Joy Olivia Miller

Archive for the ‘Insurance’ Category

The cost of medical treatments and therapies is forever on the rise. Competitive work culture and demanding schedules lead to a lot of stress in an individual?s life. Environment, genetic disorders, and improper lifestyles are some of the many factors that lead to ailments and physical disorders. Some people believe that a medical insurance may be a waste of hard earned money, while some others may not be aware of the significance of having a quality medical insurance policy. Every state has its owns health insurance laws to regulate the insurance practices of the insurance providers in that state. The health insurance laws in California are very stringent and it is mandatory for every individual to have some form of insurance coverage.

There are health insurance acts in place that make it mandatory for employers with a certain number of workers to provide insurance to employees. However, some employees do not accept the insurance plan offered by their employers and instead opt for the COBRA plan (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) to procure insurance for people who lose their plans. The COBRA plan is costlier than a conventional group health insurance plan, but cheaper than the individual health insurance plan. COBRA was passed by the Congress and retirees are also covered under this plan.

Due to a rise in immigration in California, the number of uninsured people in the state has increased substantially. In 2003, the California Health Insurance Act was passed to provide health coverage to maximum number of employees and their families.

The California Health Insurance Reliability Act, (CHIRA), was passed in the year 2005 to provide inexpensive health insurance coverage to the people in that state. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996, to make sure that the health insurance coverage of employees and their families remains intact in the event of termination or change of job.

The state health department of California provides all the necessary information to people regarding the health insurance laws prevailing in that state.

False insurance claims cost Americans billions of dollars every year. It is the second most costly white-collar crime in the U.S., behind tax evasion. In today’s challenging economy, more people are submitting false insurance claims in hopes of receiving an undeserved financial benefit.

Insurance fraud occurs when a false claim is submitted to an insurance company in hopes of receiving monetary gain. Exaggerating loss or injury to increase your claim is also considered fraud. Workers’ compensation fraud, staged accidents, arson, and false theft reports are a few common examples of insurance fraud.

Workers’ Compensation Fraud:

Employees are guilty of workers’ compensation fraud when they submit false insurance claims in order to gain personal benefits. This may include claiming an injury happened at work when it did not or exaggerating injuries to receive disability benefits. Some behaviors that may indicate a false workers’ comp claim include:

· Multiple claims submitted in the past

· No witness to the injury

· Delay in receiving medical treatment

· Provides different accounts on how injury occurred

· Injury appears to have occurred outside of workplace

· Worker whose job is about to end

· Medical documentation and physicians’ reports are altered or fraudulent

· Disgruntled employee

· New hire with questionable work history

Employers commit fraud when they knowingly withhold information to prevent their employees from submitting a workers’ compensation insurance claim. They may lie about coverage or threaten the injured with job loss if a claim is submitted.

Staged Accidents:

Staged accidents vary from forced auto accidents to exaggerated falls. Scam artists have become quite sophisticated over the years in staging accidents and receiving thousands of dollars in false insurance claims. False claims of injury and property damage cost all of us money in the form of increased insurance premiums.

Arson:

Arson fraud is defined as intentionally setting fire to property in hopes of receiving monetary gain. With the slow housing market and fragile economy, there has been an increase of home and car arson. These fires are set in hopes of getting out of car and home payments as well as receiving fraudulent insurance payments. It is estimated that one in every four fires in the U.S. is the result of arson.

False or Exaggerated Theft Reports:

Insurance companies receive a large amount of claims for home and auto theft. Fraud occurs when claimant asks for reimbursement for property not owned or exaggerates the amount or value of what is lost. Some behaviors that may signal suspicion include:

· Claimant has a lot of debt

· Homeowner’s insurance has recently been increased

· Hand-written receipts

· No proof of items lost

· Many heirlooms lost, whose value is difficult to establish

· History of prior claims

· Lack of police reports

Many victims of insurance fraud believe there is nothing they can do to prevent criminals from abusing the system. In many cases, a private investigator can prove insurance fraud has occurred and can report abusers to the proper authorities. Through surveillance, interviews, and various other investigation techniques, an investigator can determine if injuries and property loss are valid or fraudulent.

An investigator can provide videos, pictures, and detailed reports to authorities proving that insurance fraud has occurred. Not only will the client save money by not paying fraudulent claims, but also scam artists are prevented from receiving undeserved monetary rewards from untrue insurance claims.

Identity theft has been reported to be the fastest growing crime in many parts of the world, especially United States of America. Identity theft is definitely not new and has been around for a long time. However, recent years have seen a tremendous increase in the number of identity theft related crimes, which is taking place in a variety of unusual forms.

In response to the problems presented by identity theft, the financial industry has developed theft insurance. Typically, such kinds of theft insurance policies are not used to reimburse you for money that may have been stolen from you through identity theft. Instead, they will help pay for the costs involved with correcting the problems that come with identity theft. For instance, you can claim for losses related to fixing your credit report and lost wages due to taking time off from work to repair your credit.

The average insurance companies that offered identity theft insurance, usually provide up to $25,000 of coverage for little cost. There are also some major companies that offer separate identity theft insurance policies for relatively small annual premiums from $30 to $200. In addition, most credit cards offer identity theft protection as an optional benefit for cardholders, usually at a small cost. Some card issuers provide the identity theft insurance to their credit card customers, while others provide it as an additional benefit of their premium card. Some credit card banks even use it as a form of incentive to attract new customers to sign up for their regular card.

But regardless of how little the premium might be, do you need the coverage? Generally, you are not responsible for unauthorized charges beyond $50 and most credit company do not even hold you responsible for that amount. In actual fact, the real cost of identity theft for many people is the cost of the time it takes to regain their good reputation and credit. If you are considering a identity theft insurance policy, make sure you look for one that has a low deductible and one that will provide for payment of legal fees, which can be quite a hefty sum if an identity thief commit crimes in your name.

For more information on ways to prevent identity theft commercial, reporting identity theft cases or identity theft statistics, please visit the following website: Identity Theft Resource Guide

House insurance is among the most important insurances you can get – and in the case of buildings insurance, most mortgage lenders make it compulsory. This is because your home is your biggest asset and if you lose it because of fire, flood or another disaster and you have a mortgage outstanding on it, there may be nothing tangible to repay back your mortgage with.

There are two types of household insurance – buildings and contents. These can also be purchased as individual plans or combined. If you buy the insurance combined (ie from one insurer) they you tend to get an overall discount.

Buildings insurance gives your property (and it’s fixtures and fittings which are permanent fixtures such as fitted kitchen or built in wardrobes) financial protection in the event of damage. Unless your mortgage provider insists you have cover, this insurance is still strongly recommended as it protects probably your most major asset.

Contents insurance – while not compulsory – is just as important as buildings cover. Again, it offers protection against fire, damage, loss etc. and will cover most of your possessions in the home from baby clothes to DVDs to audio equipment to valuables (up to a set limit which your insurer will define).

If you have something particularly valuable (such as an expensive watch) – or something you take outside the home and that is more liable to damage or theft (eg a bicycle or a laptop) contact your insurer to see if you need to upgrade your policy. This should only mean a small increase in your house insurance premium and will give you the peace of mind that the item is covered.

As with all insurance products, when looking for house insurance, do shop around for the most competitive premium. Online insurance brokers, where you enter your details and requirements just once and the search engines goes off and finds the best deals for you, are free and easy to use and give you a good idea as to how much you should be paying.

As with all product comparisons, when it comes to house insurance, do compare premiums on a like for like basis to ensure you get the level of over you need.

Amongst the great number of insurance policies that are found in the market today, Liability Insurance is one of the most popular because is it less expensive than the many others. The other types of insurance policies that are freely found in the market today are far expensive since they need to cover a number of areas. Let us take a common example; a car insurance policy will need to pay for both your vehicle as well as any other vehicle/vehicles involved in the collision, including damage of any property as well as medical expenses caused from injuries to you or any other party. Considering all the aspects in this example as well as in other insurance policies, a Liability Insurance is much cheaper.

However, this type of insurance only covers the losses of the other party. You, as the owner of the policy and your property are unprotected. What is noteworthy with this insurance policy is that it protects from you being held responsible for the other party’s damages.

There are different types in this category of insurance policies such as:

General Liability: This is very similar to a car insurance policy but covers businesses. It protects a company from third party claims.

D & O Liability: This stands for “directors and officers” liability and it covers acts or omissions of those in the positions of director or officer. An entire company is not responsible for the statements, actions, failure to act, or other mistakes that are the responsibility of the director or officer. This Liability Insurance covers situations occurring in these areas.

Employer Liability: This policy is also known as worker’s compensation, and is a compulsory form of insurance coverage that all businesses must carry. By the given name it sounds as though it is intended to protect the employee – which it does to a certain degree, but it specifically protects the employer in case of injury, job related illnesses or any other damages on which the employee may sue the company.

Professional Liability: This insurance policy is to protect those recognised as “professionals” or “experts” in any given field who may not be protected by a general liability do to their professionalism. When any person is considered as a professional, he is held to a higher standard and is therefore considered to hold greater liability towards his clients. Thus he would need more coverage than what a general liability would offer. Intentional damage and contractual liabilities are generally not covered in these types of insurance policies.

Based on the brief explanations given above on the different policies, we can summarise the meaning of Liability Insurance in this manner:

It can be any type of insurance policy that will protect an individual or business from a risk where they can be sued or held legally liable for something such as malpractice, injury or negligence. This insurance policy will cover both legal costs as well as any legal payouts for which the insured would be responsible if found legally liable.

This is a simpler definition – an insurance which protects a person or entity from claims initiated by another party.

There are many things that are unpredictable and unforeseen. And they include life, money, happiness, relationship etc. Such events are fortuitous and are inevitable and cannot be predicted. Such events include hurricanes, floods, landslides and earthquakes. Such events make life helter-skelter and affect the smoothing functioning of life. So many people ask what can be done as a precaution against such things and how they can approach problems that come after such events.

The answer is very simple and it is to get an insurance contract. With this insurance contract you can be sure you will have some help after such events and have the assurance that you don’t land up in the streets. It is a kind of security you get when such unpredictable and uncontrolled events occur. With infinity insurance you will be able to recover and at the same time mitigate your losses since the company will bear it. With infinity insurance you can get the claim without any delay within a few days.

The first thing you should do in case of such fortuitous evens is claim. This is a little elaborate process in an insurance contract, more complex than getting an insurance. Generally insurance companies are very slow in processing the claims and implementing it. If the insured who made a claim already suffered a loss there is nothing more insulting to have to wait for the approval or rejection of the claim. But the infinity insurance company is very fast in processing a claim and do not want to add to the misery of the distraught people who have suffered a disaster.

They process the claims of the customers really fast and in a personalized way. They have many representatives individually allotted to handle a single claim. You can avail the infinity insurance benefits only if you are regular in paying the monthly premium, otherwise you cannot get all the benefits that the insurance promised.

When it comes to claim services Infinity stands out in the services and the benefits. Many people have appreciated the services and quality of the infinity insurance company and have lots of regard toward this company. At infinity, there are analysts who carefully analyze the market and find out potential investment options to invest the people’s money. Infinity insurance promises you infinite hope when there is desperate need and help you recover from the shock and chaos following a disaster.