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That answered the question, thanks so much!

Actually, you can work for more than one firm...until they find out.  Then you won't be working for any of them. 

In a typical cat situation, working for more than one vendor would be beyond foolish. Even if no one did find out, how can you do twice the work if the work from any single vendor is occupying 15 hours or more a day?

In addition they are requiring that you be appointed by the company you are working for......so double dipping would be eliminated...

No disrespect intended - the question was regarding "daily claims” - given the information in the most recent (RFP 08-0016) at this link
- https://www.citizensfla.com/about/p...ype=closed
- posted in Addendum No. 1, section 3.8.8.8 "Vendor is prohibited from recruiting Adjusters from other Claims Service Vendors while working on active assignment for Citizens;" - is the only similar reference to "working for more than one" vendor. There are not yet, any methods of assignment of the claims indicated in any parts of the RFP 08 -0016. The only reference to assignment is on page 16 of 39, under the Basis of Award,""Award of a contract qualifies a firm to be considered as a service provider but does not guarantee that the firm will receive any particular level of business."
How would being listed on several vendors’ rosters for "daily claims" be in violation of any of the posted RFP's as posted to date?

 Mags - Look closer - That is comming from some of the IA firms, not Citizens.

I second Medulas' input. You would have your plate wayyyy overloaded working for more than one vendor. You would likley be terminated for slow turn around time from one of the them, and mess up any chance of future work with them. With daily claims especially, you are already running hundreds of miles in a few days (at least in my experience). I could not squeeze in anymore work in at the rate i run currently. It is not uncommon to cover 1,200-1,300 miles with 12-15 assignments. The key is to focus on what you have, don't get greety. No matter what anyone has told you in the past about this business it is not a get rich quick occupation, but at best a very good living as long as you are reliable and know what you are doing.

Posted By bcgolf on 31 Mar 2009 08:54 PM
No disrespect intended - the question was regarding "daily claims” - given the information in the most recent (RFP 08-0016) at this link
- https://www.citizensfla.com/about/p...ype=closed
- posted in Addendum No. 1, section 3.8.8.8 "Vendor is prohibited from recruiting Adjusters from other Claims Service Vendors while working on active assignment for Citizens;" - is the only similar reference to "working for more than one" vendor. There are not yet, any methods of assignment of the claims indicated in any parts of the RFP 08 -0016. The only reference to assignment is on page 16 of 39, under the Basis of Award,""Award of a contract qualifies a firm to be considered as a service provider but does not guarantee that the firm will receive any particular level of business."
How would being listed on several vendors’ rosters for "daily claims" be in violation of any of the posted RFP's as posted to date?

Just FYI, Citizens is looking and checking on this and then checking again.... they are standing firm you are to be trained by the company you work for and are appointed by them. This is not an IA firm preference but a requirement from Citizens. This goes for both daily and cat.

 

The statements and requirements on training of adjusters is addressed on page 19 of 39 section 3.5.2 and adjuster licensing is addressed on the next section 3.5.3. There is no mention of requiring the adjusters license to be appointed by the IA firm and I cannot find any mention of a required appointment by an approved Vendor as being a requirement by Citizens in the RFP or any attachments, so I have got to apply the same rule of documentation that adjusters must follow regarding dairies, "if it’s not there, it didn't happen" rule.

 A creative control method that might be used by an IA firm would be to have a qualified adjuster committed to them by asking that adjuster to resend the self appointment on his or her license and to be appointed by the IA firm.

 

I stand corrected, Mags. You were very correct that Citizens has began to require the appointments of adjuster licenses by the IA firms, for daily claim assignments (still haven't verified this requirement for CAT, but CAT meetings are coming soon enough). Given the lack of address to this as a procedure in the RFP and the statement by Citizens of no commitment to the "new" daily IA firms to even get any claims, I am sure that this may keep the status for the new vendors at a very low completive impact to the existing daily claims vendors. The big vendors will get bigger. Being committed to one vendor will slow the movement by adjusters from firm to firm and may affect the response time of Citizens to its policy holders if a significant event occurs this hurricane season. Picking the right vendor to sign on to and that even gets work, will be everything. Better know and trust you'll get paid by who you are working for (if they get work) before signing the appointment over.

Before working for any entity with "Citizens" in the name I suggest that you review your financial status, your willingness to forgo your pay check, your appetite for legal action and willingness to endure endless bureaucratic crap. Is your vendor intending to pay you on a contingency? If "Citizens " fails to pay the vendor then the vendor will not pay you and you, the adjuster, are the one that is out the money needed to handle the claims.

None of the insurers of last resort are on firm ground financially and as a State Florida's financial situation bears watching. One county, recently in the news, has nominally 15,000 foreclosures. Enough that the county is discussing disaster relief.

Plaintiff's attorneys hover around "Citizens" like vultures, looking for that class action that will make them rich. As the economy gets worse the insureds will be more likely to file suit and to join class actions. The reason Florida Citizens" rules are stiff is because they are sued constantly and the Citizens staff gets drubbed politically on a continuous basis. Undoubtedly Florida Citizens is going to subrogate those files that they consider to be poorly handled

What if you live and have property in Florida and get named in a suit on every claim you handled. Expand that thought a little farther, what if your vendor gets named in a suit on every claim you handled and in order to recoup expenses sues you. Do you have some way of defending yourself, paying legal fees just to get yourself out of the suit. Generally speaking I estimate a per file cost of $2,500.00. Let say you handled 100 files, that is, somebody check my math, $250,000.00.

It would be a good idea to do a detailed review of the risk of working for a "Citizens" much less working for two vendors for a "Citizens".

“Now there is no money left in the bank,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. And because the state becomes liable when the TWIA fund runs dry, he said, “one major storm could devastate the whole state budget”.

After reading all the negative responses about Florida Citizens, I should count my blessings that I was not called upon. I submitted all the required forms Citizens requested to this I/A firm two weeks ago. The last email I received from this firm was on 4/10 stating that they received Citizen's Approval & Exception list. I haven't heard from the firm since. No word on what list we were on. I sent out 2 emails without response. I guess I was one of the lucky ones that was on the Exception List. Atleast be professional about it and give someone a heads up of Citizen's decision.