translates into an average drop in premiums of 10%.

How did this happen? Well, according to Parish president Kevin Davis, the community has been working very hard on various flood prevention projects.

At the end of the first quarter of this year, there were 35,720 flood insurance policies in place in St. Tammany Parish, at a cost of about $19.7 million a year to the residents.

So far, the federal flood insurance program (NFIP) has paid almost $1 billion in claims there.

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Louisiana Says No to Insurance Exchanges

March 29th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in alternative health plans, health care reform, health insurance

Governor Bobby Jindal and the state legislature in Louisiana have decided to opt out of the creation of a state insurance exchange as outlined in the federal health insurance overhaul, choosing to let the federal government administer the program.

Bruce Greenstein, Secretary of the State Department of Health and Hospitals, has confirmed this decision, and said that with it, Lousiana has become the second state to so decide.

The exchanges are insurance markets meant to allow consumers to choose a subsidized private insurance plan from a range of coverage options and levels. The deadline to have them all up and running, whether they’re run by the states or by the feds, is 2014.

Greenstein believes that federal officials haven’t provided enough detail about how the exchanges should be run. He also said he thinks insurance premiums will go up under the new system, and if that happens he doesn’t want the state government to take the blame.

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New Orleans: Housing Stock Down 13%

September 15th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in flood insurance, homeowners insurance, insurance news

5 years post-Katrina, and several months after the BP oil spill, the city of New Orleans is still in recovery, but still has other problems. One of them is housing.

According to a report in the Insurance Journal the New Orleans metropolitan area has suffered a 13% decrease in available housing since the hurricane five years ago. The survey results were released on Monday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which also found that cost of housing in the Crescent City had increased by roughly 33%, from $662/month in 2004 to $882/month last year.

According to HUD, the 2009 survey is the most comprehensive such analysis of the area’s housing stock in the last five years.

The results also showed that eight of the parishes in the greater New Orleans area have lost about 75,000 housing units since Hurricane Katrina, and that there are about 72,500 housing units currently vacant.

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Louisiana Insurance Department Targets Health Insurance Scammers

August 12th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance, insurance fraud, insurance news

Stories about insurance fraud abound in the auto insurance industry, but investigators in the Louisiana Department of Insurance Fraud Section have now served the American Trade Association, along with its thirteen companion companies and fourteen employees with “cease and desist” orders for selling fraudulently marketed “medical discount plans” as health insurance plans in the state of Louisiana.

The named companies, entities and individuals were ordered to cease and desist from all unauthorized insurance business, including delivering, issuing, mailing, offering, or soliciting any resident of Louisiana any kind of certificate, coverage, plan, policy, or “any other contract” which claims to provide insurance benefits or medical discounts for health benefits.

In addition to receiving C&D orders, the named people and companies were directed to provide a complete list of all Louisiana businesses or residents that had purchased any products from them, and report all premiums that were received in connection with those customers. In addition, they were required to notify any of the affected Louisiana consumers of the C&D order, and issue immediate refunds of any monies or premiums held in behalf of those consumers.

Along with the Louisiana Department of Insurance, the same scammers have had lawsuits and/or regulatory actions filed against them by the Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement agencies in 23 other states.

The FTC alone has filed three different lawsuits targeting fraudulent medical discount plans, and Attorneys General and Insurance Commissioners around the country have brought numerous actions to stop the scammers. Included among these lawsuits and actions are those addressing sham insurance, as well as illegal automated phone calls, fax blasting, and licensing violations.

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LA Governor Signs Chinese Drywall Bill

July 12th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in homeowners insurance

Earlier today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law the bill which will prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage of homeowners who have found corrosive Chinese drywall in their homes.

The new law, which was sponsored (as a bill) by Senator Julie Quinn of Metairie, will prohibit insurers from canceling or refusing renewals on policies for homes because of Chinese-made drywall which has been blamed for health concerns and corrosion, though insurers will NOT be prevented from raising relevant deductibles or premiums.

This new law only applies to drywall that was imported from or manufactured in China before Dec. 31, 2009. Insurers found to be in violation will face a penalty of up to $15,000.

The law remains in effect until July 1, 2013.

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Louisiana Officials Concerned About Health of BP Clean-Up Workers

June 7th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance, medical insurance

Environmental and health officials in Louisiana are requesting that federal safety officials take steps to protect the health of those who are helping with the clean-up of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Insurance Journal reports.

Alan Levine, Health and Hospitals Secretary, and Peggy Hatch, Environmental Quality Secretary, say that daily reports of illness and injuries have them concerned that clean-up workers aren’t getting proper protection. They are worried enough that they’ve asked OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to investigate.

“Reports of injuries and illness among workers hired by British Petroleum and its subcontractors are steadily increasing,” said the letter signed by Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine and Environmental Quality Secretary Peggy Hatch. They continued, “We also are receiving daily reports of other injuries and illnesses that have us concerned that proper protections are not being taken and protocols followed,” but did not provide further details.

BP may bring 3,000 more clean-up workers to their state, the secretaries say, and they want to ensure that every one of them receives the necessary training, supplies, and protective equipment.

In Louisiana hospitals, doctors have reported that some of the workers are seeking treatment for respiratory issues, headaches and nausea. (An unspoken concern is the massive amount of paperwork for health insurance claims.)

The letter to OSHA also said that the Department of Health and Hospitals has begun “an aggressive surveillance and monitoring system to catalog worker-related illnesses and exposure complaints.” It asked for a list of worker complaints made to OSHA and the federal agency’s findings.

Last Friday, June 4th, Gov. Bobby Jindal signed an order to let out-of-state paramedics help with emergency care for oil cleanup workers.

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