US Insurance Industry: Hurricane Irma will hammer insurance industry with billions in losses - by Christina Farr

Hurricane Irma will create combined insured losses of $20 billion to $65 billion, according to a projection from risk modeling software company AIR Worldwide.

The company includes in its estimate the United States and selected islands in the Caribbean. For the U.S. alone, insured losses are expected to reach between $15 billion to $50 billion, AIR said.

Although the final costs of Hurricane Harvey are still being tallied, the more powerful Irma has brought Florida to a standstill and is likely to pack a financial wallop along with its human toll.

Read more: Hurricane Irma will hammer insurance industry with billions in losses

Insurance Industry - Hurricane Sandy: Insurers prepare for impact of Hurricane - by Ben Berkowitz

Aftermath of Sandy hurricane

Insurers say they are making the usual preparations for a hurricane - activating claims teams, staging adjusters near the locations most likely to be affected and generally getting ready to pay for a potentially huge volume of losses.

"We plan for weather events such as this, so we feel well prepared with resources strategically positioned to quickly assist customers who may be impacted," Travelers spokesman Matthew Bordonaro said in an early Sunday e-mail.

Travelers is the third-largest insurer in New York for both personal home and auto and commercial lines of insurance, and the second-largest in Connecticut.

Bordonaro said the company had also activated continuity plans for its own employees, so it can sustain operations despite having staff clustered in New York and Hartford.

Had Sandy hit in 2011, it may have been more of a problem for the insurance industry, which dealt with record-breaking losses around the world last year, mostly from U.S. tornadoes and Asia-Pacific earthquakes.

But in 2012, most insurers' disaster losses are down substantially, leaving them with more capacity to absorb the billions of dollars in costs some expect from Hurricane Sandy.

Read more: Insurers prepare for impact of Hurricane Sandy - Chicago Tribune

Insurance Industry Groups Hail Joint US-EU Working Group

Industry trade organizations on either side of the Atlantic are applauding the formation of a joint working group designed to promote increased regulatory understanding and to reduce barriers to trade between the United States and European Union insurance markets.

The working group, dubbed the High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth, was formed by the Transatlantic Economic Council. The TEC is an EU political body to oversee and accelerate government-to-government cooperation with the aim of advancing economic integration between the European Union and the United States.

The American Council of Life Insurers and CEA, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, said the joint working group could help in the push to expand the economic relationships between the U.S. and European insurance markets.

EU-Digest

Insurance Industry USA: Private health insurance industry has failed patients

All of the well-publicized political health care programs have one thing in common: They all seek to steer larger portions of Medicare and Medicaid through private insurance corporations. They differ only in their degrees of rationing, with President Obama's plan restricting rationing for profit and Rep. Paul Ryan's mandate allowing the most rationing by the health insurance industry.

What Republicans and Democrats fail to disclose is that for more than 40 years the middle man of American health care - the private insurance industry - has failed in almost every capitalistic, economic and medical measure to deliver for the American patient.

Unlike auto insurance, private medical insurance has failed to accept and spread risk, thereby preventing the delivery of quality, affordable health care .

For more Private health insurance industry has failed patients

Insurance Industry: U.S. Treasury Creates Committee on Insurance Issues

On May 9 the U.S. Treasury Department s announced it will create an advisory panel to assist regulators on insurance issues after the Insurance industry complained it wasn’t getting enough input on the US Financial Stability Oversight Council.

This new Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance will advise the US Treasury Department and the director of the new Federal Insurance Office, the Treasury said in a statement.

Insurance Industry: U.S. Treasury Creates Committee on Insurance Issues

Insurance Industry: AIG Posts $2.4 Billion As Asset Sales Pick Up

AIG posted a $2.4 billion third-quarter loss Friday as it continued to divest business units, write down assets and repay bailout loans from the U.S. government.The insurer loss of $2.4 billion loss, or $17.62 per share, compares with a profit of $455 million, or 68 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2009.

For More: AIG Posts $2.4 Billion As Asset Sales Pick Up - Forbes.com

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USA: Insurance Industry; Mental health clinics targeted in Medicare fraud crackdown - by Jay Weaver

Even by Miami-Dade's reputation for Medicare fraud, the indictment was a shocker: American Therapeutic's patients could not feed themselves or control their own bodily waste. Many lacked the mental capacity to respond to counseling; instead they simply stared at walls or watched TV.


Federal prosecutors charged Miami-based American Therapeutic Corp., the nation's largest chain of mental health clinics and four top executives with scheming to fleece $200 million from the taxpayer-funded healthcare program.

``Some of the patients were not even cognizant of where they were or what was going on around them,'' said Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general of Justice's criminal division.

For more: Mental health clinics targeted in Medicare fraud crackdown - South Florida's Medicare Racket - MiamiHerald.com