Highlights from APRIL 2013 MeeTing
submitted by Glen Phares
The following items were discussed at the January meeting. The CRA Insurance Committee meets quarterly with members of our preferred provider Jenkins Insurance Services (Leavitt Group) to review various matters affecting our industry within the liability, workers compensation and health care arena.
Paul Lindsey, Jim Bankston, and Sue Ludden presented for Jenkins.
In industry news liability insurance rates are remaining about the same. Currently we are seeing an 8-10% increase on most renewals. The CRA group’s claims ratio has inched up a bit to 50.71% through the first quarter of 2013. During this time the major portion of our losses has been Property Claims including Rental Equipment, a large portion of which resulted from two major fire claims. The program remains very competitive from a rate perspective versus our competition. I highly recommend you consider Jenkins Insurance Group if you don’t already use them.
Sue Ludden with Jenkins gave a great presentation on Worker’s Compensation at the board meeting. Unfortunately, things continue to worsen. Some renewals with claims activities are seeing as high as a 40% increase, 20% is common. Even with the changes moving through the state legislature now it looks as though little is being done to curb fraud which is the primary cost driver. CRA and Jenkins Insurance group have teamed up with AIX to start working on a “Preferred Workers Compensation Market” in hopes of combating what looks to be a foreseeable upward trend in Worker’s Compensation rates.
Jenkins sees no sign at this time of any relief for rising medical insurance premiums. Obamacare is right around the corner with full implantation scheduled to go into effect in 2014. Right now it is very chaotic. Most of the rules still are not clearly defined. The States and the Insurance Companies are struggling to get a handle on what exactly they will be held responsible for and how it will be paid for. At this point the Federal Government is having trouble meeting its obligations to set up the exchanges. To help you navigate all of this CRA in conjunction with Jenkins will be conducting Obamacare seminars in both Northern and Southern California. Check with CRA office or check our website for further information.
Jenkins now has a link on the CRA website: www.calrental.org. This portal will take the user to the Jenkins Rental Insurance site which is filled with lots of valuable information you can use for rental center such as; Driver Education, Work Safety and Risk Assessment. In conjunction with this Jenkins is emailing members monthly “Safety Talks”. If you are not receiving these please contact Gayle Fritzberg to be added to the list.
I am also very pleased to report that the relationship with Jenkins Group is as strong as ever. The board of directors at the meeting voted unanimously to endorse the CRA / Jenkins Insurance Program. It is great to have a solution like this for our membership!
Your feedback is appreciated. If you have any questions for the Insurance Committee please feel free to contact the CRA or myself.
