July 11, 2010-The Dickinson Press
Then there are geriatric drivers
By: Lloyd Omdahl, The Dickinson Press
With nearly a quarter of the fatal traffic accidents involving teenagers, the state’s liberal licensing laws have come under attack by safety and enforcement organizations. Under present law, children as young as 14 can end up spreading mayhem on the public streets and highways.
The issue of teenage driving has been kept alive since the 2009 session. It is very likely that bills will appear in the Legislature to deal with the issue and it is also highly likely that very little will be done. It runs against our traditional streak against regulating anything, even danger.
While focusing on teenage driving, we have failed to look seriously at the other end of the spectrum — the elderly. Since I am now in that category, I have license to discuss the serious problem we have with older people who no longer possess the skill or comprehension to drive anything faster than a
Meting out justice for seniors is no easy matter. Just a few weeks ago, a 92-year-old North Dakota driver crossed the centerline and piled into two motorcycles. One cyclist was killed and the other was sent to the hospital. The driver was fined $20. An insightful citizen wrote a letter to a newspaper, pointing out that if the driver had been a teenager, he/she would probably be sitting in jail for vehicular manslaughter.
While it is great to see older people able to function independently, the time comes when they are a threat to themselves and everyone else on the highway. It’s OK if some old people want to go out in a blaze of destruction as long as they are the only ones who go. Unfortunately, they end up killing innocent people who would prefer to stay around a little longer.
Taking the keys away from older people is difficult, too difficult for most family members. With so many dangerous older drivers on the loose, it is obvious that relatives aren’t doing it. And doctors find it difficult to weigh in on the decision. Some have enough good sense to restrict their driving.
If relatives and doctors can’t make the hard decisions, the only remaining solution is retesting. Every one over the age of 70 should be required to take driver competence examinations whenever their licenses come up for renewal. As long as they can pass the exams, they should be able to drive until they are centenarians.
If we can’t stomach the brutality of an examination system, we should at least require drivers over 80 to have one of their
If we are unwilling to pass laws to curb geriatric manslaughter, then we ought to charge the elderly with the same crimes and render the same punishment as we do with teenagers. Spending the later years in prison can’t be any worse than spending early years in prison. One year is as dear as another.
July 9, 2010-Fargo Forum
Father, son involved in 37 traffic crashes charged with insurance fraud
By: Dave Olson, INFORUM
The driver was making a lane change at 15th Avenue and 48th Street South in Fargo.
She looked carefully before making the maneuver, but as she negotiated the lane change, another driver was “suddenly there,” and a collision occurred.
The driver making the sudden appearance, according to court papers describing the crash, was Sead Mustafic, who filed an
It was one of 27 traffic crashes Mustafic was involved in between July 2008 and June 2010, according to papers filed in Cass County District Court accusing Mustafic, 43, and his son, Senad Mustafic, 24, of defrauding insurance companies of more than $10,000.
Both men are charged with illegally conducting an enterprise and theft of property, Class B felonies.
Sead Mustafic is also charged with a Class C felony count of insurance fraud, while Senad Mustafic faces a misdemeanor count of insurance fraud.
According to documents filed with the court:
Joe Pittman began working as a special investigator with the North Dakota Insurance Department in December 2009, taking on existing cases that included a referral from
The case related to a crash involving Sead Mustafic. The insurance company believed that damage to Mustafic’s vehicle appeared to have been added after the crash, possibly by rubbing the paint with a brick.
Growing case
Pittman, the former chief of police at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, collected information from a number of insurance investigators and found that between July 2008 and June 2010, the father and son were involved in 37 crashes – 27 for the father, Sead Mustafic, and 10 for his son, Senad Mustafic.
Most of the incidents were lane-change type crashes in which the other driver would normally be considered the at-fault driver, the court papers state.
Other drivers involved in the crashes were either women between the ages of 16 and 30 or a mix of men and women age 50 to 90, according to the court documents.
Many of the crashes occurred within a one-mile radius of interstate interchanges at 45th Street and 13th Avenue in Fargo.
A crash reconstruction expert with the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Trooper Matthew Brown, identified 16 insurance cases involving either Sead Mustafic or Senad Mustafic in which damage to a vehicle was inconsistent with the accident description, court documents state.
Many of the incidents involved damage claims of between $1,000 and $7,000.
The court papers quote a statement from Trooper Brown in which he said:
“Considering each of these cases individually, along with the totality of the circumstances, it would appear that [Sead Mustafic and Senad Mustafic are] most likely causing these minor crashes intentionally, intentionally causing further damage to the vehicles after the crash and filing
‘Evidence of fraud’
The court papers describe a traffic incident from July 2008 in which a driver was making lane changes on 13th Avenue near 27th Street South in Fargo.
The driver, identified by the initials O.C., was in the left lane intending to change two lanes to the right.
Senad Mustafic was in the middle lane.
“O.C. successfully changed to the middle lane in front of Senad,” the court papers state.
“When O.C. started to change into the right lane Senad sped up, changing to the right lane, positioning his vehicle so that O.C. would run into him,” the court documents state.
In that case, Senad Mustafic provided a statement to Progressive Insurance, apparently his own insurance company, describing the crash.
Both insurance companies in that case, Progressive and Auto-Owners, denied the claim, and the case went to arbitration.
Auto-Owners was ordered to pay 100 percent of damages because its client was changing lanes. It paid Senad Mustafic $3,207, court papers say.
Trooper Brown determined in that case that damage to the hood of Senad Mustafic’s vehicle was inconsistent with the accident description and evidence of insurance fraud.
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said Sead Mustafic was being held in the Cass County Jail on Thursday night pending a court appearance.
Senad Mustafic was not in custody, but Hamm said it was his understanding that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Hamm said he was proud of the collaborative effort between his office and law enforcement, including the North Dakota Highway Patrol and the Cass County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Hamm also said he was proud of Pittman.
“He’s been doing a very good job with all sorts of investigations that are at different stages. This is just one of them,” Hamm said.
July 7, 2010-Jamestown Sun
Grand Forks insurance agent ordered to stop doing business
North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm today issued a cease and desist order against David Glessner, a Grand Forks insurance agent, and MAG Insurance LLC, a Grand Forks insurance agency, who are alleged to have improperly used money belonging to insurance clients. MAG Insurance is the business entity name by which Glessner conducts some or all of his
The cease and desist order alleges that Glessner accepted money from an insurance client, and then issued one or more falsified insurance policies and also failed to
“In cases like this, my department moves swiftly to attempt to ensure that there is no future harm to consumers,” Hamm said. “We have quickly opened an investigation to uncover any fraudulent or illegal transactions.”
Hamm added that as part of the investigation the Insurance Department is looking for other North Dakota consumers who may have purchased insurance from Glessner or MAG Insurance. If a consumer is worried about his or her coverage under a policy purchased through Glessner or MAG Insurance, contact the Insurance Department at 1-800-247-0560 or insurance@nd.gov.
Glessner has a right to request an administrative hearing on the cease and desist order within 30 days of issuance.
July 1, 2010-Jamestown Sun
Hamm warns residents about insurance scams
Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm has announced that North Dakotans may be victims of a group of companies selling potentially misleading health insurance plans across the nation.
The products are being disguised as major medical health insurance plans, but in many cases they are actually a medical discount plan, a limited benefit plan or a combination. In at least one state, the products are being sold via fax and telemarketing.
The Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner stated in a recent cease and desist order that “consumers are led to believe that the product offered constitutes comprehensive health insurance, and the bank and the credit card accounts of customers who agree to purchase the product are immediately debited.” Several states have issued cease and desist orders against the companies.
“Consumers should check to see if funds are being withdrawn by an entity listed as ‘ATA-SDS’ followed by a number or ‘CITM’ or ‘Peoples Healthcare,’” Hamm said. “These listings indicate that a consumer may be dealing with one or more of the entities involved in the scam.”
Several other states are looking into concerns about the following companies: American Trade Association, Association of Independent Managers (AIM Health Plans Inc.), Beema-Pakistan Insurance Company, CEO Clubs, Executive Healthcare, First American Health, Healthcare America, Hudson Valley Consultants, LLC, Incorp. Services, Inc., Insurance Resource Group, Integrated Health Plan Inc., Integrated Insurance Marketing Inc., Metropolitan Business Alliance, Mini Healthcare, National Association of Business Leadership (NABL), Omni Healthcare, Pinnacle Health Solutions, Real Benefits Association, Serve America Assurance, Ltd., Smart Data Solutions, SouthEast Insurance Advisors, LLC, Star Group U.K Ltd., a.k.a. Phoenix Insurance Company, United States Contractors Trust, Viking Administrators LLC, Wilshire Holding, LLC and Worldwide Family Benefits Association, Inc.
Hamm said consumers should look over any materials they have received to see if these company names appear on the documents. He said they should call the state Insurance Department at 1-800-247-0560 if they’ve been contacted by one of these companies.
The Insurance Department is working to identify North Dakotans possibly affected.
June 24, 2010-Bismarck Tribune
Hamm says N.D. insurance customers
favor basics
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010 2:00 am
When given a budget and a chance to choose health benefits, North Dakota customers prefer broad, basic insurance plans with preventive care, a state Insurance Department study says.
But they rejected “lifestyle” benefits such as coverage of impotence drugs, according to the study announced Wednesday.
Small groups were asked to choose from a menu of possible insurance benefits, including hospital and drug coverage, preventive care, dental and vision benefits, and mental health care.
The exercise, called Choosing
Participants initially were asked to pick their preferred plan. Then they met and were asked to design a
Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said the groups preferred spreading their health care dollars among most of the categories, without choosing more expensive options — such as lower deductibles — in any one category.
They favored coverage for preventive care, and did not include insurance for “lifestyle” benefits such as impotence and infertility treatments and hair transplants, Hamm said.
“They wanted to get as many of those different categories and basic needs filled as possible, instead of trying to build a rich plan in one or two areas,” he said.
Hamm said the North Dakota Legislature may use the report to consider whether to keep some mandated health-insurance coverage plans.
The North Dakota report has also been forwarded to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in hopes that it will be used to help design a standard, basic benefits package, Hamm said.
In all, 143 people took part in the sessions, while 79 did the CHAT exercise on the Insurance Department’s website, the report says.
The agency said they represented all income and age levels; many had
June 18, 2010-Bismarck Tribune Editorial
Look again at graduated driver’s
licenses
Tribune editorial | Posted: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:00 am
What’s the biggest reason behind adopting a graduated driver’s license for teenagers?
Saving lives.
States that have gone to some form of incremental progression of young driver licensing have seen a 20 percent drop in teen traffic fatalities.
Argue what you may, it’s about white crosses along the side of the road for young men and women.
It’s not a black and white issue in terms of being able to drive or not. It’s about lengthening the amount of time between getting that learner’s permit and obtaining a full-fledged license — adding time, and experience.
Generally, here’s how it would work, according to material from
– Learner stage. At age 14, young people could get a
– Intermediate stage. It would require the teens to be at least 151/2 years of age, have no violation, log at least 40 hours of supervised driving with 10 of those hours being at night, have had a learner permit for at least 12 months and pass a driving
– Unrestricted stage. The driver would have to be at least 16 years of age, have no traffic violations, no history of drug or alcohol use and have had an intermediate license for at least six months.
There would be an exception for teens involved in farm and ranch work.
It’s more complicated. Today, you can go from learner permit to licensed driver relatively quickly. With a graduated driver’s license, there are many more hoops to jump through, and young drivers would gain experience as they gained maturity.
A graduated driver’s license was considered in the 2009 legislative session and was rejected by lawmakers. The opposition was based on a number of issues, but could be traced largely to a concern about forcing government into people’s lives.
That’s something lawmakers have to balance with saving the lives of teenage drivers.
In 2009, there were 16 fatal teen-driver accidents and 545 injuries. The numbers are frank reminders of what’s at stake.
The insurance commissioner and a coalition of interest groups should make another run at the Legislature on the issue of graduated driver’s licenses.
It would be an important tool in keeping North Dakota highways safe, not just for teenagers, but for all the drivers in the state.
The bottom line: It would keep more teens alive.
June 11, 2010-Fargo Forum
ND agencies getting break on building insurance
By: Associated Press, INFORUM
BISMARCK — North Dakota’s state and local government agencies will be getting a break on their building insurance.
The state’s Fire and Tornado Fund covers damage to government buildings.
Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm says the agencies will get a 50 percent credit on their insurance bills, starting July 1. Hamm says that will save local governments about $3.2 million.
Hamm says the fund has a minimum balance of $12 million. In April it had more than $27 million in assets.
Hamm says the fund has had good investment returns this year. Last year when the stock and bond markets were down, the fund didn’t give a credit on its premiums.
June 11, 2010-KFGO News
Bell considered “extreme flight risk”
source:Paul Jurgens, KFGO News Center
The lead prosecutor in the murder of 11 year-old Jeanna North says he hopes the Federal Bureau of Prisons knows what they have in convicted kidnapper and child killer Kyle Bell.
As KFGO News first reported, the former Fargo man has been moved from the “supermax” prison in Colorado to what’s considered a maximum security prison in Arizona.
Bell escaped from a prison-transport bus in New Mexico and was on the run for three months after he was convicted in the North case. Before that, he jumped bail on child molestation charge in Fargo and was captured in Denver.
May 5, 2010-Minot Daily News
Hamm: Premiums will likely rise
By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com
Higher health insurance premiums might be inevitable once health reforms go into full effect in four years, North Dakota’s insurance commissioner told insurance agents in Minot Tuesday.
Commissioner Adam Hamm spoke to members of Independent Insurance Agents of North Dakota and Professional Insurance Agents of North Dakota at their joint convention in Minot this week. He said that his office has been swamped with consumer calls about health reform, and the most common concern is the potential effect on premiums.
“The reality is that health-care spending is likely to continue rising far faster than general inflation well into the future. That’s going to result in higher premiums. While some folks who have health problems may see their premiums decrease, for most Americans, premiums are going to continue to increase from year to year,” he said.
Hamm said what makes health care in this country unsustainable is the affordability. But the reform bill focused on expanding access, which only drives cost up. Once guaranteed coverages promised in the reform bill are are added by 2014, premiums could rise dramatically, he said.
“That’s because you are going to add those layers to a policy, but on the back end you have this mandate that a number of folks consider to be far too low to force people into the pool. So people are going to start putting pencil to paper and start figuring what’s cheaper. Is it cheaper to go and get health insurance coverage in 2014 and pay those premiums until I need the coverage? Or is it cheaper not to buy coverage, wait until I or my family needs it, pay the penalty, then buy my health insurance? That’s going to be the analysis that Americans are going to go through starting in 2014. And that is what is scaring insurance companies because from an actuarial analysis, they are starting to see that this thing just might not exactly add up.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield testified to a legislative interim committee that once reform is in place in 2014, it projects needing rate increases of about 15 percent in its group market and 75 to 100 percent in its individual market. That is on top of regular rate increases averaging 8 to 13 percent,
“Obviously, that’s something that greatly concerns me,” Hamm said. “We have an insurance market in North Dakota that was starting to move in the right direction and we are doing things that I thought were positive, and now I am very troubled with what is going to happen in 2014. If any rate increases like that are sought and are justified meaning they would have to be approved that runs the risk of literally blowing up the insurance market.”
Should that happen, the federal government could increase subsidies to help people afford insurance, which means higher taxes to pay for those subsidies, he said. Or the government could eliminate some reforms. Hamm said his experience is that once reforms are created, it’s difficult to take them away.
Repealing provisions of the law also would be difficult, Hamm said. The bill’s scope and the revenue streams tied into it are so extensive that the entire package would have to be repealed.
“You hear a lot of people say the jury is still out. To me, that’s the wrong analogy. I am not even sure the jury can be deliberating at this point. You have a law that is so immense in scope and so all encompassing in what it is going to cover and so many things are yet to be worked out in how this law is actually going to be implemented and interpreted that I don’t think the jury can start deciding whether or not it is good or bad until 2014, until it is actually up and running and everything is implemented. Then you take a couple years and you figure out success or failure.
“If it’s a failure, then we are really in trouble. Because the system was unsustainable the way it was,” Hamm said. “If this law is a failure and it doesn’t work, then that will only have compounded the problem that we still have.”
Fact Box
Reform could cost N.D.
Federal
The insurance department might need to add about 20 full-time employees at an ongoing biennium cost of about $4 million, not including technology aspects related to computer software that will be needed, Hamm said. The state’s Human Services Department might need about 30 more employees and more than $100 million over 10 years to implement the law, he said.
North Dakota already has notified the federal government that the state will not operate the federal government’s new, temporary high-risk health insurance pool. The reform law creates the pool but gives states authority to run it. If a state declines, the federal government will run the program for that state.
Hamm explained that the money set aside by the federal government to help fund the pools until 2014 is expected to run out in 2011 or 2012. States operating pools then might have to pick up the tab.
“The bottom line is I told the federal government last Friday that the state of North Dakota is not going to participate. If you want to run this high-risk pool, go ahead,” Hamm said. “You are going to make the promise, you are going to pay for it.”
North Dakota’s congressional delegation differs in the assessment of the bill’s costs. Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan and Congressman Earl Pomeroy, all D-N.D., voted for the bill.
A fact sheet from the House offered by Pomeroy’s office showed that a typical family of four making $55,500 a year would pay about $100 a week in premiums and have average out-of-pocket costs of $9,650, a $7,600 savings. Savings would be even larger for families earning less. Subsidies would be available for families earning up to $88,800 a year to reduce costs from current levels.
Pomeroy’s office noted the bill also eliminates the
State Rep. Rick Berg, R-Fargo, who is running against Pomeroy for the U.S. House seat, said the bill will increase the deficit because plans to pay for reform through student loans and cuts in doctor reimbursements aren’t materializing as projected. In addition, he said, information presented to legislative committees indicates the 10-year cost of the reform bill on North Dakota could be more than $150 million.
“That’s going to compete with K through 12 (education). It will compete with other human services programs. It’s general fund money,” he said. “We have a pretty good system of health care in North Dakota, and we should be building from that, not having this Washington version of government health care.”
Berg said there is a window of opportunity to modify the bill before it takes full effect in 2014.
“Certainly with a majority vote, changes can be made,” he said.
—-
Market gets more competitive
North Dakota’s health insurance market will become more competitive in coming months with the entry of a third provider.
Sanford, a non-profit health maintenance organization and the second largest health insurer in South Dakota, obtained permission from the North Dakota Insurance Department in February to operate in North Dakota. It still must present products and rates for approval.
Medica, the second-largest health insurer in North Dakota with 4.6 percent of the market, announced in April that it will be introducing individual health plans. It currently offers only group products.
The state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, has not increased rates in its individual market in the past two years but raised rates by 12 percent on May 1. In the group market, the North Dakota Insurance Department is allowing the Blues to try quarterly rate increases, which is proving to more accurately reflect what is happening with claims and trends, Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said. Over the past three quarters, the overall increase approved for group plans by the department has been 4 percent.
May 1, 2010-Bismarck Tribune
Feds to run high-risk pool for North Dakota
By REBECCA BEITSCH Bismarck Tribune | Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 2:00 am
North Dakota is leaving control of a new program required by the health care law in the hands of the federal government.
The law paves the way for a new high risk pool — a government-run plan that offers health insurance for those too sick to get it on their own — to be run either by the states or, if they decline, by the federal government.
Friday was the last day for states to inform the federal Department of Health and Human Services what action they’d be taking, and a letter penned by Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said the state will leave responsibility for the high risk pool with the federal government. At least 11 other states took the same action.
“I had serious concerns that the money the feds have allocated would be sufficient to run it until it expires,” Hamm said.
As outlined in the law, $5 billion would be doled out to states to run the temporary program until it expires on the last day of 2013. North Dakota’s share of that money would be about $8 million.
However, Hamm said research from another federal entity, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, showed that money could run out by 2011 or 2012.
“North Dakota can’t afford to be stuck with an unfunded mandate,” Hamm said.
Regardless of the financial aspect, because of the biennial sessions, the state also would have faced difficulty in creating a high risk pool on a timeline that corresponded with the federal governments.
“It’s just the timing,” said Rep. George Keiser, R-Bismarck, chairman of the committee that held a meeting on the new health care law Wednesday. “We can’t give him (Hamm) any more money to operate the high risk pool. We can’t give him any more staff. He can’t get it up and running. Because it is temporary, we’ll let them have it and sit back and watch them struggle in operating it.”
Although the state already runs its own high risk pool, CHANDS, that program cannot be used as a substitute for the new high risk pool. Those who are already in CHANDS will keep their coverage. To qualify for the new program, a person would have to have a pre-existing condition and have been without insurance for at least six months.
Hamm said it’s not clear how the insurance would be administered. The roughly 1,500 people in CHANDS receive service through Blue Cross Blue Shield.
After 2013, states will be able to chose whether they want to continue running any type of high risk pool program.
“When you look at the big picture, when you analyze it completely, it comes back to what happens if the money runs out,” Hamm said. “And there wasn’t a legitimate answer from the federal government for that.”