KERI MORRELL,
CIC, AAI, AIS, ASLI, CISR, CPSR, CPIW, DAE

We are starting out the new fiscal year with a Leadership Retreat planned by our State Director, Gail Barrow, on Saturday, August 27th.  I hope that all of you will be able to attend.  There will also be a 3 hour continuing education opportunity planned for this event.  Ann Tharp will be teaching a course entitled “Master your Workers’ Comp Modifier”.

I’m also excited that Michelle Steadman from MSLA will be our speaker for our monthly meeting this month on August 25th.  Please mark you calendars for that date as it is not our usual meeting date – it is one week later due to scheduling conflicts.

This would be a good meeting to invite a prospective member to.  Please make a list of persons you think would be good member candidates and invite them to our meetings  There’s no better way to get people interested in a group than to show them what we do, who we are and what we can do for them.  Speakers are a great way to draw people in as they create additional interest.  Let’s keep working towards our goal of adding at least one new member this year!!

August

 NAIW NEW Address:  NAIW(International), 6528 E. 101st St., PMB#750, Tulsa, OK 74133
Send all standard mail to this address.
Send check or payments to  NAIW (International),  Department 2214, Tulsa, OK  74182

AIG Reports 51% Hike In Second-Quarter Net Income.  American International Group could slowly be emerging from the multiple accounting scandals that have rocked the insurer this year.

Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation has updated the estimated losses from Hurricane Dennis to $934 million.

A late July hailstorm hit North Dakota hard, causing an estimated more than $100 million in damage to insured property, said the state Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman.

1. Don't waste waiting time. For the when you must wait, sharpen your time management skills and find ways to put even a few minutes' waiting time to good use. Whether on hold on the telephone or waiting for a meeting or appointment, you can make lists, sort mail, go over your schedule, or complete small but necessary tasks.

2. Save time and stock up on the small items you frequently run out of or make special trips to purchase. Examples might include postage stamps, or greeting cards. Over time, the minutes saved on these errands will add up.

3. If space permits, buy nonperishable groceries and household goods in quantities to last at least for 2-3 months. Your supermarket visits will be reduced to quick trips to pick up fresh items.

4. If you're working at home or even trying to finish a necessary housekeeping task, turn off the telephone until the job is done.

5. Make medical and dental checkup appointments well in advance (months if necessary), and ask for the earliest morning appointment. You'll be seen immediately and won't waste time in the waiting room.

6. Capitalize on your body rhythms. You know when you're at your peak mentally and physically; schedule the most demanding tasks for these periods. You'll work more efficiently and save time.

7. Try an Internet reminder service to keep track of important dates or events. Most of these services are free.

8. Organize your clothes closet to insure a speedy start to your day. Be brutally honest and weed out anything that you don't love, that doesn't fit, or that you don't feel good wearing.

9. In the office, cultivate a friendly but businesslike personality while at your desk. Remain polite but unwelcoming to those who want to interrupt while you're busy.

10. If you need to schedule meetings or appointments that have the potential to drag on indefinitely, try scheduling them right before lunch or near the end of the business day. With everyone thinking of getting away for lunch or for the evening, there's less potential for a marathon session.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Tired of parking fines and speeding tickets? A Swedish company offers insurance against both, claiming to be the first in the field.

Swedish drivers who register with the Bisso company at the Web site www.bisso.se and pay an annual fee of 850 crowns ($112) are covered against three speeding tickets a year, as long as they are not more than 30 km an hour (19 miles an hour) above the limit.

For an extra fee, drivers can buy cover against parking fines. Fines in Sweden, which has one of the best road safety records in the world, range from 800 to 2000 crowns for speeding and 425 to 700 crowns for parking offences.

"We believe drivers are under economic pressure and there is no room in household budgets to pay fines. We offer economic protection," said Dan Glimmeras, head of marketing at Bisso.

He told Reuters insuring against speeding fines was not illegal, but repeat offenders could still lose their license.

Several thousand people had signed up for the insurance since May, Glimmeras said.

Information that auto and property insurance companies use in a controversial scoring method that helps them set your insurance rates is now available to you for a fee.

ChoicePoint has now made available to consumers their "insurance score" at its ChoiceTrust.com web site. ChoicePoint provides scores to more than 400 insurance companies and 80,000 insurance agents nationwide. It maintains a database of 16 billion public records. But that does not necessarily mean your data will be available through ChoicePoint.

"You would have to address with your own insurance company whether or not they use our consumer database," says ChoicePoint spokesperson Chuck Jones.

Some insurance companies use their own scoring systems and do not contract with third-party information companies like ChoicePoint.

The insurance industry uses insurance scores because it says a high degree of correlation exists between a person's overall credit history and the likelihood that he or she will file an insurance claim. Some state insurance commissioners and consumer advocates insist the method is discriminatory.

"We've worked with industry and government leaders for nearly two years to find a way to give consumers easy access to their own insurance information," says David Lee, executive vice president of ChoicePoint's insurance services bureau. The company will charge consumers $12.95 for the ability to access their insurance scoring records for 30 days. Consumers are also able to obtain a free credit report and learn how their scores were calculated and what they mean.

When we look at leaders we see amazing people who have the ability to get people to follow them.  While leaders vary from organization from organization, they each have the same basic qualities.  These qualities are:

A leader has skill and talent to complete the job.

A leader has initiative.

A leader can inspire and motivate others.

A leader believes in the cause that they are committing to working to.

A leader is optimistic and knows that they will make a difference.

A leader has the ability to delegate.

A leader has vision.

A leader can prioritize activities and spend time where it will do the most good.

A leader can encourage and nurture those who report to them, in truth a leader can be a mentor.

A leader will focus on people.

A leader will inspire trust.

A leader will always do the right thing.

Two brothers from California were convicted August 9, 2005 on 21 federal criminal counts alleging they fraudulently billed Medi-Cal and a federal health insurance program for $250,000 in drug prescriptions their pharmacies never filled.  Mohammadali Abolahrar, 34, and Reza Abolahrar, who turns 37 later this month, could face three to four years in prison, prosecutors said.

Jurors convicted the men on one count of conspiracy to defraud a health-care benefit program and 20 counts of health-care fraud after a trial that stretched over four weeks.

The charges stem from an estimated $250,000 in allegedly fraudulent bills for prescription drugs submitted by Bayview Pharmacy in Redondo Beach, which the brothers operated from 1995 to 1998, and Roxbury Pharmacy in West Los Angeles, which they operated from 1998 until 2001.

"If (pharmacists) try to defraud health-care programs, especially those designed to protect the poor, the government is going to go after them, prosecute them and bring them to justice," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Sloan, who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Cowan.

After the verdict, defense lawyer Michael Nasatir, who represented Mohammadali Abolahrar, said he planned to file an appeal.

"While I have great respect for the jury system, I respectfully disagree with this verdict," he said.

The Abolahrars' pharmacies received a large amount of business from the liver transplant unit at the UCLA Medical Center, which would fax prescriptions to the pharmacies on behalf of the unit's patients.

Prosecutors alleged that the pharmacies would initially provide the medication in the amounts

specified, but as the patients' need for medication declined, the pharmacies would continue to bill Medi-Cal and the federal Tricare program for the original amount.

The Abolahrars also were accused of billing the programs for drugs not prescribed to patients, and for drugs that had been discontinued by doctors.

Federal officials were alerted to alleged irregularities when an audit by a private health insurer detected a pattern of high prescription drug charges by patients of the two pharmacies.

The Abolahrar brothers pleaded not guilty and their lawyers argued that their billing practices were not unusual in the industry and were intended to benefit the patients.

"The FBI, the Department of Justice and the federal prosecutors all agreed that great medical care was given to these patients by these pharmacists," Nasatir said.

"To have this type of verdict as to their billing practices spoils what was a heroic effort on the part of these two dedicated gentleman."