Puerto Rico fines insurers for late María payouts

Puerto Rico insurance commissioner Javier Rivera Ríos offered an updated list of fines issued by regulator OCS against insurers for delayed payouts from Hurricane María claims.

The OCS reported receiving 3,399 formal complaints against seven insurers and issuing US$2.4mn in fines related to those complaints. The fines are detailed in the table below.

The OCS also reported 229,458 María-related claims filed with insurers through Jan. 31, just over four months after the landfall of the devastating tropical cyclone, updating the total payouts to US$1.7bn – a significant increase from the just-over US$1bn given at the end of December.

Puerto Rican lawmakers are currently considering a proposal to speed up insurance payouts even further, forcing insurers to address and resolve claims in only 30 days, instead of the 90-day limit currently in law.

Insurers have complained they are making extraordinary efforts to resolve claims from the disaster and do not see additional pressure helping the quality of service to their clients.

Responding to the late payout fines, Triple-S Property said it had allocated additional resources and hired extra personnel to handle claims, including contracting 10 local firms to bring on an additional 150 claims adjusters.

"At present, we have paid nearly US$147mn, almost US$1mn per day," said Triple-S in a comment reported by local media outlet Sin Comillas. The firm said it experienced a 600% increase in claims in 2017 over 2016 levels.

"We understand the importance of having an agile claims process for the recovery of businesses and individuals," Triple-S added. "As such, we continue to see alternatives to streamline the processing of the extraordinary volume of cases resulting from the most significant natural disaster in nearly 100 years of Puerto Rican history and the largest handled [here] under [US disaster agency] FEMA."