insurance news
VA County to Charge for Ambulance Service
In an effort to improve their emergency equipment and provide better training to emergency first responders, Prince William County, Virginia has made the decision to begin charging health insurers for ambulance services. Effective July 1, whenever a patient is transported to the hospital via an emergency medical service, the county will bill the patient’s insurance […]
Read moreState Farm, Allstate Offering Benefits to Same-Sex Partners
Last week, State Farm insurance announced a significant change in their corporate policy. The company will be extending health care coverage and other benefits to the same-sex partners of its agents, agency staff members, employees, and retirees, so long as they’re in legally recognized relationships. Such benefits are already offered to employees and their partners […]
Read moreState Farm Closing Offices to Save Money
According to the Pantagraph newspaper out of Bloomington, IL, State Farm Insurance has announced plans to close two dozen of its field offices in the midwest (Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan) in order to save $8 million over the next five years. Currently, these facilities are home to about 1,300 employees. Some of these employees, the […]
Read moreFEMA Stresses Need for Hurricane Response Training
Earlier this week, Craig Fugate, director of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) emphasized the importance of public officials learning how to respond to hurricanes and other powerful storms, and also said that the state of the economy was not an excuse to forgo preparation. Speaking at the National Hurricane Conference in Atlanta, Fugate said, […]
Read moreInsurance Brief: Prudential to Sell Global Commodities
Today’s news is from the business side of the insurance industry, rather than the patient side. It’s relevant because it speaks to the health of the industry. Last week, Prudential Financial, Inc. announced that it had reached an agreement with Jefferies Group, Inc, for the sale of its (Prudential’s) global commodities business. The purchase price […]
Read moreIn Brief: Geico Hiring in Virginia Beach
GEICO announced recently that it is planning to hire 100 associates for its regional office in Virginia Beach, VA by May, 2011, and add another fifty on top of that by the end of the year. GEICO is the second largest insurer of automobiles in Virginia, and is offering a wide array of job opportunities, […]
Read moreBuzz: What Today’s Woman Needs to Know and Do
Even though all Americans are living longer, women still tend to outlive their husbands, or not marry at all, which means they need to be active in their retirement planning before finances in their golden years become an issue. To help with that, the MetLife Mature Market Institute has partnered with WISER (Women’s Institute for […]
Read moreBlue Shield Cancels Rate Hikes
Blue Shield of California announced earlier this week that it has canceled health insurance premium increases that averaged 6.5 percent and went as high as 18 percent. The increase would have affected almost 200,000 Blue Shield customers, and would have been the insurer’s third such increase in recent months. The decision to cancel this increase […]
Read moreAIG Repays $6.9 Billion More
It’s been a while since we wrote about AIG, but Reuters is reporting today that American International Group has returned another $6.9 billion of it’s bailout money to the U.S. Treasury, which means that 70% of the original $411 billion under the TARP plan (Troubled Asset Relief Program) has now been recovered. According to spokespeople […]
Read more