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March 2014

New California Auto Insurance Payment Plans

Effective April 1, 2014, we have made updates to our California personal auto pay plan options. 6 month plans: – 16.7% down with 5 installments (electronic funds transfer) – 20% down with 4 installments – 20% down with 5 installments – 20% down with 5 installments (electronic funds transfer) – 50% down with 1 installment – Paid In Full 12 month plans: – 10% down with 10 installments (electronic funds transfer) – 12.5% down with 10 installments – 20% down with 10 installments – 20% down with 11 installments (electronic funds transfer) – Paid In Full If you have questions… Read More »New California Auto Insurance Payment Plans

Office Ergonomics – Working Comfortably

Introduction

Office ergonomicsOffice ergonomic improvements involve the application of basic workplace principles to address a worker’s discomfort, chronic pain or repetitive motion injuries. Good ergonomics does not always mean obtaining new furniture and equipment. A large part of ergonomics and comfort involves workstation organization, equipment orientation and work habits. This bulletin reviews equipment and materials that typically are used in a computer workstation and provides suggestions to minimize the risk of injuries.
Musculoskeletal disorders such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome can result from improperly positioned equipment that creates stressful working postures. Symptoms can include pain and swelling, numbness and tingling (hands “falling asleep”), loss of muscle strength, and reduced range of joint motion. If you have any of these symptoms, report them to your supervisor as soon as possible. If these symptoms are not treated early, they may result in discomfort in the affected area, chronic pain or injury.

Chair

Chairs can be crucial in preventing back pain, as well as in improving employee performance in office work. As the majority of office workers spend most of their time sitting, a properly designed and adjustable chair is critical.

Features of a good chair:

1. Seat pan adjusts up and down quickly and easily. The chair height is correct when the entire sole of the foot can rest on the floor or footrest and the back of the knee is slightly higher than the seat of the chair.
2. Seat pan should be slightly concave with a softly padded, rounded or “waterfall” front edge. Select alternate seat pan and seat back sizes for large or small employees.
3. Seat back easily adjusts forward and back and up and down, with full lumbar contour. The fullest part of the contour should be positioned in the small of the back, near the waistline.
4. Chair arms adjust up and down and in and out from body. Position chair arms so they support forearms in and near the sides, with elbows only slightly forward from the hipbones. If both features are not an option, eliminate armrests.
5. Five legs or casters for stable support.Read More »Office Ergonomics – Working Comfortably

Product Recall Insurance Explained

Product Recall Insurance Explained

Product Recall Insurance

Product Recall History and Overview

The coverage has been around since the 80’s  of  XX’s Century. The first type of product recall insurance was called malicious product tampering, which only responded to malicious incidents. The limits were $3 million, with six-figure premiums. That’s the way it was for a couple of years. Slowly the book of business grew which allowed larger capacity and to sell higher limits of insurance as well as to expand the coverage. Because it’s catastrophic insurance in nature, when losses occurred, they are generally major. Businesses are not concerned with the smaller losses they can handle financially in-house. What they are looking for is protection from the large losses. So today, it’s financially plausible for small companies as well. When coverage first came out, because of the price tags and the minimum deductibles required, it was accessible only to large, multinational food companies. But now almost every insurer has a strategy to go after smaller businesses. Products Recall is designed to help the insurance manage the crisis of such an occurrence and help protect against product degradation and third party lawsuits.

Most Commercial General Liability policies do not provide coverage for the cost to recall products. Stand alone Product Recall insurance fills this gap because it provides coverage to the cost to recall, withdraw and dispose of the insured’s products and it also can cover loss of income and the extra expenses incurred when a product has to be withdrawn from the marketplace.
Recalls can happen because of mislabeling, malicious tampering, accidental contamination or for a variety of other reasons. Now due to new legislation. the FDA can mandate insured’s conduct recalls in some cases.

Coverage Parameters

Products Recall offers insurance protection in the event of a recall of an insured’s product. This protection includes coverage for the insured’s product recall expenses and liability to third parties kidnapping; bodily injury extortion; property extortion; product contamination extortion; trade secret/computer virus extortion; wrongful detention and hijacking.

Endorsements available to extend coverage include:

Read More »Product Recall Insurance Explained

2014 Affordable Care Act Compliance Checklist

[highlight type=”dark”]This Compliance Checklist is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel for legal advice.[/highlight]

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010 and installs a horde of health coverage reforms with effective dates stretched primarily over a period of four to five years. Many ACA reforms are already in effect for employers and their group health plans, but many of ACA’s key reforms will become effective in 2014.
Key ACA reforms that will affect employers in 2014 include health plan design changes, increased wellness program incentives, and a new transitional reinsurance fee. The employer “pay or play” mandate and accompanying additional reporting requirements previously scheduled for 2014 have been delayed for a 2015 implementation. In preparation for 2014 ACA reforms, employers should review upcoming requirements and ensure they have an action plan in place.

Read More »2014 Affordable Care Act Compliance Checklist

Professional Liability Exposures for Home Care Business

Home Care BusinessImagine yourself as one of the more than 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day. Now imagine having to choose between a nursing home and at-home care. And consider this: 20 hours of in-home services (a week) costs about $18,000 a year versus an average of $70,000 a year for a nursing home.

For many aging Baby Boomers today, this is no hypothetical situation. It is very real.  That is why, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of in-home health and personal care aides is expected to reach 1.3 million by 2020 – a 70% increase from 2010. In comparison, the growth rate for the U.S. job market as a whole during that period is 14%.

Explaining this growth spurt for non-medical services is fairly straightforward. Entering the field of unskilled at-home care is easy in that it requires less education with little to no medical qualifications. Consequently, carriers like Atain Insurance Companies have taken steps to address this trend by breaking down home health into two pieces: skilled medical care where you have a nurse or therapist come in and take care of the client, and unskilled non-medical care where people go in and do basic services like cooking, cleaning and grooming. That’s the area where we’ll see a good amount of growth. Typically insurance policy for home care covers skilled and unskilled workers, and if you only provide an unskilled workers services, your insurance premium will be lower.

How to lower your professional liability exposures:
Read More »Professional Liability Exposures for Home Care Business

Meat Tenderizer Safety

Meat Tenderizer SafetyA meat tenderizer is used in nearly every grocery store, and when used properly, they are safe and reliable. But when a machine is in poor repair, or when the built-in safety devices are removed or circumvented, the result is all too often catastrophic. Over the years we have observed a number of situations where tenderizers have been rigged or modified to operate without the protective guard in place.
Read More »Meat Tenderizer Safety

General Liability in Liquor Cases

Liability in Liquor Cases
We count on you

General liability is a must have insurance coverage for business of any size, including commercial operations performed from a residence. However, even the most comprehensive insurance policy has gaps in coverage, for example most of the claims involving the alcohol sale or serving are excluded from coverage. And that my be a threat to your business, unless you request a Liquor Liability Insurance endorsement.
California’s high court has ruled that hosts who charge admission to parties may be held legally responsible if a drunken underage guest is hurt or injures someone else.
On March 4, 2014 the state Supreme Court said in the unanimous ruling that a cover charge amounts to a sale of alcohol, and state law creates liability for those who sell alcohol to clearly intoxicated youngsters.Read More »General Liability in Liquor Cases

Bicycle Theft on the Rise

how to lock your bike tutorial In San Francisco, a bike is stolen every three hours and there has been a 70% increase in bicycle theft since 2006. The SFPD has a warehouse filled with hundreds of recovered bikes, most of which were probably stolen, but they have no way of returning these bikes to their owners because many people don’t keep a record of their serial numbers and don’t register their bikes.

To combat this problem, San Francisco SAFE and the SFPD have just started a bike registration program. By going to the Safe Bikes website, you can register your bike, upload a copy of your purchase receipt and also upload photos of your bike. Then, if your bike is ever stolen, there is a much greater chance that it can be returned to you.Read More »Bicycle Theft on the Rise