R&R Insurance Blog

Would your insurance cover the cost of rebuilding your house if it was destroyed by fire or natural disaster? Just because you see "replacement" in your policy, you can’t be sure the insurance company will pay to replace everything and cover the costs. Most policies cover replacement cost for damage to the structure. But sometimes rebuilding costs can push above homeowners policy limits, leaving you without enough money to cover the bill.

To protect against such a situation, you need guaranteed replacement coverage. Guaranteed replacement coverage pays the full cost of replacing or repairing a damaged or destroyed home, even if it is above the policy limit.

"Two weeks after the fire, they got $785,000 for rebuilding. The likely real cost: $1.35 million."

Read the true story about a family who's home was destroyed in the 2007 California wildfires, featured in the January 2008 issue of Money magazine. This story reiterates the importance replacement value has in your homeowners insurance policy.

Talk to your agent to find out if your current homeowner’s policy provides 100% complete Replacement Cost Coverage on your home and contents. 

Wisconsin residents, R&R offers carriers that have no cap on the replacement cost. Contact Dan Wolfgram for more information today!

There are ways to prevent water damage in your home. Here are some pointers about vulnerable areas in your home and what to look for:

 In Your Kitchen:
The Dishwasher: Periodically check for leaks under the sink where the hose connects to the water supply. Look around the base of the dishwasher for evidence of leaks, such as discolored, warped, or soft flooring materials, or water damage to nearby cabinets.

The Refrigerator: If your refrigerator has an icemaker, make sure the hose connection is securely attached to the water supply line. Also, a wet spot on the floor may be a sign of a crimped icemaker line about to burst.

The Sink: Replace deteriorated caulk around sinks, and check the pipes under the sink for leaks. A slow-draining pipe may indicate a partially blocked drain that needs cleaning.

In Your Bathrooms:
Showers and Bathtubs: Remove and replace deteriorated or cracked caulk and grout. Water from a broken supply pipe behind the wall can leak through these damaged sealants, causing stains or soft areas around nearby walls and floors. Leaking drain pipes and shower pan leaks are also common sources of water damage. If necessary, contact a plumber or contractor for help.

Sinks: Check under the sink for leaks from water supply lines or drainpipes. If necessary, contact a plumber or contractor for help.

Toilets: Clogs can result from too much toilet paper or objects such as hanging bowl deodorants. Also, some chlorine tablet cleaners may corrode internal plastic or rubber parts, leading to a leak. Again, don’t hesitate to call in a professional.

In Your Basement, Laundry, or Utility Room
Washing Machine: Check hoses regularly for bulging, cracking, fraying, and leaks around hose ends. Replace the hose if a problem is found or every 3 to 5 years as part of a proactive maintenance program. To help make sure the hose doesn’t kink, leave at least 4 inches (or 11 centimeters) between the water connection and the back of the washing machine. Be sure to read the manufacturer’s installation instructions carefully.

Water Heater: Most water heaters last 8 to 15 years. Wet spots on the floor or a rusted tank may signal a leak. Water heaters should be installed on the lowest level of the home, next to a floor drain, or inside a drain pan piped to the floor drain.

Sump Pump: Battery-operated backup sump pumps can help protect against power failure or failure of the primary pump. Test the sump pump before the start of each wet season. Sump pumps are not intended to last more than 10 years and must have some components replaced or serviced within those 10 years.

Since water may still come through an overflowing drain or cracks in the foundation walls, make sure items stored in the basement are kept off the floor. Furniture should be on casters or shims and arranged away from floor drains.

We've also published some Water Damage Do's and Don'ts - in the unlucky event this happens in your home. Wisconsin residents, contact Kori Cumley for more water damage preventing tips or a quick quote on home and auto insurance.

Most insurance companies insure homes based upon the cost to rebuild the home (replacement cost), not market value.

"Market value" isn't the cost to rebuild

The cost to rebuild often differs from what you paid for your home, or what you might pay for a similar home in your area. Market value is not used to determine the coverage amount needed for replacing your home. Market value can be affected by many factors, which have nothing to do with what it would cost to rebuild, such as:

• Location of your home
• Economic conditions
• Value of the land

It's important to know that rebuild costs for insurance purposes can also differ from mortgage requirements, tax assessments, and other appraisals of your home.

Why rebuilding costs can differ

Cost to rebuild (reconstruction cost) reflects estimated construction material, labor and equipment costs to rebuild your home while maintaining the same size and quality of construction, at today's prices.

Replacement cost (cost to rebuild) can fluctuate based on aspects such as:

• Building codes may have changed since your home was built
• More specialized workers are needed to prevent further damage and to rebuild the home
• Landscaping, pools, and power lines can make it difficult for large equipment to access the property
• Materials to rebuild your home may be more expensive or hard to find

Keep your coverage up-to-date

Updates, additions and improvements to your home need to be documented in order to reflect most common changes like installing hardwood floors, updating a kitchen or bath, or adding a deck.

Wisconsin residents, contact knowledgebroker Dan Wolfgram for more information or a quick quote on your home & auto insurance!

The school transportation department of Redondo Beach, CA developed this list of thought provoking questions for school bus risk management. If your district suffers a serious school bus accident, be prepared to answer these types of questions:

What Specific Steps Must a Person Take to  Become a School Bus Driver?

• Is there a specific initial training curriculum?
• If so, does this involve classroom training? How many hours?
• Describe the training content.
• Do you provide in-vehicle training? How many hours?
• Do you identify each driver's areas that need improvement? Do you document this training?
• Do you provide any specific training about railroad grade crossings, loading and unloading passengers, or emergency evacuation drills?

Who Trains Your School Bus Drivers?

• What qualifications must a person have to become a school bus driver training instructor?
• Are these instructors certified? If so, how do they become certified?
• Are these instructors required to have any experience in teaching or training?
• Are they required to have experience in school bus driving or transportation?
• What are the qualifications of the instructor-trainers that train your instructors?

Do You Have a Plan For the Periodic Recertification of Your Drivers?

• What are your requirements for periodic driver recertification?
• What topics are covered in the recertification program?
• What training do your drivers receive addressing discipline and noise levels on the bus?
• Do you document the training items covered during your recertification process?
• Do you document the drivers who participate in the recertification?

Do You Have a System of Supervising Your Drivers on Their Routes?

• How many supervisors monitor driver performance? What is the ratio of supervisors to drivers?
• Do the supervisors ever ride with the drivers to monitor their performance? How often?
• How often are your drivers evaluated?
• Have you ever dismissed a driver "for cause"?
• Do you have your own guidelines and/or policies, or do you use state guidelines? What are they?

How Are School Bus Routes Established in Your District?

• Are there specific, written guidelines established for the development of bus routes?
• Who is responsible for establishing the routes?
• How often are routes re-evaluated?
• What is the National Standard for the periodic re-evaluation of school bus routes?

Do You Have Any Mechanism In Place to Identify Hazards on School Bus Routes?

• Do you follow up on reports of hazardous conditions? How?
• Is the hazardous notification policy written or verbal? Who reviews these reports?
• Do you have written guidelines that deal with specific hazardous conditions once they are identified?

How Do You Ensure That a Driver on a Route is Sufficiently Familiar With That Route Before He/She Goes Out on the Route?

• How is information about hazardous road/route conditions distributed to the various drivers?
• What is the procedure to relay information from the regular driver to a substitute driver on a route?
• Do substitute drivers receive the same information and training as your regular school bus drivers?
• Is there specific guidance given to substitute drivers on routes?

Does Anyone Routinely Check Routes for Hazardous Conditions?

• Is there a mechanism in place to check routes on a regular basis?
• Are routes checked from a school bus or from a car?

Who Is Responsible For the Specifications of the School Buses?

• Do your buses differ from those that are recognized as the "industry standard"? How?
• Have you modified your buses in any way or added any "extras"? Why?
• Do you require drivers to do pre-trip inspections of their bus before each run?
• How is this inspection conducted and recorded?

Are You Familiar With Your State and National School Bus Associations?

• Do you participate or receive any feedback from any organization?
• Are you familiar with the National Standards for School Transportation?
• Have any of these standards been adopted by your state?

Wisconsin schools can contact R&R Insurance's School Practice Group for more information on school bus risk management, safety procedures and school district programs.

Occasionally, a blockage in a sewer main or sewer service results in backup of sanitary sewage into a home. If you have experienced a sewer backup, and have some questions, the following information should provide you with a starting point.

Indicators of an obstruction in a sewer line:

• Water does not drain out of floor drains below ground level.
• Water comes up in floor drains, showers, or toilets.
• Toilets, showers, or floor drains below ground level drain very slowly.

Clean Up

For large clean ups, you should call a cleaning service. Your insurance carrier might have suggestions on which service to use for water damage restoration or house cleaning services.

During clean up, protect yourself from contamination:

• Wear rubber boots, waterproof gloves, and protective garments.
• Wash your hands thoroughly when the job is done.
• Those persons whose resistance to infection is compromised are considered to be at greater risks, and should not attempt this type of clean up.

Chemical Disinfection:

• The process of disinfection is important to ensure the elimination of the pathogens (disease causing bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that are present in raw sewage.
• Thorough cleaning must take place before disinfection to insure the effectiveness.

Type of Disinfectant Suggested Strength:

• Household Bleach (usually 1 oz. to 1 gal. water)
• Phenolic (Lysol and other brand name disinfectant products) 0.5 to 5 percent
• Remember to follow manufacturer’s label instruction and use in areas with adequate ventilation.

Here are some helpful suggestions:

• Use outside air to dry your home.
• Open windows and doors and use an exhaust fan to remove moist air from the house.
• If available, use a room dehumidifier. Empty it often.
• If your basement is completely flooded, begin pumping the water in stages—about one-third per day. Make sure that the level of the floodwaters is below the level of the basement floor. If so, do not pump the basement all at once because the saturated soil could cause the basement walls to collapse.
• Open, clean, disinfect, and thoroughly dry cavities in walls, floors, and ceilings.
• Allow walls to dry from the inside out.
• Remove moisture and debris from all surfaces and dry surface materials within 24 to 48 hours.
• Release any water or mud that has been trapped in walls, ceilings, or floor cavities.
• Remove all interior wall finishing materials and insulation.
• Throw out any wet insulation.
• Throw out moist plaster, wallboard, and paneling.
• If any materials are still wet or moist after 24 to 48 hours, you should assume they have mold growing on them.

Record Keeping

• Take pictures of damages for your records.
• Keep all receipts for all work done.
• Write a description of the extent of damage done.
• Record date and time of occurrence and which sewer areas overflowed—floor drain, lower level toilet, laundry tub, etc.

Insurance

Often, sump/sewer back-up coverage can be added to your homeowner’s insurance. Not all policies have this coverage. Wisconsin residents, be sure check with knowledgebroker, Dan Wolfgram.

Lice in schools is an issue every fall. Read what experts say about prevention and solving the lice problem. This article from Chicago Tribune on October 12, 2011, lists some solutions.

In adition to treating head lice and eggs on a child's hair and scalp, parents should treat objects that may harbor the small parasitic bugs. The Illinois Department of Public Health recommends:

• Exposing lice and nits to temperatures above 125 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes is lethal. Most personal articles of clothing and bedding can be disinfested by machine washing in hot water or machine drying for at least 20 minutes using the hot cycle. Be sure to allow time between loads for water to reheat to the proper temperature.

• Place nonwashable personal articles of clothing or bedding in the dryer on high heat for at least 20 minutes, dry clean, or seal nonwashable fabrics in a plastic bag for a minimum of 10 days.

• Place combs and brushes in a pan of water and heat on a stove to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. If heating may damage combs or brushes, soak them for one hour in a phenol solution, such as Lysol. To prevent the spread of head lice, do not share combs, brushes, hats, coats, towels or other articles that come in contact with the head, neck and shoulders.

• Thoroughly vacuum or clean car seats, bus seats, and individual infant and car seats according to manufacturer's directions.

• Fumigating rooms and using insecticidal sprays on furniture and carpets are not recommended to kill head lice; thorough vacuuming of houses and rooms inhabited by infested persons is sufficient

22,453,356 - This number represents the amount of patient records that have been breached since 2005 at 595 healthcare entities, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.  Last week the Ponemon Institute released their Second Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security.  Their results reveal a 32% increase in data breaches with 92% of the participants reporting they have had at least one breach in the last two years.  Most of the breaches were due to employee mistakes and sloppiness –lost or stolen laptops or mobile devises, unintentional employee actions, and Third party (business associate) errors.

The black market is very lucrative for those who obtain and sell the information that healthcare entities are responsible to protect.  In addition to patient data, patient insurance information can be used to make false or inflated insurance claims, obtain prescription drugs or receive treatment at the expense of the insurance account holder.  A patient’s health record can be sold on the black market for $50 as compared to a social security number at $3, credit card information $1.50, date of birth $3, and mothers maiden name $6. 

The examples of healthcare data breaches are many.  At www.privacyrights.org you can access their data base of breach notifications. However, this list is not complete.   In addition, many organizations choose to voluntarily notify patients of a breach when the nature of the breach falls outside of the scope of the mandatory notification requirements of state statutes.  

I believe that healthcare entities need to understand that this not an IT issue.  It is an area of risk that expands the entire organization.  Leadership should undertake building a culture of security, look for ways to encrypt data, review the indemnification provisions with third party vendors, and have an Instant Data Breach Response Plan.

The insurance options are numerous and vary greatly.  Don’t be fooled in thinking that all “Cyber” policies are alike or provide the same level of protection.  We plan for other types of disasters, now is the time to address this increasing area of risk.

1. 32 successful years!. R&R began in 1976 with a mission to provide the best coverage and pricing available for our clients. We're still here!
2. We have markets! We have access to a huge volume of standard markets, specialty programs, and non-admitted carriers.
3. We are an independent insurance broker with a single owner! We have freedom to place your coverage with the program that best serves your needs. We work for you!
4. We are staffed with seasoned specialists! We have invested in experienced professionals who have underwritten the exposures presented and understand the products available in the marketplace.
5. Carriers seek our business! We are routinely approached by insurance companies offering new products and enhancements for our customer base.
6. We can negotiate specific coverage and pricing on behalf of our clients when necessary.
7. We can assist you in the application process, coverage interpretations, and risk management education.
8. We offer a full line of insurance products including person, business, management, specialty, excess, life, health, and employee benefit coverages to round out your insurance portfolio.
9. We have grown to five locations in Wisconsin, making access to our services local and efficient for all of our customers.
10. We have established a stable relationship with thousands of customers, including over 100 law firm with a retention of over 98%. We must be doing something right!

This information represents a joint effort by NETS, NHTSA and OSHA to reduce motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries in the nation's workforce.

Every 12 minutes someone dies in a motor vehicle crash, every 10 seconds an injury occurs and every 5 seconds a crash occurs. Many of these incidents occur during the workday or during the commute to and from work. Employers bear the cost for injuries that occur both on and off the job. Whether you manage a fleet of vehicles, oversee a mobile sales force or simply employ commuters, by implementing a driver safety program in the workplace you can greatly reduce the risks faced by your employees and their families while protecting your company's bottom line.

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for all ages. Crashes on and off the job have far-reaching financial and psychological effects on employees, their coworkers and families, and their employers.

You need a driver safety program:
To save lives and to reduce the risk of life-altering injuries within your workforce.
To protect your organization's human and financial resources.
To guard against potential company and personal liabilities associated witd crashes involving employees driving on company business.
Your program should work to keep the driver and those with whom he/she shares the road safe. And, if necessary, the program must work to change driver attitudes, improve behavior, and increase skills to build a “be safe” culture. By instructing your employees in basic safe driving practices and then rewarding safety-conscious behavior, you can help your employees and their families avoid tragedy.

Employees are an employer's most valuable assets. Workplace driver safety programs not only make good business sense but also are a good employee relations tool, demonstrating that employers care about their employees.

This booklet outlines ten steps for building a driver safety program in your workplace. These steps will be useful to any organization regardless of size of the organization, type of traffic encountered, number of vehicles involved, or whether employees drive company or personal vehicles for work purposes. Also included are real-life examples of successful safety programs, key traffic safety issues to address in the workplace, instructions for calculating your organiza-tion's loss from motor vehicle crashes, and a list of resources to help you fine-tune your program.

Promoting Safe Driving Practices Helps Your Bottom Line

Motor vehicle crashes cost employers $60 billion annually in medical care, legal expenses, property damage, and lost productivity. They drive up the cost of benefits such as workers' compensation, Social Security, and private health and disability insurance. In addition, they increase the company overhead involved in administering these programs.

The average crash costs an employer $16,500. When a worker has an on-the-job crash that results in an injury, the cost to their employer is $74,000. Costs can exceed $500,000 when a fatality is involved. Off-the-job crashes are costly to employers as well.1

The real tragedy is that these crashes are largely preventable. Recognizing the opportunity that employers have to save lives, a growing number of employers have established traffic safety programs in their companies. No organization can afford to ignore a major problem that has such a serious impact on both their personnel and the company budget.

Calculate Your Costs for Motor Vehicle Crashes

To understand the impact of motor vehicle crashes on your organization, use the Costs of Traffic Crashes to Employers Worksheet, found at the end of this booklet, to calculate the cost of your crashes. You may want to initially select one recent crash to illustrate the magnitude and complexity of such losses. Once you master the worksheet for one crash, you can then apply it to all the crashes experienced in a chosen time frame (e.g., annually) within your organization to characterize your crash loss profile.

Once you know the costs associated with motor vehicle crash-es you will realize that the costs associated with implementing a driver safety program are minimal compared to the costs of crashes to your organization. Examples abound of the positive return-on-investment (ROI) realized by companies – small, medium, and large – that have implemented well-designed safe-ty programs for the benefit of their employees. In fact, the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company reported in 2001 that, based on its Executive Survey of Workplace Safety, 61 percent of surveyed business executives believe their companies receive an ROI of $3.00 or more for every $1.00 they spent on improving workplace safety.2

Depending on the size of your organization, you may have access to all of the data that you need. Or you may need to work with your human resource manager, safety manager, workers' compensation representative, accountants, and med-ical and motor vehicle insurance representatives to obtain the numbers you'll need.

Costs of Motor Vehicle Crashes to Employers Worksheet
Use the worksheet found at the end of this booklet to estimate the cost of a motor vehicle crash to your organization. The costs included on the worksheet will be estimates based upon the records, receipts and recall of those involved with the crash. It may be helpful to consult copies of accident reports, police reports, damage receipts, insurance claim records and payroll records. It is often very difficult to identify all costs associated with these crashes, so use the best information you have available. If your company incurred expenses not listed on the worksheet, be sure to include them.

This document is not a standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations. Likewise, it cannot and does not diminish any obligations established by Federal or state statute, rule, or standard. The document is advisory in nature, informational in content, and is intended to assist employers in providing a safe and healthful workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to comply with hazard-specific safety and health standards. In addition, pursuant to Section 5(a)(1), the General Duty Clause of the Act, employers must provide their employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Employers can be cited for violating the General Duty Clause if there is a recognized hazard and they do not take reasonable steps to prevent or abate the hazard.