Note: Users must have the authority, "Hurricane Blackout," (Diamond Administration group) to access, add, edit and delete Hurricane Blackout periods.
Hurricane Blackout allows a user to enter by state, county (or counties) and line of business an effective and expiration date that prohibits non-pay direct bill Legal Notices when a "Black Out" period occurs due to hurricane season. Basically, during the blackout period, no policies written in the specified state / county / line of business will be allowed to go into legal cancellation or be cancelled for non-pay. If they are already in legal notice when the blackout period begins, they will not cancel until End of Day on the expiration date of the blackout period. Policies that were not in Legal Notice at the time of the blackout period, but have an amount due that is greater than the minimum invoice amount, will have their cancel date set to the end date of the blackout period plus Legal Notice Days.
To access the Hurricane Blackout screen:
From the Diamond Administration Tree View, select Hurricane Blackout.
When the Hurricane Blackout Setup screen displays:
Select Add.
On the Add Hurricane Blackout Date screen:
Description: Enter the name of the blackout period (e.g., Hurricane Katrina).
Effective Date: Enter the date of the start date (effective date) of the blackout. A date in the past or future can be entered. The date defaults to the current system date but can be changed; entry format MM/DD/YYYY.
Expiration Date: Enter the ending date (expiration date) of the blackout. This must be greater than the effective date. The date defaults to the current system date but can be changed; entry format MM/DD/YYYY.
New Business Expiration Date: Some hurricane orders have a separate expiration date for new business versus existing business. Use this field for entry of a date that the blocking of "New Business" policies expires or ends for the blackout period. The date cannot be greater than the Expiration Date and is only active when the New Business Transactions check box has been selected.
State: Select the state the blackout period applies to from the combo box. When selecting the state, counties within the state are loaded in the Available Counties section of the screen.
Line of Business: You may select an individual line of business the blackout period covers. If you select "ALL," then all lines of business are added for the state chosen when saving the blackout period. Each line is assigned a unique hurricane_id number.
Available Counties: Depending on the state selected, counties within that state are presented for selections. You can select individual counties by highlighting each county and pressing the single right arrow (>), or you can selected all counties in the state by clicking on the double right arrows (>>) which moves the counties to the right hand column, Selected Counties. Highlighting a single county and selecting the single left arrow (<) moves a single county from the Selected Counties column to the Available Counties column, which means the county is not affected by the blackout period. Choosing the double left arrows (<<) moves ALL counties from the Selected Counties column to the Available Counties column.
In the Processes section of the screen, selecting any of the fields places a check mark next to an option. When a check mark exists:
Legal Notice of Cancellation: This prevents Legal Notices of Cancellation and Reminder Notices from rolling during End of Day Processes when a Hurricane Blackout Period exists.
Final Notice of Cancellation: This prevents Final Notices of Cancellation and Renewal Expiration Notices from rolling during End of Day Processing when a Hurricane Blackout Period exists.
Non-Renewal: This deletes future events for Non-Renewal Notices that are effective during the Hurricane Blackout Period. It also prevents agency non-renewals from happening. (Note: If you have selected Non-Renewals, the system returns a validation when saving the blackout period: "Are you sure you want to include Non-Renewals with this Hurricane Blackout? All future non-renewal events will be deleted for eligible policies under the blackout." Answer Yes.)
New Business, Endorsements, Renewal and Reinstatement Transactions: This prevents any transactions from being issued during the Hurricane Blackout Period.
Submit: Prevents any transaction from being submitted during the blackout period. If a user has the "Override Submit Blackout" authority (Policy Processing group), they are allowed to override the submit restriction imposed by the blackout.
Rate: Prevents any transaction from being rated as well as promoted / issued during the blackout period. (The promote / issue automatically defaults with a check when rate is selected.) If a user has the "Override Rate Blackout" authority (Policy Processing group), they are allowed to override the rate restriction imposed by the blackout.
Promote / Issue: Prevents any transaction from being promoted / issued during the blackout period. If a user has the "Override Promote / Issue Blackout" authority (Policy Processing group), this allows users too override the Promote / Issue restriction.
Once all information has been entered and selected, click Save. When the Save button is chosen, the system performs the following:
Validation occurs and checks for:
Is the Expiration Date greater than the Effective Date?
Are the dates valid?
Is at least one (1) county selected?
Is the New Business Expiration Date within the blackout period?
Blackout information is saved in the Hurricane Blackout table.
County information is written and saved to the Hurricane Blackout Counties table.
When a policy matches the county, state, line of business and the policy does not already have a prior blackout id number associated with it, the hurricane blackout_id field in the Policy table is set to the id number of the blackout period being saved. This field allows companies to determine which policies are affected by specific blackouts. (Note: When this field contains a "0," this means a policy is not under any blackout period.)
If the Non-Renewal field was selected:
Information for policies that are set to be non-renewed during the blackout is pulled.
Any future events associated with a non-renewal are deleted.
If the system setting, "Always Generate Un Non Renew Print Event," in the Transactions folder is set to "1" (Enable), then an Un-Non-Renew Notice is generated.
The Non Renew field in the Policy table is set to "2." This allows your company to identify those policies that were affected by the blackout so they can be manually addressed after the blackout period ends.
When the Hurricane Blackout Setup screen returns, the blackout period entered displays in the list view.
Other options on the Hurricane Blackout Setup toolbar include:
Edit: This selection is only available for "Active" blackout periods. After highlighting a blackout period in the list view and clicking Edit, it returns the Edit Blackout Date screen. Users may change the following information: Description, Effective and Expiration Dates, New Business Expiration Date, Legal Notice of Cancellation, Final Notice of Cancellation, Non-Renewal and New Business Transactions. Users cannot change: State or line of business. They can, however, add or remove counties that are affected.
Note: If you have selected "All" for lines of business for a blackout period, make sure you edit the description. For example, if you have added "Hurricane Katrina" with all lines of business, select each hurricane_id and add the line's name in the description (e.g., Hurricane Katrina-Auto, Hurricane Katrina-Home, Hurricane Katrina-Umbrella, etc.) If you must do a billing transaction, Edit Hurricane Information, to change the blackout period this information is displayed when selecting the blackout period from the New Hurricane Blackout field.
Delete: Choosing this button deletes a selected blackout period. All policies flagged with the hurricane blackout id number pass through the process as if the blackout has expired. The blackout has its status set to "Deleted." The Delete button is only available for "Active" and "Inactive" blackout periods.
Close: Exits the Hurricane Blackout Setup screen.
In the Status section, other options on the Hurricane Blackout Setup screen include:
Active Blackouts: Selecting this radio button displays all blackout periods that are currently "Active." This is the default.
Inactive Blackouts: Clicking this radio button shows all blackout periods that are currently "Inactive." These blackout periods expiration dates have elapsed.
Deleted Blackouts: When chosen, this shows all blackout periods that have been deleted.