Mass. DOI Produces Heating Oil Bulletin
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Division of Insurance recently issued a bulletin to remind homeowners insurers that they are obligated to offer coverage to residential property owners for the costs associated with remediating oil spills.
This coverage will be required to be made available along with all home insurance offered, issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2010, the Division stated. The term “residential property” describes a one to four-unit dwelling used for living or sleeping and “tank” refers to a liquid fuel tank in which heating oil is stored and from which heating oil is delivered or pumped through a fuel supply line to an oil burner, whether located within a dwelling or other structure, including tanks installed at or below grade level, or located outdoors but excluding underground tanks wherever located.
However, the statute also notes that an insurer may require that an owner supply proof that they have taken all remediation steps required by law or regulation as a precondition to the issuance of the coverage outlined in the statute.
First-party coverage of at least $50,000 per occurrence must be offered, according to the bulletin. The “occurrence” would refer to the release of heating oil from a residential liquid fuel tank or any piping, fuel supply lines, equipment or systems connected to the fuel tank. Thed coverage will also extend to the costs incurred to assess and remediate a heating oil release impacting soil, indoor air or other environmental media on the insured’s property and also reimburse for any_associated personal property coverage, the Division stated.
The bulletin went on to note that in-
surers must make available liability
coverage of at least $200,000 per oc-
currence for third-party claims and
legal defense arising out of a release
of heating oil into the environ-
ment. The coverage would be used
to defend and indemnify the insured
against any third-party claims and
shall include response action costs in-
curred to address conditions on and
off the insured’s property arising from
a heating oil release on the insured’s
property that has impacted or is likely
to impact groundwater or has migrat-
ed to, or is likely to migrate to, a third
party’s property. In addition to the
specified coverage limits, carriers must
also make available coverage for the le-
gal defense costs arising from a covered
event. Deductibles may be no more
than $1,000 per claim and all home
insurers must file their forms with the
Division well in advance of the July 1
date for offering coverage. ■
BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley recently released a report outlining factors that contribute to health care cost increases.
Over the past year, Coakley’s Health Care Division has conducted an extensive investigation into the contracting practices between commercial health care insurers and health care providers (hospitals and physicians), specifically examining health care prices and how those prices are reached.
Coakley reached several conclusions,
which include the fact that prices paid
by health insurance companies to hos-
pitals and physician groups vary
significantly within the same geo-
graphic area and amongst providers
offering similar levels of service; price
variations for hospitals and physi-
cians offering similar services are not
explained by quality of care, the sick-
ness or complexity of the population
being served, the extent to which the
hospital is responsible for caring for a
large portion of patients on Medicare
or Medicaid, or whether the hospital
is an academic teaching or research
facility; price variations are correlated
to market leverage as measured by the
relative market position of the hospi-
tal or provider group compared with
other hospitals or provider groups
within a geographic region or within
a group of academic medical cen-
ters; and variations in providers’ per
member per month expenses are not
correlated to the methodology used
to pay for health care, with expens-
es sometimes higher for globally paid
providers than for providers paid on a
fee-for-service basis.
■
Coakley also noted that price increases, not increases in utilization, caused most of the increases in health care costs during the past few years in Massachusetts.
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