Another free online game, this one related to insurance and climate change

Again, here's the disclaimer: Probably not a good idea to do this at work. But a few days after we mentioned one insurer's free online racing game, one of our Twitter followers pointed us to another insurance-related free game on the web.

Financial company Allianz and the World Wildlife Fund have apparently teamed up to create a strategy-based game in which you're a CEO struggling to reduce the company's carbon footprint. You make a series of choices -- offshore wind turbines? microinsurance? etc. -- and see how those choices pencil out.

HHS announces $51 million in grants to improve insurance rate reviews

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced that it's making $51 million in grants available to states as part of a new $250 million program "to create and strengthen insurance rate review processes."

From HHS' press release:

“This is an important step in putting consumers back in control of their health care,” said (HHS) Secretary (Kathleen) Sebelius. “These new grants will help states protect consumers and small employers by holding insurers accountable for unreasonable insurance rate increases that have made coverage unaffordable for many American families."

Here in Washington state, the insurance commissioner's office has some rate review authority already, and it can make a significant difference. In Washington personal auto insurance from 2000 through 2008, for example, the rates we approved were a total of $217 million lower than what the insurers had originally requested. For homeowners' coverage, the savings over the same period was nearly $37 million.

Job opening: We're looking for an investigations manager in our Tumwater office

The Washington state insurance commissioner's office is looking for an investigations manager to oversee the investigation staff in our legal affairs division. They investigate insurance companies, insurance agents and brokers, and (increasingly, it seems) unlicensed "insurers" offering products illegally.

The job includes day-to-day oversight of the unit, prioritizing resources and caseload and monitoring trends to pro-actively protect consumers. The requirements include at least 10 years experience as an investigator or equivalent, (although some of that time can be substituted with college-level coursework in a related field).

Pay is $80,000 to $85,000, depending on experience.

For many more details, including a job application, please see this job announcement. The application period closes June 21st.
Also, if you want to learn of any future openings as soon as we post them, you can sign up for our jobs RSS feed, which is located here.

Job opening: Financial examiner in our Seattle office

We're looking for a financial examiner to join our company supervision team in Seattle. From the job description:

As an examiner-in-charge (EIC), this position plans and conducts the field and/or in-office financial examinations of insurance companies.

Among the job's primary duties:

Plans, conducts, and leads in-field/in-office financial examinations of insurance companies and prepares/coordinates formalized examination reports. Examines/analyzes annual financial statements, actuarial opinions, management decisions and analyses, audited financial statements, holding company statements and other sources of information to discern financial conditions, difficulties, trends, statutory compliance, accuracy and completeness. Reviews and assesses the work and findings of other examiners, staff and experts.

Required qualifications include a CPA license, designation as an accredited financial examiner or certified financial examiner. See the link below for more details.

The pay range is $4,770 to $6,257 a month. Deadline for applying is June 30.

For more details, including a job application, please see our recruitment page.

Also, if you want to learn of any future openings as soon as we post them, you can sign up for our jobs RSS feed, which is located here.

$83.9 million for health information technology: state-by-state list of recipients

In health care reform, there's nearly universal agreement that a long-term fix means finding ways to bring down the fast-rising surge in costs. (We're involved with some of those efforts; here's a good overview of some of the proposals and challenges.) One of the key strategies is to harness the efficiencies of technology. Why? See photo above.

On the federal front, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services -- the primary agency implementing the nuts and bolts of health care reform -- today announced nearly $83.9 million in grants to help networks of health centers shift to electronic health records. Combined the networks provide care for nearly 19 million patients.

Here's HHS' announcement, which includes a state-by-state list of grant recipients.

Insurer launches free online racing game to promote responsible driving

Don't try this at work, but car insurer Liberty Mutual has released a free online racing game that seeks to encourage safe driving. It has a single-player mode, or up to six players can compete against each other online. From the company's press release:

“In designing the 2099 game, we posed the question: what would responsible driving look and feel like in the future?” said Greg Gordon, senior vice president of Consumer Marketing at Liberty Mutual. “Certainly, we envision our cars being more high-tech. On the other hand, there is one element of driving that will never change – an area we wanted to spark awareness around – the importance of staying safe behind the wheel.”

The company says the game "is designed for people who enjoy taking 15-30 minutes from their day to play free online games."

What's insurance got to do with it? The game rewards safer drivers by giving them more insurance, which can then be used to repair the car and keep going.

Insurance news and summaries

The Washington post has a rundown on four of the top officials in the newly formed Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.

Colorado's 9News has a story about a local man whose homeowner's coverage was dropped after 42 years, after five claims in 13 years, three of them for less than $500. All involved wind and hail damage.

Insurance Journal says that the National Flood Insurance Program, which lapsed at midnight Monday night, will be suspended until June 7 or later.

Asurion is reportedly planning to offer coverage for iPhones at $13.99/month, with a deductible of $99-$199.

Neal T. Gooch has been sworn in as the new insurance commissioner for Utah.

The Seattle Times has a poll story suggesting that health reform critics would rather modify federal health reform, instead of repeal it.

The Vancouver (WA) Columbian has a story about health care reform in Washington state.

Finally, there's a bizarre story out of Guatemala -- no insurance angle yet, although we suspect there will be -- about a giant sinkhole that swallowed a building. It's worth the click just to see the aerial photo of the thing.