Cambridge, MA — Few workers receive chiropractic care for low back pain in states where employers or insurers control the selection of medical providers, a recent study of workers’ compensation data shows.

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Self Insurers’ Association opened registration for their Workers’ Compensation and Safety Conference scheduled for Oct. 9 in Lisle. The conference will feature a case law…

Room 29, Parliament Buildings

PwC hosted over 400 reinsurance executives across three events at the annual Rendez-Vous de Septembre [RVS] in Monte Carlo this week. A spokesperson said, “Key themes at this year’s RVS – the largest international gathering in the industry – were the ongoing hard market, improved resiliency of reinsurers, AI and concerns around increasing climate-related risks.” […]

Recent reports of misleading comments in response to consumer questions prompt bulletin re-issuance The Delaware Department of Insurance has been made aware of recent misrepresentations related to the basis for premium changes in consumer-facing communications. In response, the department is reminding agents, producers, and insurers of their obligations to provide full explanations of rate changes […]

Here on Drug Channels, we have long highlighted the boom in provider-administered biosimilars. In contrast to the pharmacy market, adoption of these biosimilars is growing, prices are dropping, and formulary barriers continue to fall.

Novel transparency information reveals that this good news doesn’t always translate into savings. Below, we rely on a unique data set from Turquoise Health to examine how much four national commercial health plans—Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare—paid hospitals for Avastin and its two most significant biosimilar competitors.

As we demonstrate, health plans pay hospitals far above acquisition costs for biosimilars. What’s more, plans can pay hospitals more for a biosimilar than for the higher-cost reference product. The U.S. drug channel system is warping hospitals’ incentives to adopt biosimilars, while simultaneously raising costs for commercial plans.

The namesake of my alma mater once said: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” What would happen if we disinfected the entire channel?
Read more »

Hong Kong's Legislative Council has passed a bill to reduce the profits tax for certain insurance businesses.

Hong Kong's Legislative Council has passed a bill to reduce the profits tax for certain insurance businesses.

A total of 33 prominent companies providing medlinkhealth insurance/medlink in India have become members of the NHCX, which stands for National Health Claims Exchange.

According to a new RAND Corporation report, during 2020, prices paid to hospitals by employers and private insurers for inpatient and outpatient services

Cyber risk, political interference, and macro-economic volatility rank among the top sources of anxiety for Australian insurers, according to a joint PwC and Centre for Financial Innovation (CSFI) report released today.

Life insurance companies reported a 13.16 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in new business premium (NBP), totting up Rs 30,347 crore in October, even as the number of policies sold saw a sharp decline. The growth was largely driven by strong performance from private sector life insurers.

The current low interest rate environment poses a significant risk for the long-term financial viability of pension funds and insurance companies, as they seek to generate sufficient returns to meet promises, according to a new OECD report.

The current low interest rate environment poses a significant risk for the long-term financial viability of pension funds and insurance companies, as they seek to generate sufficient returns to meet promises, according to a new OECD report.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, said the federal government must pay health insurers $12 billion under a provision of the Affordable Care Act.; Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP

Nina Totenberg | NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court has told the federal government that it has to pay $12 billion to insurance companies, money that was promised in the Affordable Care Act as part of the start-up costs of Obamacare in the first three years of its existence.

The law, as enacted, promised to limit profits and losses for insurance companies in the first three years of the Obamacare program. Some companies made more money than allowed by the formula, and had to pay some back to the government, and other companies lost money and were owed money by the government under the formula.

But in 2014, the first year that the ACA's plan was in place, the Republican-controlled Congress reneged on the promise to appropriate money for the companies that had lost money. It did the same for the next two years as well, adding to appropriation bills a rider that barred the government from fulfilling the promise in the statute. After President Trump was elected, his administration supported the GOP-led refusal to pay.

The insurance companies sued, and on Monday the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has to pay up.

The vote was 8-to-1, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing for the majority that the decision reflects a principle "as old as the nation itself. The government should honor its obligations."

She noted that the language of the ACA was "rare" in that it permitted lawsuits to enforce the provisions at issue here, provisions that declare the government"shall pay" the losses suffered by insurance companies that participated over the first three years.

The lone dissenter was Justice Samuel Alito, who called the decision "a massive bailout" for the insurance industry, which "took a calculated risk and lost."

Monday's decision was the third involving Obamacare at the Supreme Court. Conservative groups, and now the Trump administration, have consistently sought to invalidate or undermine the law — so far, with limited or no success. But next year, the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider once again whether the law is unconstitutional.

Despite repeated efforts by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration to either undermine or entirely do away with the program, Obamacare has remained popular, likely because it has enabled millions of Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions, to obtain medical insurance and medical coverage for the first time.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The driving force is the challenges that are emerging due to substandard and unstructured data

Regulator sets out expectations amid coronavirus for travel, motor and home insurance, product suspensions and renewals as it highlights the important role of the broker in helping vulnerable customers.

The Insurtech UK chairman and Wrisk executive chairman said the “mini meteorite” of Covid-19 has put insurtechs at risk of underfunding.

On demand insurtechs encourage incumbents to give back premium as it is predicted providers could save £1bn as claims plummet amid lockdown.

The group is being advised by Mishcon de Reya and will look into claims denied by any number of insurers naming Axa, China Taiping, RSA, Touchstone, and Zurich but excluding Hiscox.

PR expert and former Allianz corporate communication lead, Mark Bishop considers how the reputation of the sector is being affected by Covid-19.

Insurers point the finger at increased claims and unexpected Ogden rate change in a challenging year

Regulator tells firms who refuse to pay out to explain why and how they believe it represents a fair outcome for customers.

Updated: A number of providers have introduced exclusions for Covid-19.

Jonathan Edwards has signed an early day motion calling on the government to instruct all insurers to use dividends to pay Covid-19 claims.

The market has been criticised for its response to the coronavirus crisis, particularly with regard to business interruption as providers "look down the barrel' of class action.

Mel Stride MP states firms are continuously facing difficulties in making successful coronavirus-related claims as the ABI says insurers are expected to pay out a total of £1.2bn.

The provider also works with Axa, Ageas, LV Broker, RSA and UK General.

In respect of term loans, insurers are permitted to grant a moratorium of three months towards payment of instalments falling due between 1st March 2020 and 31st May 2020.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has issued norms for general and health insurers for quick settlement of claims filed by policyholders for coronavirus (COVID-19) disease/infection.

The latest circular by the regulator will help enable the policy purchase and KYC fulfillment process in a distance mode where customers can do it from the comfort of their houses just with the click of a button.

These companies have undertaken massive exercises to retrain agents to approach and convince customers to buy new policies and renew premiums entirely through digital channels such as WhatsApp or Zoom, while also rejigging sales strategies starting right from the drafts used by agents to approach prospective customers, said people aware of the developments.

In many cases, the response from insurers has been: We don't cover viruses.

In many cases, the response from insurers has been: We don't cover viruses.

In many cases, the response from insurers has been: We don't cover viruses.

In many cases, the response from insurers has been: We don't cover viruses.

IBM today announced it is building an industry-first insurance platform on the IBM Cloud that aims to improve the processes and economics for new product development, underwriting, and benefits delivery.

Business interruption insurance replaces income lost when a business must close. But insurers say policies don't cover coronavirus-related closures.

Insurers required to cover testing and telemedicine services related to COVID-19 While no active cases of the virus have been confirmed in Delaware to date, Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro notified insurers today of their duties related to COVID-19. In a bulletin to insurance companies, the Commissioner reminded Delaware’s health insurers that testing for COVID-19 is […]

Insurers asked to waive prior authorization requirements, cease cancellations and nonrenewals due to missed or delayed payments Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro and the Delaware Department of Insurance today issued a bulletin with recommended actions for the insurance industry. Requests included asking health insurers waive all prior authorization constraints for lab testing and future treatment of […]

According to the ministry of health and family welfare as on April 9, 2020, there are 5,218 active cases of novel coronavirus in India and there has been 169 deaths due to this pandemic.

Currently motor insurance has a 38-40% of market share of new premiums in non-life industry and weak auto sales number would further impact motor insurance business in the months to come.

Currently, there are several health insurance products in the market and every insurer designs products basis their underwriting guidelines, claims experience, risk assessment.

The sharp fall in the profit can be attributed to public sector insurers that saw heavy claims due to the floods in Kerala and crop insurance.

Indian insurers to spend Rs 13,000 crore on ICT in 2015 - Gartner

The insurance industry has lots of exposure to climate change. But as Warren Buffet has explained, not so much for companies that do annual policy adjustments, like Berkshire Hathaway. Their exposure is limited because the trends are baked into the premiums. But there is an opportunity for reducing insurance risk due to climate change, and it comes from the insurance industry itself. The business model is to have car insurance salespeople provide leads to virtual electric car charging services. This has perfect demographics because electric vehicle owners are very receptive to solar electricity. Who wouldn’t want a clean transportation solution with local job creation that can’t be offshore?

The insurance industry has lots of exposure to climate change. But as Warren Buffet has explained, not so much for companies that do annual policy adjustments, like Berkshire Hathaway. Their exposure is limited because the trends are baked into the premiums. But there is an opportunity for reducing insurance risk due to climate change, and it comes from the insurance industry itself. The business model is to have car insurance salespeople provide leads to virtual electric car charging services. This has perfect demographics because electric vehicle owners are very receptive to solar electricity. Who wouldn’t want a clean transportation solution with local job creation that can’t be offshore?

Summary: The Supreme Court handed down its long anticipated judgment in the case of Travellers Insurance Company Limited v XYZ [2019] UKSC 48 on 31 October 2019. The appellant, Travelers Insurance Company Limited (“Travelers”) was succes...

Thousands of mum-and-dad investors are being caught out by insurance companies refusing to cover them when they cut rent for tenants under financial stress due to coronavirus restrictions.