Glossary

The Federal Home Loan Bank is a system of regional banks available to assist local American lending institutions when the need to borrow funds arises. These banks are used to finance a variety of things, such as infrastructure, housing, and economic development. FHLBs are actually cooperatives, which enables their low costs to be passed on to customers. Used by a majority of American lending institutions, FHLBs have been around for decades, providing low-cost funds for community lending.

The Federal Insurance Contribution Act of 1935 establishes a payroll tax to assist in the funding of Social Security benefits.

The Federal Liability Risk Retention Act, enacted by Congress in 1986, was an expansion of the Product Liability Risk Retention Act of 1981 and addressed availability needs of commercial liability insurance in the market in 1980s. The Act utilizes both risk retention groups (RRGs) and purchasing groups (PGs) to accomplish its purpose. Also of note is that the Act preempts some state functions. For example, the Act does not allow a state insurance regulator to prohibit RRGs domiciled in other states from operating within the regulator's state, thus eliminating the need for a fronting company.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, originally passed in 1969, and its amendments provide no-fault coverage for employees injured while working the coal mines located in the United States. A key component of the law is Title IV, which deals with black lung disease.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was established within the Department of Transportation (DOT) on January 1, 2000, pursuant to the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law No.106-159, 113 Stat. 1748 (December 9, 1999)).The FMCSA's primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. Formerly a part of the Federal Highway Administration, the FMCSA's primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries. Administration activities contribute to ensuring safety in motor carrier operations through strong enforcement of safety regulations, targeting high-risk carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers; improving safety information systems and commercial motor vehicle technologies; strengthening commercial motor vehicle equipment and operating standards; and increasing safety awareness. To accomplish these activities, the administration works with federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, the motor carrier industry, labor safety interest groups, and others.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations is a compendium of rules and regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an agency within the US Department of Transportation, that apply to the motor carrier industry, including private and exempt motor carriers.

The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation is a US government entity that insures savings deposits in savings and loan associations up to a maximum limit.

Fee-for-service is the current and predominant model for providing medical care in the United States. Under a fee-for-service approach, physicians, hospitals, and medical care providers in general are paid/reimbursed based upon the nature and especially the volume of services they provide to a given patient. The fee-for-services model contrasts with the value-based care model, in which physicians and hospitals are compensated based on achieving positive results (e.g., achieving a reduction in both initial hospital admissions and hospital readmissions for chronic conditions, improving the overall health of patients and maintaining that improvement over time), rather than on the sheer quantity of medical services they provide. The major criticisms of the fee-for-service model are that it offers no incentive for either controlling the cost of medical care or improving overall patient health.

Fees in an insurance context are fixed cost charges, as compared to percentage charges (called "commissions"). Captives seek to pay fee-based charges but then express the total as a percentage of premium.

A fee disputes exclusions is found within a significant minority of professional liability insurance policies that preclude coverage for claims made against professionals from a disagreement about the fees charged by such professionals. The typical sequence of events that produce these types of claims is (1) a client disputes the amount charged by a professional after receiving their bill, agreeing to pay only a part of the bill (or perhaps none of it), (2) the professional brings a collection action against the client for the unpaid balance of the bill, and (3) the client responds to the collection action by filing a claim against the professional, alleging that the professional negligently performed the services that are the subject of the dispute. The rationale for excluding claims involving a fee dispute is that insurers consider such matters to be business risks, rather than risks originating from the negligent performance of professional services. Another reason for the exclusion is that insurers view these disputes as largely preventable, provided the professional clearly explains their fee structure and obtains the client's agreement to those fees in advance of actually performing professional services.