Category Archives: Crisis Management

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TRIA’s Impact on Workers Comp

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Because of the significant financial impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress created the Federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). Its purpose is to provide a financial backstop to the insurance industry that would cap losses in the event of another large-scale terrorist event. TRIA was initially set to expire at the end of 2005, but it has been extended twice and is now set to expire Dec. 31, 2014.

When most people think of TRIA, they think of property insurance. Without TRIA, many high-profile properties would be difficult to insure in the commercial marketplace. However, TRIA also plays an important role in workers’ compensation coverage, and its pending expiration is already impacting some renewals.

Workers’ compensation insurers are particularly concerned about large accumulations of employees in small areas, also known as employee concentrations.

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When carriers model employee accumulations, they not only look at a single employer’s concentrations, but also their aggregate accumulation exposure for all their policyholders in a particular zip code or city and in some cases across multiple correlated lines of business. Because workers’ compensation underwriters are required to provide terrorism coverage by law, the only way to limit their exposure is to reduce the amount of capacity they offer.

If TRIA is allowed to expire or is modified significantly, employers in certain cities and industries with large employee concentrations will likely experience capacity shortages.

In fact, the uncertainty around TRIA’s reauthorization is already leading some workers’ compensation carriers to decline or non-renew risks in certain geographical areas, or ask for large rate increases.

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The healthcare, public entity, higher education, and financial sectors are particularly affected by employee concentration issues at the moment.

To mitigate the impact of TRIA’s uncertainty, employers should differentiate their risk. Since both insurers and reinsurers use catastrophic models to estimate their loss potentials, it is critical that employers provide the highest quality of exposure data to help distinguish their risk profiles from their peers.

Additionally, companies with multiple shifts or those that operate in a campus setting should make sure to report both the total number of employees and the number of employees working during peak shifts—as well as the actual buildings where the employees are located. The number of employees working during peak shifts is the actual exposure to a terrorist event, not the total number of employees.

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Also, companies with a large percentage of their workforce in the field or telecommuting, rather than in the office where their payroll is assigned, should give this information to insurers. Providing very detailed information can help overcome some potential pitfalls of the catastrophic models and better reflect an employer’s exposure to catastrophic losses.

Employers with a large concentration of workers, especially those in major metropolitan areas, should be prepared to provide the following information to underwriters:

  • Employee marital or dependency status, including dates of birth for dependents.
  • Employee telecommuting/hospitality practices and impact on concentration.
  • Physical security of the building, including information about guards, surveillance cameras, parking areas, and HVAC protections.
  • How access to the building is controlled.
  • Construction of the building and location of the offices.
  • Management policies around workplace violence, weapons, and employment screening.
  • Employee security procedures.
  • Emergency response/crisis management plans and procedures.
  • Fire/life safety program.
  • A list of security staff.

As we move into 2014 without Congressional action on TRIA, the reaction of the marketplace is expected to become more pronounced. It is imperative that employers prepare to address the concentration issues with their carriers. This will help lessen the impact of these concerns and position employers to receive optimal terms on their risk management programs.

Supertyphoon Haiyan Devastates Philippines

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Supertyphoon Haiyan strikes the Philippines

Supertyphoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 10,000 residents dead and hundreds of thousands without reliable food, shelter or water. One of the strongest storms ever recorded, Haiyan’s winds surpassed 140 miles per hour, bringing record storm surges. The full extent of the damage remains uncertain, with communication and transportation severely restricted.

The World Bank has called the Philippines one of the most hazard-prone countries in the world. Closed roads and airports restricted aid efforts after Supertyphoon Haiyan, and communication failures posed some of the greatest challenges to both assessing and recovering from damage.

“Under normal circumstances, even in a typhoon, you’d have some local infrastructure up and some businesses with which you can contract,” Praveen Agrawal, the World Food Program’s Philippines representative and country director, told the New York Times. “Being as strong as it was, it was very much like a tsunami. It wiped out everything. It’s like starting from scratch” in terms of delivering the aid, he said.

The United Nations has set aside over $300 million to help with the country’s recovery from Haiyan over the next six months, and three dozen individual nations and international organizations have pledged financial and humanitarian assistance. The United States recalled thousands of sailors from shore leave back to the USS George Washington, a massive aircraft carrier currently docked in Hong Kong, to use its 80 aircraft to help deliver supplies and evacuate victims in the Philippines’ hardest-hit islands.

Yet with the broad scope of damage to critical infrastructure, the process has been slow. In the major city of Tacloban, for example, the traffic control tower at one of the country’s biggest airports was destroyed, forcing all aircraft to land by sight, further slowing distribution of food and water. Officials opened smaller airstrips, focusing on safely reopening transportation routes as the hundreds of thousands of evacuees continue to face extreme water shortage. This shortage further compounds the dangers authorities face in recovery, as health officials grow more concerned about water-borne diseases. Most notably, the lack of clean drinking and bathing water in crowded evacuation centers brings risk of diarrhea, leptospirosis and dengue.

Officials are looking forward while managing the catastrophic fallout. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima acknowledged that the destruction wrought by the disaster on an area that contributes 12.5% to gross domestic product could shave off as much as a full percentage point to economic growth next year, when the government targets GDP expansion of at least 6.5%. He is hopeful that the adverse effect on growth will be cushioned, if not offset, by the reconstruction spending.

“From a fiscal standpoint, we do have fiscal space to spend for reconstruction. The estimates are preliminary, but we need to invest significantly on infrastructure,” Mr. Purisima said.

The New York Times reported:

HSBC Global Research said that the typhoon probably destroyed half the sugar cane production areas in Leyte Province, and that all told, 3.5 percent of the nation’s sugar cane output was probably lost. It also warned of inflationary shocks to the Philippine economy in the coming months, as supply chains are disrupted.

But given the general health of the Philippine economy and the fact that the typhoon affected geographic areas and sectors like agriculture that are not major drivers of the nation’s output, HSBC said, “The economic impact will be limited.”

Citi Research estimated that infrastructure damage will probably run into billions of pesos, exceeding $70 million.

In Warsaw on Monday, some delegates at United Nations talks on a global climate treaty suggested that global warming was responsible for making Haiyan such a devastating storm. Naderev Saño, the chief representative of the Philippines at the conference, told the New York Times, “What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness; the climate crisis is madness.”

Scientists cannot be certain of the overall impact of climate change on severe weather like hurricanes and typhoons, but have noted that more powerful storms will continue as the climate changes. With winds of at least 140 miles an hour, Typhoon Haiyan is considered one of the strongest storms to make landfall. “As you warm the climate, you basically raise the speed limit on hurricanes,” said M.I.T. atmospheric scientist Kerry A. Emanuel.

The powerful storm surges recorded are also likely part of a new reality in major storms. “When you strip everything else away, we’re seeing a general rise in sea level,” James P. Kossin, atmospheric scientist at the National Climatic Data Center, told the Times. “There’s no question that storm surge is going to be compounded.”

Security a Focus after N.J. Mall Shooting

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The most recent mall shooting, just a few days ago at the Garden State Plaza in N.J., again heightened the focus on risk management and security nationwide.

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Parents have trusted that malls would be safe for teenagers to meet with friends, but places for public gathering can become targets for violence. The pressure is on for organizations to examine their security measures and contingency plans.

David Boehm, with Security USA said in an interview with CBS New York that the U.S. can learn from security experts in Israel. Similar to Israel, he said, our country heading in the direction of having officers stationed at entrances and exits to malls.

In an article written for Security Management, Donald W. Story, a former police chief and director of corporate security for two major shopping center developers observed that if even one shopping center is targeted in the U.S., all malls will be seen as unsafe. The public will need to be reassured, and “for that reason, it is imperative that every mall manager begin to think about how security should respond to an attack.”

The Israeli model offers lessons for U.S. malls in contingency planning, he said, adding that shopping malls, considered “soft targets” in Israel, are monitored externally by motorized and foot patrols. Vehicles entering mall property are subject to search, as are people entering malls. To do this, officers use explosion detection technology, including bomb sniffing dogs, he said, adding that unlike many mall security guards in the U.

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S., all Israeli security are armed.

Going by the Israeli model, contingency plans should be incorporated and implemented only if a heightened security posture is needed, he said.

Good contingency plans should examine coverage of the shopping mall, access, reassignment of staff’s tasks and deliveries and contractors in case of an emergency, Story said. Preventative measures should also be in place.

Because obtaining additional security officers and relying on local police for assistance might be difficult, an option would be for security officers and other staff to work longer shifts under predetermined circumstances, Story said.

The plan should address shopping center access, under what circumstances the mall would heighten control over entry, and how this would be done. Since many malls would not have adequate staffing to monitor all entrances, for example, the plan might call for closing some entrances under an elevated threat level.

Similarly, the safety plan should determine under what conditions the use of explosive-scanning technology and/or bomb-sniffing dogs would be warranted—and how this equipment would be obtained in an emergency.

Because officers would be taken from their normal duties during an emergency, minor security tasks could instead be completed by management, operations or housekeeping staffs.

Deliveries should be restricted to specific time periods when the appropriate employees are available to verify documentation, he said. Contractors, their supplies and materials should also be checked.

Officers would need to be trained to recognize certain behaviors and intercept potential terrorists. Story said they would also need instruction on proper procedures for making these assessments without being accused of profiling.

He added that some mall properties have already taken moderate and inexpensive steps to tighten mall security. Those include fire lane parking enforcement, visible waste containers, limited and guarded access to roof hatches and closer monitoring of deliveries and contractors. The Garden State Plaza, which has been praised for its preparedness, instituted security training on Sundays when the mall is closed. Shop owners also followed protocol, locking customers inside stores for safety.

New York Institutes New Disaster Protocol for Insurers

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On October 28, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the establishment of a new Emergency Disaster Protocol that insurers should expect to follow in the event of a future natural disaster. The protocol was communicated to insurers in the form of a circular letter on the same day. The new protocol includes many of the same measures that were put into place following Superstorm Sandy.

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“During Superstorm Sandy these steps helped us speed up relief to New York families and businesses, and they will now become a standard part of our storm response arsenal,” said Governor Cuomo. “Insurance companies have a vital responsibility to promptly process claims for consumers hit by a natural disaster and this new emergency protocol will help make sure that they live up to that standard.”

In future natural disasters, insurers can expect the following measures, among others, to go into effect: the creation of an expedited process for temporarily licensing new claims adjusters; establishment of an online report card to hold insurance companies publicly accountable for their claims processing performance; creation of a mediation process for homeowners; and institution of a temporary moratorium on the canceling of policies in storm-stricken areas for non-payment of premiums.

“Having an emergency protocol for insurers on the shelf and ready to activate at a moment’s notice will help ensure that consumers are protected when another storm strikes,” said Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York’s superintendent of financial services. This protocol will make it crystal clear to insurers what is expected of them when responding to future natural disasters and helping families and businesses get back on their feet.

”

In his letter to insurers, Superintendent Lawsky did state that the measures laid out in this new protocol are not all-encompassing, but that they are those the administration would be most likely to employ, “in whole or in part,” following a future disaster in the state.