Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.insur From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: insur Wed, Mar 4 1992 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 92 05:50:52 EST Message-ID: 03-04 0000 DECISIONLINE: Insurance USA TODAY Update March 4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network TRUCKING COMPANIES SKIRTING LAW: Several hundred trucking firms are using loopholes in state law and insurance rules to escape Minnesota workers' compensation costs, state and insurance industry officials say. The firms avoided relatively high costs of insuring workers against on-the-job injuries by leasing their drivers from several out-of-state leasing operations, the officials said. (For more, see special Loophole package below.) NEW YORK FUND GOING BROKE: New York's unemployment insurance fund is going broke, and the state will have to borrow as much as $500 million to keep paying benefits unless joblessness falls drastically, a state official said Tuesday. The state's jobless rate must be halved in coming months to keep the fund solvent. Just three years ago, the fund had a record $3.2 billion. STATES BORROW MONEY FROM FED: New York officials said Connecticut, Michigan, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have already borrowed money from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits this year, and several states are expected to borrow next year. The Labor Department announced Tuesday that unemployment in New York increased from 7.8% in December to 9.1% in January. OSHA PUSHES WORKER SAFEGUARDS: New Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, effective Friday, mandate infection-control procedures in dental practices, doctor's offices and hospitals to prevent the spread of hepatitis and the AIDS virus from patients to employees. They require that employees wear protective clothing and that vaccinations for hepatitis B be made available to employees. PENN. BCBS RELEASES STUDY: Of the 218,000 small businesses in Pennsylvania, about 41,000 (19%) do not provide health insurance for their employees. However, a recent study commissioned by Pennsylvania Blue Shield indicated that many of these employers would offer coverage if an affordable, basic benefit package were available. POLICY WAS `SMOKING GUN': A $35,000 life insurance policy bought the day before a woman plummeted off a cliff to her death helped convince jurors in San Diego she was murdered, attorneys in the case said. Virginia Rearden, 55, was convicted of first-degree murder Monday for forcing her son's girlfriend, Deana Hubbard Wild, off a Big Sur cliff to collect on the insurance policy. UNITED SIGNS WITH HEALTH: United Insurance Company of America, Chicago, Illinois, a subsidiary of Unitrin Inc., and Southern Life and Health Insurance Company, Birmingham, Ala., have signed agreements, effective March 1, 1992, for United Insurance to purchase the premium paying Home Service life and health insurance business of Southern Life, subject to certain regulatory approvals. WILENSKY TAKES WHITE HOUSE JOB: The head of the Health Care Financing Administration, Gail Wilensky, will leave that job shortly to become President Bush's key adviser and spokesperson on health policy. Wilensky, 47, took over HCFA two years ago and has received high marks for stewardship of the agency that oversees the $158 billion Medicare and Medicaid programs. SUBSCRIBER WILLS MONEY TO PLAN: A grateful subscriber remembered Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey in her will. Helen Morgenthaler, who became blind when she was 75, bequeathed $16,620 to the New Jersey Plan when she died in 1990 at 79. Morgenthaler's niece said that whenever her aunt got a statement from the company, she would say, "They are spending so much on me." The money was donated to Prevent Blindness. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON LOOPHOLE: VETERANS FIRED, THEN PICKED UP: Often, veteran drivers were fired by the Minnesota trucking firms, immediately hired by employee-leasing operations and then assigned to continue working for their old employer. The Minnesota firms take advantage of the lower workers' comp rates in other states without having to move headquarters and hub operations away from their customers, cutting workers' comp rates in half. WORKERS COULD BE HURT: Minnesota workers' comp rates for trucking companies are roughly eight times what they are in North Dakota, according to Lisa Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Trucking Association. Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa rates are about one-third of Minnesota's. For Minnesota truck drivers, however, being hired by an out-of-state leasing company could mean less generous benefits. OTHERS WAYS TO SKIRT LAW: Trucking officials have found other ways to get around Minnesota's workers' comp rates. Al Johnson Trucking Inc. of Minneapolis is reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by moving to Wisconsin. In January, the company was given permission by U.S. Bankruptcy Court to move across the border, where it will save $350,000 annually in workers' comp premiums. (End of package.) Insurance Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 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