Glossary

Home equity insurance covers a homeowner against declines in home prices. This insurance requires the insured to make a one-time up-front premium payment. If the housing price index for that neighborhood decreases from the time of this payment, the home equity insurer would pay that individual an amount based on the percentage decrease from the policy's inception to when the house is sold. This coverage is also referred to as home value protection.

Home foreign refers to insurance written in one country on property or risks located in another country. Premiums and losses are usually payable in the country where the insurance is written.

A home health aide provides "hands-on" custodial assistance in the home. Home health aides may be licensed but do not provide medical care. Home health aides typically help with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and transferring. Many home healthcare agencies are certified by Medicare. Some long-term care (LTC) insurance policies cover the cost of a home health aide.

A home office in an insurance context is the corporate headquarters of an insurance company.

Home sharing involves renting out all or part of a private residence to guests, typically for a short period of time. The transaction often takes place through an online platform. Home sharing can create insurance coverage issues because a standard homeowners or renters policy may exclude or limit losses arising from rental or business use of the residence. Common claims include property damage caused by guests, theft from rented areas, guest injuries, and related liability claims. Hosts should disclose their home-sharing activity to their insurer and may need a home-sharing endorsement, landlord policy, commercial coverage, or other specialized insurance to address these exposures.

Honorable engagement or undertaking is a phrase found in some reinsurance agreements that typically provides that arbitrators shall interpret the reinsurance contract as an "honorable engagement" and not merely as a legal obligation. The discretion given to reinsurance arbitrators means that strict contract construction may or may not take place during a reinsurance arbitration. While many reinsurance contracts continue the tradition of the honorable engagement clause, reinsureds and reinsurers have been moving away from incorporating honorable engagement language in their reinsurance contracts.

The horizontal exhaustion rule is a legal theory that requires an insured with multiple primary and excess policies covering a common risk to exhaust all primary policy limits before invoking excess coverage.

Hospital income insurance provides a stated weekly or monthly payment during the hospitalization of the insured. The benefits payable are not based on the actual expenses incurred.

Hospital medicine is a medical specialty addressing the care needs of acutely ill, hospitalized patients. Doctors whose main professional focus is hospital medicine are known as hospitalists. The major function of a hospitalist is to act as a case manager of such patients. The need for hospitalists has arisen due to the tremendous growth in medical knowledge and resultant number of medical specialists whose care must be coordinated. Hospital medicine, like emergency medicine, is a specialty based on the site of patient care (the hospital), as opposed to an organ (i.e., ophthalmology), a disease (i.e., oncology), or a patient's age (i.e., geriatrics).

Hospital professional liability insurance is purchased by hospitals to cover their liability for professional acts, errors, or omissions. HPL forms are usually written on a combined basis with commercial general liability (CGL) policies to avoid "gray area" situations in which coverage could apply under either policy. HPL forms cover hospital employees but not independent contractor staff physicians who have been granted admitting privileges. Rather, such individuals are required to maintain their own professional liability insurance. Retention levels under HPL forms are often substantial, with multimillion self-insured retentions (SIRs) not uncommon for even small hospitals. The policies are normally written with a claims-made coverage trigger.