Glossary

A hacktivist is a person who engages in malicious Internet activities in an effort to effect social change rather than personal profit. Motivations for the hacks have included freedom of speech, human rights, minority discrimination, freedom of information, nuclear disarmament, government actions, and court decisions.

Hands-on assistance refers to the physical assistance of another person without which a person would be unable to perform one or more of the activities of daily living (ADL). Some long-term care (LTC) insurance policies define the inability to perform an ADL without hands-on assistance as a trigger for policy benefits. Hand-on assistance is a more stringent measure than merely requiring "stand-by" assistance.

Hangar keepers liability insurance covers damage to or destruction of the aircraft of others while in the insured's custody for storage, repair, or safekeeping and while in or on the scheduled premises.

A hard market in an insurance context is the upswing in the insurance market cycle, when premiums increase, coverage terms are restricted, and capacity for most types of insurance decreases. Hard insurance markets may be caused by any number of factors, including falling investment returns for insurers, increases in frequency or severity of losses, and regulatory intervention deemed to be against the interests of insurers.

Harper Group v. Commissioner is one of three cases decided in January 1991 in which premiums paid to wholly owned insurance companies were deemed deductible expenses. Substantial unrelated business, among other tests, was critical. [96 T.C. 45 (1991), aff'd, 979 F.2d 1341 (9th Cir. 1992).]

A hazard is a condition that increases the probability of loss. Examples of hazards include poor housekeeping in a factory and inadequate lighting in a crime-prone area.

A hazardous/enumerated procedures exclusion is found in the majority of physicians professional liability insurance policies and precludes coverage for a specific list of medical procedures. These procedures are excluded because they typically involve higher-than-average risks of claims that standard physicians policies are not priced to cover. Examples of the most common hazardous/enumerated procedures include administering general anesthesia, performing bariatric surgical procedures, and injecting silicone fluid. If a physician regularly (or even occasionally) performs any of these enumerated procedures, the insurer will likely remove the procedure from the list and provide a coverage quotation reflecting an additional premium to insure the exposure. The purpose of this exclusion is to alert insured physicians that if they perform any of the procedures specified in the exclusion, they should notify the insurer so that the policy can be rerated and an additional premium quoted.

The hazardous ranking system is the principle screening tool used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate risks to public health and the environment associated with abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. The HRS calculates a score based on the potential of hazardous substances spreading from the site through the air, surface water, or groundwater and on other factors such as density and proximity of human population. This score is the primary factor in deciding if the site should be on the National Priorities List (NPL) and, if so, what ranking it should have compared to other sites on the list.

Hazardous waste is a technical term under the Comprehensive Environmental, Response Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for chemical or other products considered hazardous or sources of hazardous waste.

Hazard class pricing is a rating method used by some underwriters to price miscellaneous professional liability (MPL) insurance policies. The method involves grouping miscellaneous professionals into a number of hazard classes and charging the same rate to each risk within the same hazard class. Thus, an insurer might divide its MPL risks into four hazard classes, charging the lowest rate for risks classified within Class I and the highest rate for risks classified within Class IV. For example, if an insurer placed paralegals and collection agencies in the same hazard class, they would both be charged the same rate. Since MPL policies are used to insure more than 50 different types of professionals (a number that is constantly increasing), hazard class pricing is beneficial because it eliminates the need to calculate separate rates for each of these numerous, individual professions.