CIGNA expands dental PPO options

PLANTATION, Fla.—CIGNA Dental has expanded its dental preferred provider organization product to include three new CIGNA Dental WellnessPlus features that reward members who receive preventive dental care by increasing their benefits.

The WellnessPlus features, which are available as part of CIGNA Dental's DPPO and indemnity product offerings, allow employers to choose from dental plan modules that offer a varying incentive levels to employees for receiving preventive dental care. When members receive preventive services such as cleanings, oral exams and X-rays in the first year, their benefits increase in the following plan year. The three modules include:

• Progressive Maximum. Members receiving preventive care in any year earn a higher dollar maximum the next year, up to a certain level set by the employer.

• Progressive Benefit. Members are rewarded for receiving preventive care in any year by earning higher benefit levels for certain services in the following year. Depending on the plan design selected by the employer, increased benefits could apply to basic dental care services that include fillings and basic restorative services and/or major dental care services such as crowns, bridges and root canals. Each year members remain enrolled in these plans and continue to receive preventive care, their benefit levels increase the following plan year until they reach a predetermined level set by the employer.

• Progressive/Regressive Benefit. Members who receive preventive care are rewarded with increased benefit levels in the following year. If after attaining an increased benefit level, members do not receive preventive care, their benefit level will decrease in the following year; however, the benefit level will never fall below the original benefit level.

For more information, contact Karen Wever, vp, national accounts sales, at 312-648-7579 or karen.wever@cigna.com.

RMS releases India quake model

NEWARK, Calif.—Risk modeling firm Risk Management Solutions Inc. has released the RMS India Earthquake Model.

The model was developed for use in the RMS RiskLink catastrophe modeling system, and was built in partnership with Aon Re Asia and RMS geospatial and information technology unit RMSI. The model provides access to detailed data on insured exposure, soil composition and local building standards.

The model underlying the new RMS release contains nearly 100 seismic sources subdivided into thousands of faults in India and is capable of generating more than 40,000 different earthquake scenarios, the risk modeling firm said.

Newark, Calif.-based RMS said a detailed loss module intended for more refined modeling of individual locations, accounts and portfolios will be included in version 7.0 of the RiskLink and RiskBrowser catastrophe modeling platforms, scheduled for release this spring.

For more information, contact Bill Keogh, group executive of client development, at bill.keogh@rms.com.

USRisk Brokers covers parking operations

IRVINE, Calif.—USRisk Brokers, a subsidiary of U.S. Risk Insurance Group, has introduced a parking and valet operators program designed for businesses engaged in operations related to parking customers' cars, such as self-parking garages and lots, assisted parking, valet parking and parking for special events.

Covered exposures extend to incidental operations in conjunction with parking, such as car washing, detailing and minor repairs; moving a customer's vehicle to a facility for minor repairs; and basic concierge-type services such as luggage assistance or bellman operations.

The program provides commercial general liability and garagekeepers legal liability. General liability limits include a general aggregate of $2 million that applies per location. The garagekeepers legal liability carries a per-vehicle limit of up to $250,000, with $1 million per location and policy aggregate limits of $5 million. Excess limits of $50 million or more are available, including coverage for airport shuttle vehicles and other people movers.

For more information, contact Connie Chalayan, program administrator, by telephone at 800-856-7025 or by e-mail at conniec@usrisk.com.