Insurance

On a recent Friday morning, a classroom of teenagers at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School broke up into small groups and spent an hour not answering questions about Albert Camus's "The Plague. " It wasn't that the students were shy, or bored, or that they hadn't done the reading. They were following instructions: Ask as many questions as they could, and answer none of them. The kids wrote in rapid fire on sheets of butcher paper. "Why is everyone acting normal when people are dropping dead?"

Insurance companies have paid $200 million to policy holders from last June's tornadoes in Western and Central Massachusetts, settling more than 98 percent of claims, state officials announced Tuesday. More than 81 percent of claims were paid within four months of the storm, the state's Insurance Division reported after compiling information from the state's 25 largest insurers. State officials said the response has helped the Springfield region recover from the violent storms.

If hypocrisy had a face, a look, a certain familiar strut, it would be that of old favorite Curt Schilling as he pushed his way through a swirling collection of reporters and photographers in Providence this week with absolutely nothing of consequence to say. Curt Schilling, mute, the one time he actually owed an explanation. Perfect. But that's a minor point, really. There's a larger hypocrisy in his failing video game venture, the one that Rhode Island state officials giddily backed to the tune of $75 million in loan guarantees, which seems to be a fancy financial term for...

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, expanding a seven-year-old partnership with United HealthCare Services Inc., will use the national health insurer's network to offer Harvard Pilgrim health coverage to employers with offices outside Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Under the joint program, called Access America, multistate businesses based in the three New England states where Harvard Pilgrim does business will be able to offer their workers at plants, sales offices, or satellite sites across the country the same Harvard Pilgrim insurance products that employees in their home offices receive.

Last Monday, leaders from Partners HealthCare System Inc. gathered in the dark-paneled office of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to lay out their objections to his expansive 278-page plan to tame health care costs. The House proposal, unveiled 10 days earlier, called in part for closer oversight of the prices and operations of hospitals and their physicians groups, especially more costly ones like those owned by Partners, and influential board chairman Jack Connors requested a meeting.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, expanding a seven-year-old partnership with United HealthCare Services Inc., will use the national health insurer's network to offer Harvard Pilgrim health coverage to employers with offices outside Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Under the joint program, called Access America, multistate businesses based in the three New England states where Harvard Pilgrim does business will be able to offer their workers at plants, sales offices, or satellite sites across the country the same Harvard Pilgrim insurance products that employees in their home...

The roughly $50 million-a-year paycheck earned by Liberty Mutual's Edmund "Ted" Kelly over the past four years is not only out of whack compared to similar-sized companies, but out of step with reality. Kelly's yearly pay was more than 100 times that of President Obama, and more than all US presidents have earned throughout American history. It's more than that of the entire 100-member US Senate. Liberty Mutual recently negotiated $46.5 million in tax breaks from the Commonwealth and the City of Boston in exchange for agreeing to create 600 jobs in the city; but...

The cost of employee compensation insurance for Massachusetts employers could rise dramatically later this year if rates proposed by insurers are approved by state regulators. The Workers' Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts, which represents companies that write workers' compensation polices, asked the state to approve an average rate increase of 19.3 percent. Most businesses are required to carry workers' compensation insurance, which covers the medical treatment, rehabilitation, and lost wages of employees injured on the job. If approved, the rates would go into effect...

Massachusetts officials plan to release details of insurance claims connected to tornado destruction in the state's western and central parts last June. The National Weather Service says four tornadoes touched down during the June 1, 2011 storm, killing three people and damaging or destroying about 1,400 houses and 78 businesses. State officials will join Springfield's mayor at 10 a.m. Tuesday at a damaged home in that city to review how insurance carriers and the state responded to the storm.

As most people know, the government provides payments to workers who are unemployed and meet a certain set of criteria. Generally, these unemployment payments only replace a small percentage of the salary of higher wage earners, so a worker's savings and/or emergency fund has to be sufficient to cover the difference between unemployment insurance and the worker's on-going expenses. Now, a private company is selling policies that are designed to supplement the unemployment benefits provided by the government.

Massachusetts officials plan to release details of insurance claims connected to tornado destruction in the state's western and central parts last June. The National Weather Service says four tornadoes touched down during the June 1, 2011 storm, killing three people and damaging or destroying about 1,400 houses and 78 businesses. State officials will join Springfield's mayor at 10 a.m. Tuesday at a damaged home in that city to review how insurance carriers and the state responded to the storm.

In this country, obstruction of justice is a crime. As a physician, I wonder why obstruction of health care is not a crime. Increasingly, in my clinical practice, my office has to contend with denials by health insurers of tests and medical treatments that I believe are important to the care of my patients. Why should a health care insurer be permitted to override my judgment about the health needs of my patients, when I know the patient better, and am better qualified as a board-certified physician to make such judgments than the so-called highly qualified reviewer that the insurer...

I want to thank Globe Metro columnist Brian McGrory for his informative articles about the exhorbitant salaries and benefits paid to Liberty Mutual executives. We were prompted to cancel our homeowner policy with Liberty Mutual and transfer it to a local company. We managed to get better coverage at a lower premium with the new policy, but even if it had been higher, we would have changed our carrier as a matter of principle. As middle-class citizens, we can no longer justify subsidizing the lavish lifestyle of the 1 percent.

The Globe, probably inadvertently, revealed the stark realities and contradictions in America by the juxtaposition on the front of the May 11 Metro section of Brian McGrory's column, " $4.5 million. For an office ," with the feature story, " An old school reborn . " While Liberty Mutual executives pursue their self-interest with lavish offices and $50 million annual pay packages, Presentation School Foundation volunteers raise $4.2 million over eight years to transform a closed Catholic school in Brighton into a community center.

Dog bites man does not get a lot of attention in the news, but it costs insurance companies hundreds of millions in claims every year. State Farm Insurance, one of the nation's largest home insurers, paid more than $109 million on about 3,800 dog bite claims nationwide last year, spokesman Eddie Martinez said Wednesday. In 2010, there were about 3,500 claims and $90 million in payouts. The Insurance Information Institute estimated that nearly $479 million in dog bite claims were paid by all insurance companies in 2011, spokeswoman Loretta Worters said.

Troy Peissig's surprise at acing an $18,000 hole-in-one contest at a charity tournament has been replaced by bitter disappointment now that he hasn't been paid a dime nearly two years after making the 170-yard shot. Now state authorities are intervening, and issued an arrest warrant last week against the operator of an insurance company they say failed to pay up on a policy purchased by the Missoula tournament. Peissig, a scratch golfer, said it is a case of "how a good situation can go bad quickly.

PROVIDENCE - A federal judge spared a former Rhode Island radio host and a former North Providence politician prison time yesterday for their role in a $40,000 home insurance fraud scheme. Chief Judge Mary M. Lisi sentenced former WWLI-FM host Lori Sergiacomi, 49, to four months in a Massachusetts halfway house and four months of home confinement for purposefully having her North Providence home damaged after last year's historic flooding as part of a scheme to defraud her insurance company.

Hispanics in Massachusetts are much more likely to have insurance coverage and a primary care doctor than they were before the state's health insurance overhaul five years ago, but a report set to be released today found that those who speak little or no English lag far behind, with one-third uninsured. The researchers concluded that English-speaking Hispanics were almost as likely to be insured as non-Hispanic whites, after adjusting the data for differences in factors such as age and income.

Insurance company Allianz SE says its profits rose 58 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, when it had big payouts for natural disasters including the tsunami in Japan. Net earnings rose to (EURO)1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) from (EURO)0.9 billion a year ago. The first quarter of 2011 was marked by a several expensive disasters that weighed on profits across the insurance industry for that quarter. Aside from the tsunami that killed almost 20,000 people in Japan, Australia was hit by a cyclone and an earthquake struck Christchuch, New Zealand.

Auto insurance rates, which tumbled after Massachusetts opened the state to more competition four years ago, are marching steadily upward again. Many of the state's largest auto insurers have raised rates in each of the past two years, citing the need to keep pace with the rising cost of claims for car accidents, theft, and injuries. In addition, some companies say they could not make enough money after they dropped rates in 2008 to compete with rival insurers or to gain market share.