A View From The Press Box

The deadline for entries in the annual National Underwriter “Commercial Insurance Agency of the Year” award program is looming! All material must be in to me by July 14. Click here for details and an entry form! Agencies need not be nominated by any outside party to enter. All who feel worthy are welcome to compete! Read on for a summary of the award program's benefits and reactions from past champions.

A cartoon in the May 5 edition of "The New Yorker" shows one doctor whispering to a colleague as they cross paths in a hospital corridor. "Psst....Quit taking insurance. Pass it on." With more and more medical providers refusing to deal with bean counters at HMOs, PPOs or standard health insurers, what are we going to do if the entire profession makes this standard operation procedure?

Following up on my post the other day about Dickie Scruggs, did you see that another class-action king, Melvyn I. Weiss, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and forced to pay $10 million in forfeitures and fines after pleading guilty to charges of racketeering?

I just returned from a few days in the Fantasy Island of insurance--lovely Bermuda--where I covered a Professional Liability Underwriting Society conference. Next Tuesday, I'll blog about some troubles in paradise, but for today, I would like to dwell on all that I love about Bermuda. Feel free to share your own tales of travels to this haven for insurers, brokers and buyers alike.

I've frequently warned organizations and individuals that treat the press with disdain that's it's unwise to argue with people who buy ink by the barrel. Unfortunately, the Risk and Insurance Management Society decided to ignore that sound advice by excluding reporters from one of this morning's sessions at its "RIMS On The Hill" program unless they signed a preposterous gag order.

Is Bermuda in the midst of an identity crisis? That's the impression I received after a full day of existential angst expressed during the Professional Liability Underwriting Society's "Bermuda Perspective" conference last week.

Now that state regulators are warming up to the idea of establishing a federal Office of Insurance Information within the Treasury Department, designed to keep the executive branch informed and coordinate international trade issues, why not just appoint the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to do the job?

Reporting on the proposed purchase of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs by Willis for about $2.1 billion got me thinking about who is the biggest broker in town these days. NU's crack art department was able to slip the funny foam finger onto the hand of Willis CEO Joe Plumeri, who definitely wants to put his firm on top someday. But while Willis will grow substantially with this deal, they'll remain a distant third to Aon and Marsh. Which one of those giants gets to claim the top spot is open to debate. Or is it?

Martin Sullivan must have realized he had a hard act to follow when he took over for industry titan Maurice Greenberg as CEO of AIG, but I doubt he thought it was going to be this hard, after he was unceremoniously replaced on Sunday in the day-to-day command chair by Robert B. Willumstad, the beleaguered company's chairman.

In the classic political satire, "Duck Soup," Groucho Marx, as Freedonia's proud leader, Rufus T. Firefly, tries to borrow money from Sylvania, assuring the ambassador from his rival nation that he would gladly give his personal IOU in return. "If I can't pay you back," Groucho quips, "you can keep the IOU." That's the same feeling I get when hearing politicians carry on about the "crisis" in Social Security, after Washington "borrowed" trillions of our retirement fund surplus, with apparently no intention of ever paying it back!

In a dark day for business journalism, "The Insurance Hoax"--a pure hatchet job in the September 2007 issue of "Bloomberg Markets" about the industry's claims-handling practices--won this year's New York Press Club award for consumer reporting.

Talk about sticker shock! When I walked into my local Dunkin Donuts, staring me in the face, in huge type, were the obscene calorie counts for all my favorites--including 340 calories for a chocolate-glaze donut, and 660 for a chocolate chip muffin! Thanks to New York Mayor Felix Unger (I mean, Michael Bloomberg), all fast-food eateries must now prominently warn its customers just what they are getting into when they stuff their faces with junk food. I suppose this is good risk management...Or is it merely obnoxious?

Some of you have taken me to task, while others have agreed with my concerns about mankind's impact on climate change and its consequences for insuers and all those they cover. Today, I steer you to my fellow NU blogger, Ara Trembly, writing about how the senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com threw down the gauntlet in an open letter to the presidential candidates, calling for an unbiased look at the alleged phenomenon. Check it out and feel free to weigh in on both blogs by clicking here.

When we posted a news story yesterday reporting that "anti-fraud associations representing both the property-casualty and health insurance sectors will pool their resources to increase detection and prevention of health care fraud," the first question that came to mind was, what took them so long?

New York Gov. David Paterson started a buzz in the market last night by voicing his strong interest in reviving an insurance exchange modeled after Lloyd's of London, which hosted the gala dinner where the governor made his pitch. The question circulating around the room was whether a new exchange could succeed after its predecessor crashed and burned over 20 years ago.

It is truly amazing to me that after more than three centuries in business, virtually no one in this country outside of the insurance industry understands what Lloyd's of London really is, how it works, and what a critical role it plays in our economy. What can be done to change that? Must Lloyd's go so far as to launch a new reality TV show to educate the American public?

Did you realize that accidental shootings--like the one by Vice President Dick Cheney of a hunting companion back in 2006, which prompted hilarious comparisons to Elmer Fudd--is actually the least of the exposures facing insurers covering the risks of the sport? That was news to me, but it made for some great reading in this week's NU cover story report by Phil Gusman.