Tag: Self Insurance

While Jimbo the Clown and his sidekick Mikey the Cook are MIA, BP claims go unpaid.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney

Donelon said that members of his staff have investigated some BP-related claims centers throughout Louisiana.

“We have done some visits to claims centers and found them to be operating smoothly, but that is not all of the claims centers and I do not know how many adjusters there are.” he said.

Donelon said his department has become skilled at knowing when claims are mishandled given the department’s experience of settling claims related to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

“We had a million claims in connection with Rita and Katrina five years ago, so yeah, we do know when things are not being handled as they should be, I believe, and we are knowledgeable and experienced and staffed enough to monitor this situation from an insurance regulatory perspective, no doubt,” he said.

Meantime this is what Mike Chaney had to say about the BP claims process:

..

This is from David Hammer’s report in today’s Times Picayune on the tar balls in Lake Pontchartrain:

BP’s payments to spill victims — those injured physically or economically by the oil — have not kept pace with what it has spent on containment, according to newly released data. The British oil giant agreed recently to release spreadsheets detailing its claims Continue reading “While Jimbo the Clown and his sidekick Mikey the Cook are MIA, BP claims go unpaid.”

Let's switch gears and talk Louisiana Insurance Commish Jim Donelon: A hollow man that is full of hot air.

This past week on Slabbed has been nothing short of extraordinary as Nowdy’s post on Katrina’s Who Dat Judge Martin Feldman went national and our site traffic went into the stratosphere despite not being credited with breaking the story in the press with the exception of Anita Lee at the Sun Herald. In the middle of the mayhem, we were contacted by Debbie over at the Dimechimes Adjuster Information Blog asking for our take on the problems in the BP claims process. She also mentioned Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim “Jimbo the Clown” Donelon, which at Slabbed is like throwing red meat to a pack of hungry dogs.

Jimbo has been a frequest topic through time here at Slabbed as he is a wholly owned by the insurance interests he is charged to regulate. He can spout the party line from the shills over at Insurance Information Institute chapter and verse and he presides over the most expensive insurance market in the country while doing little to change it. He is a pal to Mississippi’s Insurance Commish Mike Chaney, another hollow man / career politician that is similarly wholly owned by the insurance industry. Simply put both these guys are accomplished at going on camera and spouting bullshit as gospel but in no way shape or form serve the citizens that elected them.

Before we get to BP claims some air clearing is in order.  In some circles Slabbed has the reputation of being anti-business and anti-insurance though that could not be further from the truth.  In real life I am the embodiment of the small business person and proudly belong to the local Chamber of Commerce. Politicians like to spout off at the mouth at the importance of small business while serving their paymasters in big business, a topic we’ve frequently called bullshit on.  We’re also not anti-insurance though we take great exception to the new fangled way the large retail insurers adjust their claims as well as the way certain insurers defrauded the National Flood Insurance Program after Katrina. We’ve been privileged to get to know several folks in the industry like our own Supsalemgr who has written a couple of guest posts for Slabbed that may not agree with everything we write but who also understand we have raised legitimate issues that need to be addressed. Debbie falls into that group so when she asked for our take on the BP claims process we are very happy to help.

So here is the deal. BP hired a large adjusting outfit, ESIS to handle the many claims of the commercial fishermen and small business impacted by the spill.  ESIS is a subsidiary of ACE, a company connected to disgraced former AIG CEO Maurice Hank Greenberg, that did not have a footprint in this area.  ESIS in turn hired Worley Catastrophe Services, a local company based in Hammond to help staff the BP claims centers. And of course the process to date is best described by the acronym FUBAR. Continue reading “Let's switch gears and talk Louisiana Insurance Commish Jim Donelon: A hollow man that is full of hot air.”