Industry News

​Employers will not face higher Workers' Compensation insurance premiums because of losses related to COVID-19, according to recent announcements by the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board​. The board said that it had received approval from the state Department of Financial Services for a rule change that will exclude from the Merit Rating Plan calculation "all claims attributable to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic​." This follows an earlier move to exclude these claims from the Experience Rating Plan calculation. At the time, the board said, "The occurrence of COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims is unlikely to be a predictor of future claim costs incurred by an employer, and therefore their…

​By Chris Boggs, the Big I’s Executive Director of Risk Management & Education​News reports from across the country tell of retailers boarding up their buildings in attempts to curtail damage from rioters post election. From an insurance perspective, are there any coverage issues these retailers should consider? Insurance coverage questions asked over the past several days in preparation for the election have center around several common terms:Riot,Civil unrest,Insurrection, and even War.Each read similarly, “If my insured’s property is damaged by (fill in the blank from above), is there coverage? Understand that no (or very few) coverage question(s) is/are answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” There is…

​The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has announced that New York State of Health (NYSOH) will be the only authorized provider of certification training courses. NYSOH is the health insurance marketplace for New York, one of the marketplaces created under the federal Affordable Care Act.All insurance brokers wishing to obtain individual or group health coverage for their clients through NYSOH must take a certification course and apply for certification. Previously, the certification course was available from third-party organizations such as Big I New York. The announcement on the DFS website states:Effective August 31, 2020 you must contact NYSOH to register a new account and to access the…