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Citizens insurance issued living-expenses checks
for 40% of claimants at response centers |
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Article Courtesy of The Florida Phoenix
By JackieLlanos
Published November 24, 2024
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Florida’s state-run homeowners’
insurance company offers coverage for food and a place to live for
policyholders whose homes are deemed unlivable after a disaster. At
post-hurricane response centers in 2024, 40% of the people it insured
got checks for additional living expenses.
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More than 3,500 Floridians insured
through Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the last-resort
insurer with about 1 million policies, sought assistance at
one of the catastrophe centers Citizens opened following
hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton, according to data
reported during a Wednesday meeting of Citizens’ Consumer
Services Committee.
At those centers, 1,410 checks the corporation issued to
policyholders for the additional living expenses added up to
$5 million. Citizens issued 76% of those checks after
Hurricane Milton ravaged Tampa Bay. During the post-Milton
response, the center in Pinellas County saw the most
activity. Out of the 1,246 people who went to the Pinellas
center, 350 received additional living expense checks.
Post-Hurricane Debby, Citizens issued only one check, for
$600. Citizens issued 331 checks totaling $1.1 million for
claimants following Hurricane Helene.
The corporation has contracts with 16 call center vendors,
Chief Administrative Officer Jeremy Pope said during the
meeting. In the 12 days following each of the hurricanes,
the call centers got a combined 83,109 calls.
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The coastline in Steinhatchee remains covered in
debris on Oct. 3, 2024, following Hurricane Helene.
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The average speed of answer was eight seconds but
went up to 24 seconds after Helene, according to the data Pope
presented.
“They’re not paid unless volume actually comes to
fruition. So a lot of times it’s the best-performing vendor that we will
actually activate,” Pope said about the longer post-Helene wait time.
“If we see somebody’s behind on resources that we requested, we can
always activate another one.”
Citizens closed half of the claims policyholders opened last year
without payment, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Overall, insurance companies have more often than not closed without
payment claims for this year’s hurricanes, according to the Office of
Insurance Regulation. For example, insurance companies closed without
payment 53% of claims filed following Hurricane Milton, meaning
homeowners didn’t receive any compensation.
While almost 4,000 of those claims were denied because flood damage
wasn’t covered, 24,147 were denied because the damage was below the
deductible.
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