The checking account is the insurer’s monthly statement from its agent showing policy numbers, premiums written, rebate premiums, commissions, and the net amount owed or received from the insurer.
The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is an organization created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). ACOs offer healthcare providers financial incentives to work together to better coordinate services for patient groups and thereby improve quality of care while reducing costs. Another focus of the ACO is to help reduce readmission rates for certain conditions such as heart attack/heart failure and pneumonia. An ACO may include primary care physicians, medical specialists, hospitals, or other health care providers. Under the provisions of the ACA that created the ACO, if the ACO achieves certain quality targets, the resulting savings are shared among the various suppliers that are part of the ACO.
Professional liability insurance for accountants provides coverage for financial losses from the provision of professional accounting services. Policies generally do not cover fraud, intentional acts, criminal acts, bodily injury (BI), and property damage (PD). Coverage for higher risk activities such as investment services and the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is available upon approval.
Accounts receivable insurance insures against the loss of amounts owed to the insured by clients that cannot be collected due to damage to accounts receivable records by the insured risk.
Accreditation is the process by which a governmental or other regulatory standards-setting organization determines whether an organization seeking to provide services that fall under that organization’s mandate meets acceptable standards for such purposes. For example, commercial insurers registered in a state that accepts all of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) model acts and is otherwise vetted would be acceptable coverage in other states.
An Accredited Insurance Advisor (AAI) is a professional title obtained through a joint effort between the Insurance Institute of America (IIA) and the Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA). The program leading to this appointment consists of three 13-week courses with three national examinations and is intended for all insurance production personnel in any distribution system.
Accumulation in property casualty insurance (P&C) refers to the general combined risks that can be associated with a single loss event (involving one or more insured risks).
Acquisition costs are the direct costs an insurer incurs to “purchase” a premium, such as commissions paid to a broker or front company. These costs should be expensed in the same proportion as the premiums to which they relate are earned. For a calendar year policy, acquisition costs are expensed on a straight-line basis each month and the amount to be expensed in future periods is recognized as a deferred acquisition cost (asset) on the balance sheet.
A natural disaster is an accident or event caused by natural causes without human intervention or intervention that could not have been prevented by reasonable foresight or care, such as flood, lightning, earthquake or storm. This is the hazard terminology used in the politics of the oceans and inland seas.