News

The year got off to another slow start for property and casualty carriers, as MarketScout's monthly "Barometer" survey found U.S. commercial insurance pricing still soft, with premiums down an average of 4 percent in January.

The federal government has pushed back the deadline for reporting requirements under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act until next January, a decision greeted with relief by workers' compensation providers and self-insured risk managers.

Two snowstorms that hit the United States this month will cause insured damages in excess of $2 billion, according to a catastrophe risk modeling firm.

Congress will act to extend the National Flood Insurance Program before its current authorization expires on Feb. 28, but such reauthorization will not be included in jobs legislation as originally planned, industry lobbyists said late last week.

Property/casualty insurers are seeing rising loss costs, increased levels of litigation and higher rates of fraudulent claims because of the struggling economy, a survey has found.

Karen Cutts, managing editor of the Risk Retention Reporter and a longtime columnist at National Underwriter, died earlier this month at her home in Pasadena, Calif. She was 69.