A strong claim processing system is the foundation of a genuine car insurance company

Studying the consumer satisfaction stats of a recent research has shown that car insurance company that houses a reliable claim processing system has succeeded to score high. Normally motorists claim that companies offering cheap insurance rates, greater discounts, add-on features will top their preference list. But this check list will completely change after actually purchasing a car insurance policy and going through the claim processing cycle.

Claim rejection or payment delays are some of the most common problems motorists face with their so-called best car insurance companies. And this is even more devastating because this is the actual time when they need their vendor to help them.

Claim processing system is a chain of processes that encompasses all the small and big formalities from claim submission to actual pay out done to the policy holder. Some important terms of this system are adjudication, satisfying claim pre-cursors and pre-existing conditions, etc. Manual claim processing systems have longer turn-around time and are more prone to errors or processing mistakes. In such a system, claim processor will receive the claim; he/she will examine it and determine the coverage and whether or not the claim is covered by the customer’s policy. This forms the core of the processing and is often called claim adjudication. In this procedure, processor actually checks some minute criterions like whether the incident date coincides within the coverage date of the policy, or has the claim been filed on time. These terms vary from company to company, but on overall remains the same. Once the claim has been adjudicated, a benefit amount is determined, which is then paid out to the beneficiary.

Nowadays, paperless claim processing systems are the latest trend in car insurance sector which has significantly brought down the turn-around time of claim processing. Claims can now be submitted online, claim processors perform the required steps and the explanation of the benefit comes straight away in your inbox. It definitely deserves high customer satisfaction scores. Isn’t it!

So, if you are comparing car insurance quotes to buy a car insurance policy, also ensure that the company you choose has a fool-proof claim processing time, because you definitely don’t want to get disappointed in the end.

Tags: car, company, genuine, insurance

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Are the Insurers playing it fair?

Last few weeks, I tried to cover various aspects of how dishonest citizens try and cheat insurance companies to get more than their fair rights. But then I realized that I am actually missing the other side of the coin. After all car insurance is a business, and there are good enough chances of insurance companies being involved in unfair means or some kind of tactics to grab more money from the customers. Well, I don’t insist but there are chances right!

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had reported the UK Car Insurance market to the competition commission after suspecting some faults in the working of the industry. The investigation of the working model of processing of car insurance claims, it was reported in the findings that at-fault drivers had no control on the way how repairs are done and replacement vehicles are provided to the not-at-fault drivers. This potentially played a major role in increasing the premium rates for the at-fault drivers.

Competition commission is supposed to further investigate this situation and come up with possible remedies to the existing condition but as of now there is no possible “quick fix” available for the prevailing condition.

The overall investigation conducted by OFT reveals that the insurance companies of not-at-fault drivers are actually trying to take advantage of insurers of at-fault drivers. It is stated that the insurers of not-at-fault drivers refers the drivers to organizations that tend to charge higher repair rates in exchange of huge referral fees. This ultimately increases the repair bills that are to be paid by the insurers of at-fault drivers. It was believed that some companies have agreements with repairers to charge higher labor rates when repairing the vehicle of the not-at-fault driver. The situation gets worse because the bills to be paid by the at-fault drivers’ insurance company also include the cost of replacement vehicle to be provided to the not-at-fault driver.

All this and more contribute to the inflation of bills to be paid by insurers of at-fault drivers and boost the revenue of not-at-fault drivers’ insurer. But this is ultimately passed to the at-fault drivers in form of higher premium rates. So, at the end the customer suffers and that’s the major reason why this issue has been brought into consideration.

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Bacon + Brie + Blue Cheese = A Good Time

For the LSU game we went wild and made some homemade flatbread-like pizza that was to die for
. The pizza-flatbread creation was made with homemade dough and topped with sage-garlic butter, caramelized maui onions, fresh slices of jalapenos, creamy brie, danish blue cheese, and crispy thick sliced bacon. It really doesn’t get much better than this.

You can’t resist meA: man, if people think that we eat only the stuff we post they must surely be worried about our health! this was one rich
bitch.
T: I don’t care. I will gladly take a decade off my life expectancy if it means eating this on a regular basis. This cheesy bread/pizza thing was unreal. I would give up entire food ethnicities before I gave this up. It was really really tasty. Seriously.
A: agreed. i would totally give up eskimoan food for this…. at least with my lack of knowledge of eskimoan food. this was some seriously outrageously good game day food.
T: yeah. for real. If we still had some I would bury my face in it right now.
Brie….
A: heheh just for the essence. you wouldn’t eat it though, right? just bury.
T: oh hell no, I’d be eating it. Yes sir. Mmmm. Cheeeesy bacony oniony goodness.
A: you forgot jalapeno-y and garlic buttery.
T: you interrupted me. I was still going over this loaf of delight in my mind. Ok, so, now that we’ve gushed for a few minutes, do you have a rating for it?
A: man, i really want to go crazy high with my rating but… i dunno. I need to stay sane. I’ll give it a 4.85/5. It was really effing good. seriously. it put together some of my all time favorites all in one home made bready dish. if it had had lamb lolly pops and crab cakes it could have gotten a 5.
T: yeah, this thing deserves an incredible score. I give it a 4.96/5. It was tops. There’s not much else to say about it. I recommend that anyone out there in internet-land who can follow a recipe, make this. now.

food pornA: cheezus! that is one mega high score!
T: did you just say cheezus? … [nod] ….
A: uh, yeah. what else would i have said! holy god of all things cheesey.
T: you could have said, I don’t know, “wowsers” or, say, “JEEZ”
A: but i didn’t. gotta problem with my cheezus?
T: not if you make some more cheesy bread Pizza-like Bread w/ Brie, Bacon, & Blue Cheese
For the Bread:
3 cups bread flour, plus extra
3/4 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra
1 1/2 cup warm water (between 100-110 degrees F), plus extra
1 packet of dry active yeast

For the Toppings:
3-4 oz danish blue cheese, crumbled
6 oz wedge of brie (more or less), cut into thin slices
4 thick slices bacon, cooked then crumbled or sliced in small pieces (if you use thin sliced bacon, use more of it)
1-2 fresh jalapenos, thinly sliced (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
1 maui onion, sliced
1 tbsp canola or olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 tbsp unsalted butter
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

First, in a large liquid measuring cup, dissolve honey in 1/2 cup hot water. Then add 1 cup lukewarm water, about 105-110 degrees F (so you have a total of 1 1/2 cups), 1 tbsp olive oil, and the packet of yeast to the measuring cup. Mix thoroughly to dissolve the yeast. Set aside for 5-10 minutes until the yeast has become active and the mixture has started foaming and bubbling. If after 10 minutes, nothing has happened, start again with a new set of ingredients, until the yeast appears active.

While waiting for the yeast to activate, oil a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl add the flour and salt; stir to combine.

Once the yeast appears active, oil a wooden spoon and your hands to prevent the dough from sticking during the kneeding process. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and stir with the greased wooden spoon until almost all of the flour pulls together and forms a ball. Feel the dough. You are looking for the dough to be soft and slightly moist, but not terribly sticky. If there is still extra flour, simply add more warm water; if the dough seems too moist add more flour (although some
flour will be incorporated in the kneeding process).
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured clean surface. Kneed the dough with oiled hands for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. If the dough starts to stick to the kneeding surface, lightly repowder the surface with a little more flour. Work the kneeded dough into a ball, then place the ball into the large oiled bowl, seam-side down. Cover the bowl with oiled plastic wrap and a clean towel and set the bowl in a warm draft-free area. Often, i will turn my oven onto 200 degrees and set the bowl on a counter near the oven if the rest of my house is too cool.

Allow the dough to rise for about 1 1/2 hours until it has at least doubled in size and the yeast has had time to ferment. Punch down the dough with floured hands and reform the dough back into a ball. Re-cover and allow the dough to continue rising for another 45 minutes. During the second rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a large sheet pan with sides, then dust with a small amount of flour.

While the dough is rising prepare the toppings. Preheat a saute pan over medium to medium-low heat. Once the pan is hot, add the canola oil. Add the sliced onion to the pan. Caramelize the onion over medium to medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. This will take 20-30 minutes. Do not try to speed up the process, burnt onions are not what you are trying to achieve. Once the onions have a nice golden color to them season them with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Remove the caramelized onions from the pan and set aside.

At the end of the second rising make the garlic-sage butter. Place a saute pan over low heat. (You can use the same pan as used for the onions). Add the butter to the pan. Once the butter has melted, add the minced garlic and chopped sage. Infuse the flavors of the garlic and sage into the butter by cooking over low heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Turn off heat and leave butter in pan until ready for assembly.

Turn the dough out onto the prepared sheet pan. Using floured hands, work the dough out so that it covers the entire surface of the pan evenly. Spoon the garlic butter evenly across the dough, using the back of the spoon to spread it out. Evenly distribute the caramelized onions, bacon, and jalapeno slices across the top of the dough. Next add the brie and blue cheese, again try to evenly distribute them. Finish by sprinkling some freshly cracked black pepper over the top.

Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 15-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and the bottom of the crust is golden brown. (Just take a quick look under using a spatula.) Remove from the oven. Allow the bread to rest for at a few minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

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Bacon Wrapped Fig & Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

We’re eating succulent grilled bacon wrapped pork tenderloin stuffed with fresh mission figs and crumbled blue cheese. The pork was served on a bed of spicy micro mustard greens and slices of mission figs with a drizzle of pomegranate vinaigrette.

Sure, bacon has blown up into yet another annoying and absurd internet fad, but that’s just because bacon has and always will be one of the tastiest foods known to humankind. If you don’t like bacon I really don’t understand how your deranged brain works. I would take a a slice of bacon over a chocolate truffle any day of the week. I would take this bacon wrapped blue cheese & fig stuffed pork tenderloin over pretty much any sweet item at any point in time. Disclaimer: I’m a savory kind of girl which makes me kind of biased
.
This meal was the perfect balance of sweet, savory, smokey and salty…by god I wish I had a serving of it in front of me at this second. Just writing this post is making me salivate. It’s well known that figs, blue cheese and bacon are a great combo and apparently they are even better
when grilled with a juicy pork tenderloin and drizzled with tangy pomegranate vinaigrette! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did! Bacon Wrapped Fig & Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
4 fresh figs, small dice
1 pork tenderloin
3-6 slices of bacon (will vary depending on size of tenderloin and type of bacon)
kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Prepare grill to medium heat.

In a small bowl, combine the diced figs and crumbled blue cheese. Toss to evenly distribute.

Butterfly the pork tenderloin by slicing lengthwise almost all the way through then open the meat up like a book. Season all surfaces of the pork liberally with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Evenly distribute the fig/blue cheese mixture down the middle of the seasoned butterflied pork leaving about 1/2 inch of space on the edges. Roll the pork back up into the shape of the tenderloin, encasing the stuffing with the meat. Using 5 to 6 toothpicks, securely fasten the pork back together at the edges.

Wrap the stuffed tenderloin evenly with the slices of bacon, securing them to the existing toothpick. You can use more toothpicks to secure the bacon if necessary but the fewer the better!

Place the bacon wrapped tenderloin on the preheated grill, directly over the heat. Grill about 20- 25 minutes or until an internal thermometer in the middle of the meat reads 140 degrees, turning the meat occasionally to crisp the bacon evenly on all sides. (At 140 degrees there will still be a small trace of pink left in the meat.)

Stay by the pork throughout the entire grilling process. Since the tenderloin is wrapped in bacon there will without a doubt be flare ups. A few flames licking at the meat for a few seconds here and there is desired but if the bacon begins to char simply move the meat to a different part of the grill or rotate the meat to a section where the bacon is not yet crispy.

Once the pork is at the desired level of done-ness, remove from the grill. Let the pork rest, covered loosely in foil, for 10 minutes before slicing. To serve drizzle w/ Pomegranate vinaigrette (recipe follows). Enjoy!

1 1/2 tbsp pomegranate Molasses
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus extra
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper, plus extra
2 tbsp canola oil

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients. While continuously whisking vigorously, slowly drizzle in the canola oil to form an emulsified vinaigrette. Taste the vinaigrette and adjust seasonings as desired with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Note: If the vinaigrette is too tart for your liking, simply whisk in more canola oil.

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