The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) is now able to ban doctors from getting compensation through the states no-fault system if theyre found to have cheated insurers out of unwarranted compensation through that system, according to an announcement from Gov. Andrew M. Cumo on Thursday.

DFS is already planning on looking into banning 135 medical providers whose billing practices have raised red flags.

The Department will be sending letters to those facilities demanding information regarding their corporate structure, payment requests and the doctors direct participation in the practice, according to a release from the regulatory offices.

New York has been lumped into a notorious handful of states where insurers say they are hemorrhaging money because of residents who inflate claims or fake them altogether in order to get undeserved benefits provided through car insurance policies.

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Aviva is reminding homeowners to secure their sheds and garages as British Summertime approaches.

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The BBC has reported, Insurers cannot charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

The decision means that women can no longer be charged lower car insurance premiums than men, and the cost of buying a pensions annuity will change.

The change will come into effect in December 2012, although customers could see premiums alter in the interim.

Representatives of the insurance industry said they were disappointed.

The court was ruling on a challenge by a Belgian consumer group Test-Achats.

It had argued that a current exemption for insurers contradicted the wider European principle of gender equality.

“Taking the gender of the insured individual into account as a risk factor in insurance contracts constitutes discrimination,” the ECJ said.

The requirement for unisex insurance premiums and benefits will start on 21 December 2012, giving national governments and the European insurance industry time to adjust.

Different risks

For car insurance, women are generally a lower risk to insure than men but will, in due course, have to pay the same premiums.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) said currently the cost of the average car claim by an 18-year old man was £4,400, while that for an 18-year old woman was £2,700.

“The ruling will have a significant effect on the insurance industry which has used the system of risk based pricing to award discounts to lower risk drivers like young females who are statistically safer drivers,” said Graeme Trudgill of BIBA.

“The industry will have to change its model and effectively females will now pay a cross subsidy for males on their insurance premiums.”

Simon Douglas of AA Insurance told BBC News that the decision could add about £400 to the annual cost of car insurance for a young woman.

Potential premium changes

Women aged under 25 could see car insurance costs rise by up to 25%

Men could see an 8% reduction in annuity rates, but women could see a 6% rise

The cost of life assurance could increase by 20% for women but fall by 10% for men

Source: Estimates from ABI commissioned research in Autumn 2010

“Particularly for women under 30 where the difference is most extreme, they currently pay about half what a man would pay,” he said.

“We could see their prices go up 25-30% and men’s premiums could fall by about 10%.”

Maggie Craig, acting director general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said: “This gender ban is disappointing news for UK consumers and something the UK insurance industry has fought against for the last decade.

“The judgment ignores the fact that taking a person’s gender into account, where relevant to the risk, enables men and women alike to get a more accurate price for their insurance.

Tags: Car, Industry, Insurance, Premiums, Womens

Governor Rick Scott and CFO of the state Jeff Atwater had set their priorities right this session, with the entry on the top of the list being the motion to pass the bill that could put an end to the increasing auto insurance frauds which was in turn compounding the auto insurance problems in the state.

According to the rules of the newly passed bill, there will be a specific limit up to which the attorneys can claims as legal fees and the people who are hurt in the accident and plan to file a PIP claim should visit one of the hospital emergency rooms or walk-in clinics within just seven days of the incident.

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Term insurance takes its name from the fact that the coverage is valid for a specific term, or length of time. Most term policies offer terms of 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years, with intermediate variations. When you purchase a term policy, you specify the number of years you would like to have coverage, or your “term.”

But what happens if you want to reduce that term later? There are steps you can take to insure that you are not locked in to a policy which will last far longer than your need for term insurance.

Actually, the idea of “reducing” a term is a misnomer, because you can cancel a term policy at any point. If you

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Bills currently being considered by the Arizona and South Carolina legislatures would put in place anti-steering laws related to motor vehicle glass repair.

The bills would keep glass-repair shops or third party administrators who have an ownership interest in a glass-repair shop from referring or steering business toward the facility that theyre associated with.

They would also be barred from soliciting repair business from car owners based on information obtained during the claims process.

As with most steering bills, the authors aim is to maintain policyholders choice when getting their cars fixed after a claim and to level the playing field for repair shops in the state.

But the insurance industry says beefing up the states anti-steering laws would make the repair process less streamlined and that the move could ultimately end up increasing the average cost of car insurance in Arizona and South Carolina.

This bill would severely limit auto insurers ability to choose business practices that best serve their customers, limit choices available to consumers for repairing damaged auto glass and potentially increase costs that impact insurance premiums, said Bob Passmore, the senior director of personal lines at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), in a statement.

PCI says consumers benefit from insurers ability to recommend shops and to use direct repair programs where coverage providers have a list of preferred shops that they suggest to policyholders.

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A group of Idaho House members are proposing that the state set up an online car insurance verification database that would allow police and other government officials to quickly see whether residents have the proper coverage required under state law.

Providers of Idaho auto insurance would feed policy information into the database, and all of that information would get matched up with data on every vehicle registered in the state.

If the database shows registration data for a vehicle but no matching insurance policy, the vehicle owner is liable to get a citation when pulled over by police, who would have 24-7 access to information contained in the database.

Information in the database would also be accessible to the Department of Transportation, the Department of Insurance and the courts.

The current penalties for driving uninsured in the state of Idaho are a $75 fine for a first offense, and up to a $1,000 fine for subsequent offenses that occur within five years.

The authors write in the bills statement of purpose that the number of uninsured motorists on Idahos roadways is a rising concern.

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On 10th February 2012, the Mail Online reported, “The AA is launching a new service which promises to cut the cost of insurance for safe drivers.

Motorists will be offered the chance to instal a small tracking device in their car which will monitor how fast they are driving.

And those who keep their speed to a minimum could save up to £850 a year on their policies.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance said: ‘It is likely to appeal to inexperienced drivers as well as parents, whose youngsters have their first car.

‘Parents know driving behaviour is being tracked by a system that also provides crash, breakdown and theft alerts.’

Douglas added that the system will offer drivers tips and alerts to improve their performance behind the wheel.

He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Most people can improve their driving standard and Drivesafe can help them to do that.

‘I believe that in time, systems of this type will become increasingly widely used by drivers of all ages.’

The AA will be able to identify the exact location of the car in the event of accident or if the vehicle is stolen.

Whilst users will be able to view their performance either on their computers or courtesy of a free phone app that has been launched for smartphones.

It has emerged that a number of other insurers have launched similar products with Direct Line believed to be piloting their own technological tool.”

Tags: Car, cost, Drivers, Insurance, Policy