Insurance

After the state takeover of the Pennsylvania Deposit Insurance Corp. last week, one private deposit-insurance firm remains in the state. The Pennsylvania Savings Association Insurance Corp. was insuring $146.5 million in deposits in 47 state-chartered thrift institutions as of Oct. 31, according to John Idler, the chairman. The private, nonprofit corporation, which is not a state agency, had $6.4 million in assets. Idler said that none of PSAIC's member thrifts had ever failed and that it was regarded as "almost a model for private insurance.

Igniting yet another controversy in divided Darby Township, township officials padlocked for four days a community center leased by a group of black residents, temporarily halting a $100,000 renovation of the building. Township manager Harry Modesti ordered last week's action at the community center at 1100 Hook Rd. after the group, Studevan Plus Inc., did not show proof of insurance, according to the public safety director. Under the lease, the group must show proof of insurance twice a year, Joseph Grobes, public safety director, said this week.

The national debate on health care is drawing attention to some obscure aspects of medical finance. Here's a primer on one of them: Q: How do companies provide health coverage for their employees? A: There are two ways. Either the company buys policies from a health insurance company or it self-insures. Q: What does it mean when a company "self-insures"? A: Insurance is all about risk - the risk that premiums paid won't be enough to cover all the medical bills. When a firm buys policies from a health insurer, the insurer takes the risk and pays the bills.

Marty Grassia owns Pete's Barber Shop in the small town of Mantua in Gloucester County. It's a soothing but busy shop with three art-deco barber chairs and Sinatra crooning all day. Marty is married, with children ages 9, 7, and 6, and a Labrador retriever, Zoe. It could be a Norman Rockwell picture of what's right about America. Until you get to health care. Grassia, 36, has Crohn's disease, a chronic and painful inflammation of the intestines that can lead to life-threatening complications.

The Board of Commissioners will hold a special meeting this week to award about $1 million in municipal insurance, most likely to the same broker who has handled it the last 10 years, Patrick V. Larkin. If so, the board's Democratic minority is poised to make an outcry. The three Democrats have long accused the Republican majority of favoring Larkin because he is a heavy contributor to the county and local GOP organizations. Although the commissioners unanimously agreed to put the insurance up for bid this time, the Democrats have called the bid process a farce, charging that the bid specifications effectively shut out other potential brokers.

A two-hour closed session of Monroe Township Council held last week to discuss the muncipality's $448,000 insurance contract produced a somewhat bizarre result: The township now has three insurance brokers, no insurance contract and two possible lawsuits. The contract - and the 10-15 percent commission on the nearly half-million dollars worth of insurance - are tied up in a political tug of war between the Democratic council and the newly elected Republican mayor, Carmen DiNovi.

The Monroe Township Council last night refused to approve a lawsuit filed by five council members who are suing the mayor and two insurance companies over the township's change in insurance coverage. Township Solicitor Jeffrey Albertson, who is representing Mayor Carmen DiNovi in the suit, asked the council to vote on whether it approved of the legal action, which he said was brought in the name of the township council without its full consent. Council voted, 4-2, against supporting the lawsuit.

The Gloucester County freeholders last night disclosed plans to join the crowd of county governments in South Jersey that have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by self-insuring employees for job-related injuries. Under a plan introduced by the board's newest member, Maggie Smith of Washington Township, the county would switch to self-insurance for workers' compensation by Jan. 1, 1990, at the earliest. "That's our goal, but we have to make sure we can do it," Smith said in an interview yesterday.

The American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (AICPCU), headquartered in Malvern, celebrated its 50th anniversary this month. The institute, an educational organization born out of an unusual partnership between the academic world and the insurance business, was founded by academicians from the insurance department of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Between the first and second World Wars, Wharton professors urged leaders of the insurance business to adopt professional standards based on education, experience and ethics.

Jockey Octavio Aviles was riding Charming Dac on the first turn of the mile race at Garden State Park last month when the horse's heels clipped another horse and catapulted Aviles headfirst onto the track. Aviles, 33, of Mexico City, was hospitalized in serious condition with a fractured skull, thereby prompting a controversy in racing circles - a controversy that wound up in federal court in Camden yesterday. Jockeys had threatened a walkout at Garden State, effective yesterday, if horse owners could not prove that they had filed the necessary papers for workers' compensation insurance.