August 2008

Vol 12, Issue 8

SPECIALTY LINES

Like any other business, insurance has developed its own lingo, words we use as shorthand to explain processes and coverage. Arguably the toughest one to explain is underwriting.  In the insurance world underwriting means agreeing to accept a risk for a certain price.
 
The word comes from the very beginnings of modern insurance - Lloyd's of London. In the very early days Lloyd's was a tea shop near the dock in London.  Ship owners and investors gathered there to await word of their ships - did they make port, were they lost at sea?  Then as now, information was important.  When the owners realized they could lessen the risk of sea transport by sharing the costs and profits with each other, they drew up terms and wrote their names one under the other, "under writing", and insurance was born.
 
Here at CCAP we use the term in a broader sense, to include all the behind-the-scenes activity that goes into that final decision about insuring a county or county-related entity, and the cost of that insurance.  For example, to decide on workers' compensation insurance we look at payroll, by class or type of employee, and what our rates for each class are.  We look at prior year's loss history, and the potential member's safety program.  As your local insurance producers can attest, we ask for a lot of information. The same is true for property, auto, liability and other insurances.

One of our major projects is to annually take all this information and distill it into reports to explain to our reinsurers the composition of our membership and the exposure the reinsurer is covering.
 
The staff in CCAP's Property & Casualty Unit collects and analyzes all this information - we often joke about them being our spreadsheet experts! The unit of five people handles renewing members and develops proposals for new members. They also issue the insurance coverage documents, amendments, and certificates of insurance (which prove to others that you have insurance coverage).  Their spreadsheets list your vehicles, tax collectors, buildings, officers, prison size, payroll, and much more!  
 
To give you an idea of the complexity of the information we handle, each year we bill for about $40 million in premium for our insurance programs, for a little over 200 insured entities (counties and county-related entities).  Since several of our programs are not standard insurance policies but are manuscripted policies we created just for counties, we handle numerous questions about coverage matters from members and their local insurance producers.
 
We are currently starting work to set up a new software program to better handle all this data.  Our reinsurance broker, Willis Pooling, helps us with the underwriting process, and they are providing the software to us at a reduced price.  Our ultimate goal is to have an on-line process for you to submit renewal data to PCoRP, PComp, PELICAN and our other insurance programs.
 

Make sure you call us when you need help with something,

                      John Sallade

In This Issue

SPECIALTY LINES

STAFF NOTES

COOPERATIVE PURCHASING

FEDERAL BENEFITS EXTENSION

SAFE DRIVING TIPS

FALL WORKSHOP DATES

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Quick Links

Glimpse Online

Loss Control Services

Insurance Matters Archive

Contact Us

Join our Mailing List!

STAFF NOTES

Claims and Medical Manager Janice Shirk has moved to a part-time work schedule, effective at the start of July.  We spent a good deal of time planning for this, and some of her work responsibilities have been assigned to other claims staff.  Generally, Janice will be in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and on Thursday mornings, with some schedule adjustments for meetings.  On days when she is not working, calls will be taken by Dave Harman, John Sallade, or the appropriate claims staff.
 
CCAP is pleased to welcome Amanda Weibley to the staff.  She is a Claims Representative 1, and replaces Danielle Wynn.  Amanda started on July 28.  She comes to CCAP with private sector experience in work comp claims and risk management.  She can be reached at 800-895-9039, ext. 3365.

COOPERATIVE PURCHASING DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

by Julia Jackson, Employee Benefit Programs Manager
 
Cooperative purchasing is not a new concept.  For centuries, businesses have aggregated their demand in order to get lower prices, better quality and service improvements on the goods and services they need.  Local governments also banded together to procure commodities that they commonly used, however most of these cooperatives were regionally based and offered a limited number of items. 
 
In 1999, recognizing the need for a broader offering for local governments that still met state procurement laws across the country, the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities collaborated with the National Association of Counties (NACo), the National League of Cities (NLC), the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO), the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) and the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) to establish the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance. 
 
Borne out of a need to have large-scale commodities contracts to offer local and state agencies on a national basis, U.S. Communities was designed to provide a program that was completely voluntary, had no minimum purchase requirements, and had no cost to participate.  The goal was to make it accessible to the 87,250 units of U.S. local and state governments.  The program initially launched with one contract for office supplies.
 
Nearly a decade later, the U.S. Communities program offers local and state governments with 16 product lines and more than 20 suppliers.  Each contract has been competitively bid and each supplier committed to offer its most competitive pricing to all participating agencies. 
 
The success of the program is probably best measured in its acceptance by local and state governments.  Over 33,000 local, school (K-12), higher education, state and nonprofit agencies are registered and use the program.  In 2007 the estimated savings to public agencies through the use of these contracts was $200 million, on purchases exceeding $1.3 billion.
 
The program operates as a nonprofit instrumentality of government. A board of directors, composed of its founding members, and an advisory committee of professional public purchasing officials from local, state, school and university agencies oversee the program and its policies. They recommend new product lines and act as lead public agencies on solicitations and re-solicitations.   
 
Many public agencies have concerns about how they can use the program and still be in compliance with local laws or policy directives, including those regarding utilization of local businesses and/or requirements for the use of minority, women-owned, veteran-owned, and small businesses.  U.S. Communities is extremely sensitive to such policies. The program addresses these concerns by requiring no minimum spending and by working with suppliers to identify their suppliers and subcontractors who may meet local requirements.
 
Cooperative purchasing is just one tool in the procurement officials "tool belt."  Commitment to meeting the needs of local and state governments makes U.S. Communities an extremely valuable resource. 
 
For more information on U.S. Communities, email Julia Jackson, call 800-895-9039 or visit www.uscommunities.org.
 

FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENSION BECOMES LAW 

By John Sallade, Managing Director, CCAP Insurance Programs

President Bush recently signed a bill into law that includes Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) provisions. EUC is a federal extended unemployment benefits program. State unemployment agencies have

been working quickly to get EUC implemented.

The good news for counties is that if your former employees are entitled to federal benefits, the cost is picked up by the federal government.

EUC Highlights

The main provisions of the EUC program are as follows:

Beginning the week of July 6, 2008, up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits are available to persons who are currently unemployed and have exhausted all regular UI benefits.

Individuals must have worked an equivalent of 20 weeks prior to filing a regular UI claim.

Persons must not be eligible for any other state, federal or Canadian UI benefits.

EUC claims cannot be filed after March 29, 2009.

Extended benefits paid under EUC will cease June 30, 2009.

EUC benefits are 100% federally funded; employers, including reimbursers, will not be charged or liable for extended benefits paid.

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth's Bureau of Unemployment Compensation is administering the federal benefits extension program. They have been identifying and are

notifying claimants who are potentially eligible for EUC. They will investigate situations where it appears individuals have had wages or employment since exhausting their regular UI claim.

Information about EUC is posted on each state's website. Look for details either on the home page or under news and events. The following link is for the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workforce Security Map; just

click on a state in order to get to the site:

http://www.servicelocator.org/OWSLinks.asp 

Questions about UC issues can be directed to Julia Jackson or John Sallade at CCAP.

SAFE DRIVING TIPS

by Bruce Mitchell, CSP, Loss Control Services Manager
 
Even with the high cost of gasoline, the highways and byways are still jammed with summer vacation travelers.  The roads are also loaded with police officers who are looking for traffic violators including speeding, aggressive driving, and many other violations.  If you don't want to pay at least $100 for even a minor traffic violation and possibly become involved in a crash, watch your speed, drive with caution and be courteous on the roads.  If you are heading to a resort area, plan your trip to avoid the high traffic times and be prepared to take an alternate route if roads are blocked because of accidents or construction.
 
Following are some tips that may help keep you free of collisions and traffic violations:

• Kids are everywhere!  School is out, children and teenagers are spending time on or adjacent to the roadways.  Be alert for children and other pedestrians.
• Be alert for bicycles.  Bicycles should always ride in the direction of the vehicle traffic and should obey traffic regulations.  Always give the bicyclist plenty of room when you pass them, a full lane if possible and slow down.
• Get off the cell phone!  Do you realize that talking on the cell phone or texting while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk?  The use of a hands-free device when talking on the cell phone is helpful.  Some states and cities require hands free devices.  Talking on the cell phone with a hands-free device is still a distraction to driving.  The National Safety Council says "Driving is a full time job," and all distractions should be minimized.  Some courts around the country are giving multi-million dollar fines for causing a collision while using a cell phone.
• In the next few weeks you will begin to see those large yellow vehicles, the school buses, crowding the roadways again.  Be very cautious!   The law prohibits a driver from passing a school bus while stopped for loading or unloading passengers.  If the bus has the red lights flashing and the stop arm extended you may not pass the bus.  The bus driver may take your vehicle  license number and you will receive a ticket, even if a policeman is not present.  The last thing you want to do is to hit a child and cause injury or death caused by your motor vehicle.
• Know the rules of the road in the states and areas you will be driving.  Slow down as this will help you save gas (and money).  Obey the posted speed limits and the posted temporary speed limits for construction zones.  Turn your headlights on when passing through construction zones and slow down.  Come to a full stop at stop signs or other traffic control devices.  You may be ticketed for a rolling stop or gliding through a stop sign.
• Do not drive when you are exhausted.  Take frequent breaks along the trip.  Stop at least 10 minutes every two hours.  Get out, use the facilities, and get something to eat or drink and finish your snack before driving again.  Even if you stop and just get out of the car and walk around will relieve some of the exhaustion and allow you to concentrate more on your driving.  Take a power nap, get off the road to a safe place and take a nap for twenty minutes or so, this may save your life!
  
  HAVE A GREAT VACATION!  Slow down, obey the traffic regulations, enjoy yourselves and return refreshed without a traffic incident.

FALL WORKSHOP PLANNING IS UNDERWAY

by Linda Rosito, Insurance Training Director 
 
The fall workshop season is quickly approaching!  This season we are offering 22 workshops across the state.  As always, topics have been selected from suggestions received from workshop evaluations and suggestions we receive throughout the year.  We have also added Erie as a new location of our Incivility in the Workplace Workshop (UC Trust Sponsored) series. 
 
Please mark your calendars!

For additional information on each workshop, the Glimpse Online will be available online August 1^st and the Glimpse will be mailed out in early August. 

If you have any questions or suggestions for future CCAP Insurance Programs Workshops, please feel free to contact Linda Rosito or Jennifer Carey at 800-895-9039.  We hope to see you in the fall! 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"The best car safety device is a rear-view

mirror with a cop in it."

- Dudley Moore

CCAP Insurance Programs
2789 Old Post Road, Harrisburg, PA 17110
Phone 800-895-9039 - FAX 717-526-1020
Claims Fax 888-692-2368
Click here to go the Insurance Section of the CCAP Website.

email:jsallade@pacounties.org

Insurance Matters is published monthly by CCAP Insurance Programs for the use of members of CCAP's UC Trust, PCoRP, PComp, PIMCC, COMCARE, COMCARE PRO, BEST Flex, PELICAN and other insurance programs, and insurance producers of these members.

Advice contained in this publication is not legal advice and members are encouraged to seek the opinion of their solicitor.

The information provided in this publication is not intended to take the place of professional advice. Readers are encouraged to consult with competent legal, financial, or other appropriate professionals. Statements of facts and opinions expressed in this publication, by authors other than Association staff and officers, are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent an opinion or philosophy of the officers, members and staff of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP). No endorsement of advertised products or services is implied by CCAP unless those products or services are expressly endorsed, or are owned or managed by the Association programs, or our affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced, modified, distributed, or displayed in part or in whole, by any means, without advance written permission of CCAP. Please direct your requests to John Sallade, Managing Director, CCAP Insurance Programs, jsallade@pacounties.org.

Note: As part of its copyright agreement the CCAP grants the author the right to place the final version of his/her manuscript on the author's homepage, subject to CCAP's standards, or in a public digital repository, provided there is a link to the CCAP website.