A few weeks ago we posted a short article about the earthquake that occurred in Chile. Although we may briefly cross paths with catastrophe claims and catastrophic adjusting it’s really beyond the scope of our intended subject matter for this website but we are interested in hearing from you about any experiences you may have had as an insurance claims professional in other countries.
As a North American based website we don’t often hear about the various insurance coverages that exist beyond Inland Marine and Floater policies from global insurers. We’re certainly interested in hearing about any national or regionally based Australian (we heard they recently encountered some hail) South American, European, African, Asian or Russian based Residential Property and Casualty carriers including any information about their foreign auto lines. Read more…
Last week, Independent-Adjuster.com put out a request through social media to see what our viewers would be interested in reading. Before presenting our findings on Colorado House Bill 10-1012 , it should be noted that we wrote this article as a partial opinion and offer the following basic analysis of this Colorado initiative. We certainly hope to hear your comments on our findings.
Colorado HB 10-1012 bill is essentially an initiative to reduce or limit the surveillance conducted in Workers’ Compensation Claims. The line of surveillance referred to in the bill doesn’t wholly apply to independent adjusters so much as investigators because I/A’s are usually employed before the evidence triggering indemnity has been set in motion. The type of surveillance referred to in the bill is more along the lines of a preventative against fraud and the over-extension of indemnification because the types of claims in Workers Compensation are on-going.
We noted that the bill’s effects could be wide-spread across the insurance industry in general and made some opinion based on those conditions as well. The sum of our facts and opinion is rather expansive and is better read in the separate parts as follows:
Independent-Adjuster.com does not support Colorado Legislation for House Bill 1012.
Denial of support for HB 1012 prevents the State from opening the flood gates for similar legislation in all insurance markets, which should be a concern to every investigator and insurer in the entire country. Insurance and legal professionals across the nation need to send a clear message against this legislation because we need to preserve the right to gather evidence as we wish. Read more…
Currently there is virtually no regulation for Workers’ Compensation carriers, general carriers, or their independent professional surveillance crews to conduct investigation and surveillance with any regard a claimant’s interests, private or not in The State of Colorado. Synonymous laws for investigation of these and other insurance coverages could not be found in surrounding states. Although it wouldn’t be considered a best-practice, there is thing preventing any investigator, adjuster, or surveillance professional from hanging upside down in ree staring through the claimant’s window with night goggles on, so long as they aren’t trespassing. a worst case scenario, one might get caught and end up with a restraining order but the odds that any aimant files suit is slim to begin with because of their mutual interest in keeping benefits or maining undiscovered if they are in fact fraudulently accepting benefits.
Even if excessive surveillance could possibly be misconstrued as a bad faith attempt to delay or gate indemnification, Schnacker v.State Farm has set a well tested bar in Colorado which prevents a third party claimant from suing a first party insurer because they are not a party to the insurance contract. Workers’ Compensation insurance falls under this category because the employer is the party the contract, not the employee or claimant in the case.
Workers’ Compensation insurers have a capacity to amass evidence against claimants, thus, any unbiased reader of this review or investigator of such claims has wonder what prevents these insurers and surveillance professionals from falsely denying claims altogether after surveillance is over, even if evidence exists against doing so. Further, we have to ask why they would need such freedom to go around investigating the claims that they choose to investigate. For reasons thus far it seems that Workers’ Compensation is a largely unfair practice to the claimant, but we should review the new point from insurers as well as the reasoning for these needs are addressed in three parts as follows: Read more…
Colorado House Bill 10-1012 was introduced on January 13th, 2010 by freshman representative Sal Pace (email) of the House of Representatives in District 46 which serves Pueblo, Colorado, and by Morgan Carroll (email) who is a State Senator in District 29, which serves Aurora, CO. Senator Carroll is also a consumer and civil rights attorney in a local mother-daughter law firm. The complete bill history is available through the Colorado General Assembly.
HB10-1012 was actually created from a scenario where Pinnacol Assurance, a quasi-state powered mutual insurance company and workers’ compensation policy provider was perceived as having excessive surplus reserves that could help to cover Colorado budget short-falls. Read more…
Categories: News, Surveillance & Investigation, Workers' Compensation Tags: Colorado House Bill 1012, HB 1012, Investigation, Pinnacol Assurance, Pinnacol buy out, Pinnacol Colorado, Pinnacol Workers Comp, WC Surveillance, Workers' Comp Claim, Workers' Compensation Surveillance Colorado
We want your insurance article or publication!!
Independent-Adjuster is a new site that takes our profession and that of other insurance professionals very seriously. We’re still in the early stages with design and content but growing at a steady pace.
Our largest interest is creating a public domain for insurance claim professionals to come and discuss current issues while preserving their reputation for fairness and impartiality. We would love to have your article , professional opinion or white paper on our site. Why give us your article? We’re happy to allow your personal “blurb” to be published at the bottom and that gets you or your firm publicity.
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