Insurance Blog

It was deja fury all over again in the Midwest this week, where devastating tornadoes seemed to pick up where they left off last spring. Hardest hit were Branson, Mo., where twisters killed three, injured 32 and caused heavy damage to its popular country music theaters, and Harrisburg, Ill., which reported six dead, more than 100 injured

Would you waive the right to sue your doctor for malpractice? If a nascent bill just approved by the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee gains traction, Sunshine State residents may be required to do just that before the nurse can say, “The doctor will see you now.” The plan would allow doctors and other health care

Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei could use a little help from a crafty New York lawyer to settle an insurance lawsuit brought by a notably eccentric neighbor in her Greenwich Village apartment building. If this sounds like the setup for an outrageous John Waters movie, you’re half right: the notably eccentric neighbor in question is none other than the pencil-thin-mustachioed

One year ago, Hillsborough County in Florida’s Tampa Bay had 775 staged accidents, the second highest in the nation behind New York City. The $15.5 million price tag for those bogus medical claims drove auto insurance premiums in the county up $350 or more, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, or NICB. First, county

My recent blog, “Ending the doctor gravy train,” that explored how health care reform plans to make transparent the commonplace practice of doctors accepting gifts of food, money and junkets from pharmaceutical companies really hit a nerve with doctors out there. Here’s a sampling: Doc: This article is ridiculous. Virtually all gifts and freebies that

As President Barack Obama’s historic health care reform inches toward its final exam before the Supreme Court next month, a second front led by leaders of the Catholic Church has been growing against the Affordable Care Act. Unlike the legal challenge by 26 states to the act’s “individual mandate” that requires all Americans to purchase health

The poor pay more for auto insurance and that ain’t fair. That’s the executive summary of a new study by the Consumer Federation of America funded by the Ford Foundation that calls for an end to de facto price discrimination based on questionable rating factors. CFA executive director Stephen Brobeck and director of insurance J.

My recent blog concerning Allstate’s decision to drop 45,000 North Carolina customers who refused to “bundle” their homeowners and auto insurance policies with the company unleashed a firestorm of reader anger directed at the “Good Hands” people. Here’s a sampling: Evan: To HECK with ALLSTATE….3 yrs ago I owned a home in suffolk county,NY… In 2008

Before you swallow that new drug prescribed by your doctor, wouldn’t you like to know whether the drug’s manufacturer recently treated your physician to an all-expenses-paid golf junket to Pebble Beach or Hilton Head to extol its miracle properties? The pills-for-perks dance is commonplace in modern medicine, where based on appearances alone, one might easily

Way back in the pre-now days, it could take years for consumer complaints to catch up with a company. But today, thanks to the now-ness of social media, corporations can lose millions overnight if they’re called out on Facebook or Twitter for an egregious policy or practice. Just ask Bank of America. What’s a poor