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 Thu, Mar 12 1992 Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 05:46:03 EST Message-ID: 03-12 0000 DECISIONLINE: Insurance USA TODAY Update March 12, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FITCH TO GET MORE AGGRESSIVE: Fitch Investors Services says it will have more rigorous procedures for rating life insurance companies. Up to now, ratings agencies accepted financial information supplied to them by life insurers. Now, Fitch raters will be more aggressive. Once Fitch gets its new program up and running in the months ahead, people can call the firm's New York office to ask where an insurer stands. GOOD DRIVERS BEAT CHARGES: New Yorkers with jobs and good driving records will be able to avoid Hertz rent-a-car surcharges of up to $56 a day. Hertz wanted the surcharges for New York City residents renting a car for use in their hometown. Residents of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens account for only 9% of its revenue from the city but represent more than 40% of liability losses, a Hertz spokesman says. BCBS RECOVERS $4M: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan said Wednesday that its health care fraud investigation unit saved or recovered more than $4 million in 1991, bringing the total since 1980 to $92 million. That amount includes actual recovery of fraudulent payments, court-ordered restitution and an estimate of the amount that would have been paid out in claims if the unit had not intervened. S.D. COMPANIES GET BREAK: South Dakota Gov. George Mickelson signed a bill Wednesday that allows for a cut in premiums for small companies having no workers' compensation claims for three years. Under the law, the state will be able to review workers' compensation medical bills to determine if the claims are excessive. INSURERS BACK CALIF. BILL: Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. are backing a California bill aimed at encouraging small employers to buy health insurance for their workers. About six million Californians do not have health insurance coverage and more than half of them have jobs. The bill would forbid health insurance firms from refusing to insure high-risk groups. STATE FARM WANTS RATE HIKE: A State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. attorney says the company will ask the Nevada Insurance Department to endorse a rate hike of at least 9.8% but less than 21%. Niels Pearson has asked Insurance Commissioner Terry Rankin to rehear her decision in January to grant State Farm a 4.9% increase. The company had filed for a 9.8% increase. No date has been set for a rehearing. AIRLINE GROUNDED OVER INSURANCE: Wilbur's Inc. and Universal Airlines Inc. of Anchorage, Alaska, were grounded Wednesday because their aviation liability insurance lapsed, even though it's since been reinstated, a federal agency said. The agency now will check into the airlines' financial status. WORKERS COMP RISES IN OKLAHOMA: The underlying costs of workers compensation insurance in Oklahoma continues to rise faster than prices charged by insurance companies, says the National Council on Compensation Insurance. Insurers are seeking a premium level change of 47.3% in the state. NCCI says the average cost of medical benefits for lost time claims increased 76% between 1985 and 1989. LOST DAYS INCREASE: The number of work days lost due to workplace injuries in Oklahoma is on the rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, lost work days per 100 full-time workers increased 23% in Oklahoma in three years, from 69 to 85. NCCI says premium level changes amounted to 28% over 10 years, while losses rose 119% during the same period. STROKES HIT BLACKS HARDER: Young and middle-aged blacks are much more likely than whites to suffer certain kinds of dangerous strokes, reports a study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. A subarachnoid hemorrhage, often fatal, involves a ruptured blood vessel on the brain's surface. It occurs among blacks at a rate of 12 per 100,000 people, compared to 6 per 100,000 for whites. STROKE DISPARITY FOUND: Blacks under age 75 are twice as likely as whites to suffer an intracerebral hemorrhage, a burst blood vessel within the brain. This and ruptured vessels on the brain's surface account for nearly half of all deaths within 30 days from strokes. Research has shown that blacks are more prone than whites to death or disability from strokes and are one-third more likely to have high blood pressure. Insurance Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM