Insurance Claims

Re "Justice Served at Courthouse," July 7. It is no surprise Los Angeles County was required to sue its insurers to obtain payment for losses suffered (in the Northridge earthquake) to the San Fernando Courthouse. The largest area of insurance fraud is the fraud perpetrated by insurance companies in refusing to pay claims which they know are legitimate. If an entity as powerful as Los Angeles County has to resort to litigation, what chance does the average person have against the insurers that hold the checkbook?

Fresh from being the big man on late night television, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday focused his ire on the National Flood Insurance Program and its slow rate of resolving claims from Superstorm Sandy. Christie, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, has taken a hard line in trying to secure federal aid for his state in the wake of the storm that hit the Northeast in October. At a meeting in Union Beach, N.J., Christie criticized the federal program that he said has been too slow and plagued by excessive paperwork and bureaucratic delays.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger has backed down from a threat to resign as chairman of talks on compensating Holocaust survivors for unpaid life insurance claims after negotiators agreed to extend the deadline for accepting claims, participants said. The European insurance firms and Jewish groups participating in the talks have been at odds over a number of issues.

The U.S. share of insurance losses from worldwide catastrophes more than doubled in 2012 as Superstorm Sandy lashed the Northeast and the nation suffered its worst drought since the 1930s. The U.S. accounted for about 90%, or $65 billion, of $72 billion in global losses, according to the Impact Forecasting unit of Aon, the London insurance broker. That compares with 40% in 2011, when Japan had higher-than-usual costs because of an earthquake and tsunami. The location and climate of the U.S. make the country more vulnerable than most developed nations to hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and drought.

If past history is any measure, many homeowners affected by the wildfires burning throughout Southern California will find that claims they submit to insurers will result in higher rates or even dropped policies. What they, and you, may not know is that virtually all such claims also will end up in vast, privately run databases that are routinely accessed by the insurance industry to determine what rates they'll charge -- or if they'll cover you at all.

Question: I live in a condominium in Los Angeles that has 42 units. Our condo suffered damage because of common area problems. The board told us the insurance company requires originals and to give them all our receipts and documents relating to our claim and they would handle it. After ignoring our calls and letters for seven months, the board told us they or the management company lost all our evidence.

The Jewish Federation will hold a meeting tonight in the Fairfax district to discuss proposed legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors and their heirs to sue insurance companies for unpaid claims in California courts. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), would also waive the statute of limitation for insurance policies that were issued to Holocaust victims and survivors, said Knox spokeswoman Colleen Beamish.

The final chapter was written Thursday in the 1982 bankruptcy of Tarzana-based American Benefits Ltd.--and it may mean a happy ending at last for several thousand workers still holding unpaid health insurance claims. Lawrence A. Diamant, the Los Angeles attorney who supervised liquidation of the company, announced a tentative settlement of $2.

A court order to liquidate the bankrupt Coastal Insurance Co. was issued Monday by a Los Angeles judge, clearing the way, after more than a month, for claims against Coastal's 200,000 California auto insurance policies to be honored by a state-appointed guarantee association. The director of the California Insurance Guarantee Assn., John W.

Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush on Monday blasted insurance companies that have refused to pay for Northridge earthquake damage because of a one-year time limit, saying they are hiding behind an incorrect reading of the law, abusing consumers and using a stalling tactic to avoid paying fair claims. Unlike floods or tornadoes, Quackenbush said, quake damage is often hidden and takes longer to detect.

WASHINGTON - House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday set a Jan. 15 vote on a Superstorm Sandy relief bill after enraged Northeast politicians - including Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a fellow Republican - blasted the speaker for skipping action on disaster aid in the final hours of the current Congress. Boehner scheduled the vote after a parade of officials from storm-ravaged New York, New Jersey and Connecticut criticized the Ohio Republican for refusing to allow a vote on a $60-billion aid package before the end of this congressional session.

On Black Friday, shopping carts aren't the only collision shoppers should worry about. Insurance company Progressive Corp. said that Black Friday is one of the worst days of the year for parking-related accidents. On the day after Thanksgiving last year, claims from parking-related accidents increased 37% when compared with other Fridays, the company said. A year before, claims were up 17%. PHOTOS: The Black Friday rush About 13% of Black Friday insurance claims were related to rear-end collisions, 11% from collisions with parked cars and 8% from drivers backing into another vehicle.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Administration, which has played a crucial role in stabilizing the housing market, said it ended September with $16.3 billion in projected losses -- a possible prelude to a taxpayer bailout. The precarious financial situation could force the FHA, which has been self-funded through mortgage insurance premiums since it was created during the Great Depression, to tap the U.S. Treasury to stay afloat. The agency said a determination on whether it needs a bailout won't come until next year.

Estimates of the economic losses caused by Hurricane Sandy earlier this week reached $50 billion as experts assessed the costs of severe property damage, shut-down subways and power outages. On Thursday, Eqecat Inc. said it expects storm-related losses to fall between $30 billion and $50 billion. Of that, $10 billion to $20 billion will be insured, according to the firm, which calculates estimates for insurers. Earlier this week , Eqecat had said that damages could reach $20 billion, with up to $10 billion in insured losses.

Medicare is investigating reports that CVS Caremark Corp., the country's second-largest drugstore chain, has refilled prescriptions and submitted insurance claims without patients' approval, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched the investigation into CVS' refill practices, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and therefore requested anonymity.

Nobody wants to get into a fight with a health insurer, but it may be worth your while. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that more claims problems stemmed from annoying but often straightforward billing and eligibility issues than from disagreements over whether care was medically appropriate. What's more, the odds are about 50/50 that if you appeal an insurer's decision, you'll win. When Natasha Friedus's son, Nofi, was born almost two years ago, her insurer refused to pay $1,500 of Friedus's $7,500 hospital bill because she hadn't gotten prior authorization for the hospital stay near her home in Seattle.

Descendants of Armenian victims of genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks can sue insurance companies for unpaid claims over the atrocities, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a rare reversal. The same three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in August 2009 that lawsuits were barred by a federal government policy against legal reference to the Armenian genocide despite laws in California and 41 other states recognizing the massacre of 1.2 million Armenians that began in 1915 amid the chaotic collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Two Los Angeles police officers were charged Monday with insurance fraud stemming from a case in which one of them allegedly had his car torched and the other helped cover up the crime, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office announced. Anthony Robert Villanueva, 24, allegedly arranged to have his 2001 Lexus sedan taken to the desert and set on fire in April. He then reported the car stolen and submitted a claim with his insurance company to be reimbursed, authorities alleged.