The claimant sought a special award on the basis that the insurer unreasonably withheld and delayed payment of her claim for NEBs. The insurer failed to acknowledge receipt of the claimant’s OCF-3, and ignored several requests from the claimant requesting confirmation and updates on the status of payments. The insurer had no explanation as to why the OCF-3 and subsequent correspondence was never responded to. Adjudicator Hines found that the insurer was liable to pay an award in the amount of $8,598.95 (equal to 30%) plus interest. She did not find that the maximum award of 50% was appropriate because the insurer mitigated by issuing payment for past NEBs, plus interest, and its conduct was not part of a pattern of how it adjusted the claimant’s claim as a whole.
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