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The National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”) expired on May 31, 2010 and, for the third time this year, the NFIP lapsed for a month.  On July 1, 2010 the NFIP was reauthorized retroactive to June 1, 2010 and this reauthorization will expire on September 30, 2010. …
Read More National Flood Insurance Program Reinstated by Temporary Extension

Citing a number of industry executives, Bloomberg recently reported that the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion – causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history – has prompted a reduction in the placement of insurance coverage for deepwater oil exploration.  According to the Bloomberg article, corporations may now need “to self-insure or exit deepwater fields.” …
Read More Update: Bloomberg Reports Sharp Decline in Offshore Oil Rig Drilling Insurance As Underwriters Tack Away From BP Disaster-Type Risk

In late June, two Members of Congress requested that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expedite the implementation of a Medicare home care demonstration project.  In other CMS news, the agency issued a proposed outpatient hospital rule in early July, and during Congress’ July 4th recess, President Obama made the decision to officially appoint his CMS Administrator. …
Read More Healthcare News from Capitol Hill and the Department of Health and Human Services – July 12, 2010

A Connecticut District Court recently held that plaintiffs, who brought a subrogation action to recover a judgment entered in their favor in an underlying legal malpractice action against their attorneys, were entitled to litigate coverage issues even though the attorneys’ insurer obtained a default judgment against the attorneys in a separate coverage action. …
Read More Connecticut District Court: Insurer’s Default Judgment Does Not Necessarily Preclude Litigation in Subrogation Action

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia concluded that the West Virginia Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination by an insurer in the settlement of a property claim. …
Read More West Virginia Human Rights Act Prohibits Discrimination by Insurer in the Settlement of Property Claim

On July 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a new website, HealthCare.gov , to provide consumers with information on their rights and benefits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The site offers data on U.S. insurance carriers and the products they offer and includes a timeline of when new programs under the new law will begin between now and 2014. …
Read More New Government Healthcare Website Unveiled

Texas Farmers Insurance Company (“Texas Farmers”) issued claims-made insurance policies (transformed into occurrence-based policies through endorsement) to Kaiser Permanente, a medical facility, for the policy periods of 4/9/99-4/9/00, 4/9/00-4/9/01, and 4/9/01-4/9/02.  The first two policies had a $5 million limit of liability per claim. …
Read More Ninth Circuit Affirms Ruling That Reinsurer Has No Duty to Contribute to Settlement Payment Where Reinsured Excess Policy Was Not Triggered

Fund managers and other investment advisers will face tight new restrictions on their ability to make – or facilitate – contributions to politicians, candidates and other officials who are responsible for public assets, including pension plans and Section 529 tuition plans.  The new Securities and Exchange Commission “pay-to-play” rule  applies to investment advisory firms that are exempt from SEC registration under the private investment adviser (fewer-than-15-clients) exemption as well as to registered investment advisers. …
Read More Investment Managers are Restricted from Making Political Contributions to Win Business — Unregistered Advisers are Covered by the SEC’s New Pay-to-Play Rule — Third Party Solicitors are Spared . . . if they are Registered Advisers or Broker-Dealers