Sankey diagrams with googleVis

Sankey diagrams are great for visualising flows from one set of data values to another. Although named after Irish Captain Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey, who used this type of diagram in 1898 to show the energy efficiency of a steam engine, the best know Sankey diagram is probably Charles Minard's Map of Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812, which he actually produced in 1869.

Thomas Rahlf: Datendesign mit R

The above example from Thomas Rahlf's book Datendesign mit R shows that Minard's plot can be reproduced with base graphics in R. Aaron Berdanier posted in 2010 the SankeyR function and Erik Andrulis published the riverplot package on CRAN that allows users to create static Sankey charts as well.

Interactive Sankey diagram can be generated with rCharts and now also with googleVis (version >= 0.5.0). For my a first example I use UK visitor data from VisitBritain.org. The following diagram visualises the flow of visitors in 2012; where they came from and which parts of the UK they visited. This example illustrates the key concept already. I need a data frame with three columns that explains the flow of data from a source to a target and the strength or weight of the connection.




My next example uses a graph data set that I visualise in the same way again, but here I start to play around with the various parameters of the Google API.




As stated by Google, the Sankey chart may be undergoing substantial revisions in future Google Charts releases.

For more information and installation instructions see the googleVis project site and Google documentation.

Session Info

R version 3.0.3 (2014-03-06)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/C/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets  methods  
[7] base     

other attached packages:
[1] googleVis_0.5.0-4 igraph_0.7.0     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] RJSONIO_1.0-3 tools_3.0.3 

Sankey diagrams with googleVis

Sankey diagrams are great for visualising flows from one set of data values to another. Although named after Irish Captain Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey, who used this type of diagram in 1898 to show the energy efficiency of a steam engine, the best know Sankey diagram is probably Charles Minard's Map of Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812, which he actually produced in 1869.

Thomas Rahlf: Datendesign mit R

The above example from Thomas Rahlf's book Datendesign mit R shows that Minard's plot can be reproduced with base graphics in R. Aaron Berdanier posted in 2010 the SankeyR function and Erik Andrulis published the riverplot package on CRAN that allows users to create static Sankey charts as well.

Interactive Sankey diagram can be generated with rCharts and now also with googleVis (version >= 0.5.0). For my a first example I use UK visitor data from VisitBritain.org. The following diagram visualises the flow of visitors in 2012; where they came from and which parts of the UK they visited. This example illustrates the key concept already. I need a data frame with three columns that explains the flow of data from a source to a target and the strength or weight of the connection.




My next example uses a graph data set that I visualise in the same way again, but here I start to play around with the various parameters of the Google API.




As stated by Google, the Sankey chart may be undergoing substantial revisions in future Google Charts releases.

For more information and installation instructions see the googleVis project site and Google documentation.

Session Info

R version 3.0.3 (2014-03-06)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8/C/en_GB.UTF-8/en_GB.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets  methods  
[7] base     

other attached packages:
[1] googleVis_0.5.0-4 igraph_0.7.0     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] RJSONIO_1.0-3 tools_3.0.3 

Important information about landslide insurance

Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a state of emergency in Snohomish County after a large landslide hit the town of Oso on March 22. Tragically, at least eight lives were lost and several people were injured. Searches underway for more than 100 people who are still missing. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner�s thoughts are with the families, emergency responders and communities affected by the landslide.

In addition to the human toll, the slide destroyed at least 30 homes and 20 other structures, and caused a backup in the Stillaguamish River, sparking concerns about flooding. The landslide destroyed an area of at least one square mile, including Highway 230 and parts of neighboring Darrington. FEMA announced today it will assist with the landslide response.

People who lost or suffered damage to property as a result of the landslide can contact the Insurance Commissioner�s consumer advocates with questions about their options at 800-562-6900 or online.

In general, homeowner policies do not cover landslides or land movements caused by rain runoff. That type of coverage would be covered by a separate policy. If you think you purchased such a policy�or you would like to�contact your insurance agent or broker.

Read more information about homeowner insurance and landslides.

Gov. Inslee has a webpage with information about the landslide and the state Emergency Management Division has a page with updates and resources.

Reminder: Abstract submission for the 2014 'R in Insurance' conference will close this Friday

Don't forget, this is the final week you can submit an abstract for the second R in Insurance conference.
For more details see http://www.rininsurance.com and perhaps for inspiration review last year's programme.

Reminder: Abstract submission for the 2014 'R in Insurance' conference will close this Friday

Don't forget, this is the final week you can submit an abstract for the second R in Insurance conference.
For more details see http://www.rininsurance.com and perhaps for inspiration review last year's programme.

Be on the lookout for Medicare red flags

The Insurance Commissioner’s SHIBA program has received reports that some Washington Medicare subscribers are receiving calls from a person claiming they’re selling Medicare Supplement (Medigap) insurance. Medigap plans are sold by insurance companies and fill the gaps that Medicare parts A and B don’t cover, like copayments, coinsurance and deductibles.

The reports are that a solicitor is cold-calling consumers and setting up an appointment to come to consumers’ homes to talk about Medigap coverage and costs. When the solicitor schedules the appointment, they ask for personal information, including Social Security numbers and consumers’ home addresses. A company representative shows up for the appointment without any identification or proof they represent the insurance company; during the meeting they ask consumers for money to buy additional coverage.

Whenever a salesperson calls you unsolicited, you should proceed with caution. Consumers should never give personal information over the phone, including Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, or anything that could be used to defraud you or steal your identity.

It’s also a good idea for consumers to find out if an agent is licensed to sell insurance in our state before meeting with them or giving them money. Consumers can also call the Insurance Commissioner’s consumer advocates at 1-800-562-6900 to verify someone is licensed to sell insurance in Washington or to report suspected Medicare or insurance fraud.

• Read more about Medicare
• Read more about SHIBA and how they help people navigate Medicare

Obamacare Deadline March 31st; Important Points to Remember

March 31 is just around the corner and it is the deadline of Affordable Care Act open enrollment. If you missed the deadline and have not purchased health care coverage you may be penalized (tax penalty) on your 2014 taxes filed in 2015. You will also have to wait for the next open enrollment period.

If you have already insurance from your work, Medicaid, Medicare, or others you will not be penalized as long as it have the minimum standards under the Affordable Care Act.

Under the ObamaCare Act everyone is required to have health insurance or if you don't you will have to pay a tax penalty (in 2015 when 2014 taxes are filed). However, there are exemptions.

- The household income of your family is less than the IRS income tax filing requirement ($10,000 if you are single, $20,000 if you are married and filing jointly).
- If you are a member of ministries or religious sects, or of a federally recognized Native American tribe.
- If you are uninsured for less than three consecutive months in a year.
- If you can't afford to get an insurance because of financial difficulties or the lowest premium is more than 8% of your household income.
- If your insurance plan was recently cancelled and you can't afford a marketplace plan.
- If your health insurance does not meet minimum coverage standards, but your state insurance commissioner allows your insurer to continue to offer out of date plans until the October 1st, 2016 additional grace period.
- If you are 26 yearsold and below you can opt to stay on or be added to your parents' health insurance plan, even if you don't live with them.

Subsidies for the cost of health insurance - you can check if you are eligible for financial assistance from the US government, through subsidy. It will be determined based on your household income and family size. You easily check if you qualify for a tax subsidy by using the health care calculator from TurboTax. The subsidy can go directly to your health insurance provider when you purchase insurance if you are qualified. If you qualified you will pay a lower monthly health insurance premium.

Penalties:

In 2014 the amount of one-time penalty is $95 per adult, or 1% of your total income depending on your income. For uninsured children in your household, the penalty is $47.50 per child with a maximum family penalty of $285.

Visit HealthCare.gov to apply for health insurance, you can also compare plans, and enroll online. You can also apply by phone or get in-person help with your application.

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Do you still need health insurance? Open enrollment ends March 31

Open enrollment for health insurance for this calendar year ends in less than two weeks. If you do not have a qualified health plan, you will be subject to a tax penalty when you file your 2014 taxes. The penalty for the first year is up to $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, or 1 percent of family income, whichever is greater.

• To be covered starting April 1, you must apply, select and pay for a health plan by 5 p.m. on March 23.
• To be covered starting May 1, you must apply, select and pay for a health plan by 11:59 p.m. on March 31.

Those who qualify for Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) may continue to enroll throughout the year. There are also certain events that allow you to enroll or change your enrollment throughout the year. Read more about qualifying events.

If you qualify for free or subsidized health care, enroll through Washington Healthplanfinder at www.wahealthplanfinder.org.  People qualify for help if their income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($45,960 for an individual and $94,200 for a family of four in 2013). If your income exceeds that threshold, you may wish to contact an insurance broker or agent directly.

Open enrollment for 2015 starts Nov. 15, 2014 and ends Feb. 15, 2015.  

 

Special Investigations Unit hiring an Administrative Assistant

The Office of the Insurance Commissioner is hiring a full-time, permanent Administrative Assistant 4 in our Special Investigations Unit (SIU), located in Tumwater. SIU investigates insurance fraud in Washington state and has the authority to conduct criminal investigations, arrest suspects and submit fraud cases to prosecutors. The unit works with federal, state and local law enforcement; insurance companies' investigators; and regulatory agencies. Read more about SIU's work.

This position is the principle administrative support for the SIU Director and works closely with a staff of seven criminal analysts and detectives to support of the unit’s mission to combat criminal insurance fraud.

Duties include:

• Providing administrative support to the Director and the Special Investigations Unit.
• Scheduling meetings, preparing agendas and taking meeting minutes.
• Transcribing interviews.
• Preparing spreadsheets, charts and graphs.
• Managing and directing incoming assignments; monitoring deadlines and projects.
• Coordinating travel for division employees.
• Correspondence with citizens, stakeholders and partners.
• Records retention and gathering records requested under the Public Records Act. 
• Providing administrative support to various stakeholder groups, including the SIU Advisory Board, and other internal and external groups.

Applicants must be able to pass a fingerprint-based background check and must maintain confidentiality about criminal investigations.

The job closes on March 31. View the full job posting and application instructions. 

View all of the jobs that are currently open at OIC.

Timeline charts with googleVis

Last year at the Google I/O conference Mitchell Foley presented new developments of the Google Chart Tools API and one of the new features he mentioned were timeline charts (about 6 min into the talk).

Timeline charts are a great way of visualising different dates/events over time and are now also supported by googleVis from version 0.5.0 onwards (currently only available from GitHub). Here is an example, showing classroom allocation in the afternoon. The exact times and durations are given when you hover over the bars.



I can swap around the bar and row labels to show the rooms by languages:



Here is another example, inspired by Jason Bryer's timeline package, showing the US presidents and UK prime ministers during World War II. For gvisTimeline I have to remove the line breaks in Jason's data.



And finally a more complex example from the Google Chart Tools API documentation showing the terms of the first US presidents with various options set to change the colours and fonts:
Read more �

Timeline charts with googleVis

Last year at the Google I/O conference Mitchell Foley presented new developments of the Google Chart Tools API and one of the new features he mentioned were timeline charts (about 6 min into the talk).

Timeline charts are a great way of visualising different dates/events over time and are now also supported by googleVis from version 0.5.0 onwards (currently only available from GitHub). Here is an example, showing classroom allocation in the afternoon. The exact times and durations are given when you hover over the bars.



I can swap around the bar and row labels to show the rooms by languages:



Here is another example, inspired by Jason Bryer's timeline package, showing the US presidents and UK prime ministers during World War II. For gvisTimeline I have to remove the line breaks in Jason's data.



And finally a more complex example from the Google Chart Tools API documentation showing the terms of the first US presidents with various options set to change the colours and fonts:
Read more �

Do some leg work before you purchase an auto warranty

We receive a number of complaints from consumers regarding auto warranties, warranty premium refund guarantees, and loan gap waivers sold by car dealerships. Unfortunately, we get the calls after consumers encounter a problem with the warranty they purchased.

Generally these types of products are offered at the time of the vehicle’s sale and consumers may feel pressured to buy these types of warranties without really understanding what they are getting. The cost of these types of warranties is often added to the loan amount, which increases the amount you borrow, your monthly payment and the warranty price because you interest on it over the life of the loan.

While we are not finance experts, we do recommend that consumers contact their insurance agent or our consumer advocates before deciding to buy these products. Consumers can call or email us to discuss the product; consumers can see whether or the warranties are properly registered to sell plans in Washington by searching our company or agent lookup.

Remember, you have 10 days under state law to revoke your purchase of any warranty and receive a full refund. After 30 days, the company may prorate your refund.

Many consumers don’t know that you can request your insurance agent add a debt waiver or loan balance payoff coverage to your insurance policy when you buy a new car. This type of insurance protects you if your car is “totaled” (called a “total loss” by your insurer) and you owe more than its current market value. If you are in the market for a vehicle, it’s always a good to discuss your insurance options with your agent before you buy anything.

Read more about auto insurance.

Read more about warranties and service contracts.

Truth is stranger than fiction -- these life insurance questions prove it

Life insurance can be confusing under the best circumstances. Our Consumer Advocates shared some questions they’ve received about life insurance benefits under unusual circumstances:

My ex-husband died and the life insurance company won’t give me the money, even though I’m still listed as the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. Can they do this?

Yes, they can. In fact, state law requires it. Under Washington probate law, divorce automatically cancels an ex-spouse’s standing as beneficiary on a life insurance policy. What if someone still wants their ex-spouse to be the beneficiary after the divorce? After the divorce is final, they should fill out and submit a new beneficiary form listing the ex-spouse (again) as beneficiary.

I’m in the midst of a divorce and I want to remove my soon-to-be ex-spouse as the beneficiary on my life insurance policy. Do I need to wait until the divorce is final?

The answer to this depends on a few things.

Does it look like the divorce decree will list this life insurance policy as one of the marital assets? If so, you should wait until the divorce is final, because the divorce decree might dictate what you can do with the policy. If you’re sure the divorce decree won’t list this life insurance policy as a marital asset, you could remove your wife as beneficiary for up to 50 percent of the policy.

While the marriage is still in effect, though, state community property laws make people list their spouse as beneficiary for 50 percent of the policy unless the spouse agrees in writing to do otherwise. The moment a divorce becomes final, state probate law automatically cancels the ex-spouse as beneficiary on the policy. As a result, even if you never remove your ex-spouse as the beneficiary, the insurance company won’t give your ex the life insurance money.

For obvious reasons, though, most people choose to fill out a new beneficiary form after a divorce is final.

I briefly dated someone and after we broke up, she told people that she bought a life insurance policy for me while we were still together. Is that even possible?

As odd as this may sound, we hear this question regularly. The answer: It’s unlikely that someone could buy a life insurance policy on your behalf without your knowledge and consent. Washington state law says that people need to have an “insurable interest” before they can buy a policy on someone’s life, and only a close relative such as a spouse or parent would meet this standard.

Also, before selling a life insurance policy, most insurance companies send a representative to meet you, check your identification and take a sample of your blood for testing.

If you are genuinely concerned in a situation like this and fear for your safety – something we’ve heard from many consumers – we advise you to contact your local police department.

Find more information about life insurance on our website.

googleVis code development moved to GitHub

After nearly 4 years of developing googleVis on Google Code with SVN we decided to move to GitHub. The main reason was that Google stopped the facility of hosting pre-CRAN builds of the package for user testing. The devtools package on the other hand makes it really easy to install packages from source hosted on GitHub. Additionally, we hope that GitHub will make collaboration with others more effective. Thus, bookmark http://github.com/mages/googleVis.

Screen shot of some of the new features in googleVis 0.5.0-1.

There are some exciting new features in the development version of 0.5.0-1 of googleVis, reflecting the enhanced Google Chart Tools API:

New Features

• New functions gvisSankey, gvisAnnotationChart, gvisHistogram, gvisCalendar and gvisTimeline to support the new Google charts of the same names (without 'gvis').
  
• New demo Trendlines showing how trend-lines can be added to Scatter-, Bar-, Column-, and Line Charts.
  
• New demo Roles showing how different column roles can be used in core charts to highlight data.
  
• New vignettes written in R Markdown showcasing googleVis examples and how the package works with knitr.

Changes

• The help files of gvis charts no longer show all their options, instead a link to the online Google API documentation is given.
  
• All googleVis output will be displayed in your default browser. In previous versions of googleVis output could also be displayed in the preview pane of RStudio. This feature is no longer available with the current version of RStudio, but is likely to be introduced again with the release of RStudio version 0.99 or higher.
  

I will post about the new features and changes in the coming weeks. Please feel free to test the development version already. Visit our GitHub project page for installation instructions and further details.

For the impatient (you will require R >= 3.0.2):

install.packages(c("devtools","RJSONIO", "knitr", "shiny", "httpuv"))
library(devtools)
install_github("mages/googleVis")

googleVis code development moved to GitHub

After nearly 4 years of developing googleVis on Google Code with SVN we decided to move to GitHub. The main reason was that Google stopped the facility of hosting pre-CRAN builds of the package for user testing. The devtools package on the other hand makes it really easy to install packages from source hosted on GitHub. Additionally, we hope that GitHub will make collaboration with others more effective. Thus, bookmark http://github.com/mages/googleVis.

Screen shot of some of the new features in googleVis 0.5.0-1.

There are some exciting new features in the development version of 0.5.0-1 of googleVis, reflecting the enhanced Google Chart Tools API:

New Features

• New functions gvisSankey, gvisAnnotationChart, gvisHistogram, gvisCalendar and gvisTimeline to support the new Google charts of the same names (without 'gvis').
  
• New demo Trendlines showing how trend-lines can be added to Scatter-, Bar-, Column-, and Line Charts.
  
• New demo Roles showing how different column roles can be used in core charts to highlight data.
  
• New vignettes written in R Markdown showcasing googleVis examples and how the package works with knitr.

Changes

• The help files of gvis charts no longer show all their options, instead a link to the online Google API documentation is given.
  
• All googleVis output will be displayed in your default browser. In previous versions of googleVis output could also be displayed in the preview pane of RStudio. This feature is no longer available with the current version of RStudio, but is likely to be introduced again with the release of RStudio version 0.99 or higher.
  

I will post about the new features and changes in the coming weeks. Please feel free to test the development version already. Visit our GitHub project page for installation instructions and further details.

For the impatient (you will require R >= 3.0.2):

install.packages(c("devtools","RJSONIO", "knitr", "shiny", "httpuv"))
library(devtools)
install_github("mages/googleVis")

OIC expands online services through NIPR

The OIC has expanded the types of applications we can accept online through our partnership with the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) to new and renewing insurance licenses for: �

• Washington resident insurance producers (full lines only) �
• Washington surplus lines brokers �
• Out-of-state surplus lines brokers

Through our partnership with NIPR, an applicant or licensee can submit multiple applications or renewals to more than one state simultaneously. In today’s marketplace, many insurance professionals hold licenses in multiple states. View a list of applications that may be submitted to OIC through NIPR.

Protect your identity to prevent Medicare fraud

During National Consumer Protection Week, OIC is offering tips to help protect insurance consumers in Washington.

Medicare is the national health care plan for all U.S. citizens age 65 and older. It also covers people younger than age 65 who receive Social Security Disability Income and people diagnosed with specific conditions.

Medicare is a $585 billion program with approximately 48 million enrollees. That number will grow as more baby boomers become eligible for Medicare. Medicare fraud can be hard to track, but some estimate that Medicare fraud accounts for up to 10 percent of its annual budget.

We all pay a price for Medicare fraud, waste and abuse, which contributes significantly to rising health care costs. Here are some red flags to watch for:

• Check your monthly statement for services or equipment you didn’t receive or for prices that seem higher than you expect or were told.
• Never give your Medicare number (which is your Social Security number) in exchange for “free” testing, screening, products or services. Never give your Medicare number to anyone who calls or solicits you. Medicare will never call you.
• A medical provider should never charge you for billing Medicare on your behalf or for filling out forms.
• Medical providers should never who waive your coinsurance or deductible.

View more Medicare fraud tips on our website.

If you suspect Medicare fraud or have questions about your bill, call OIC’s Statewide Health Benefits Insurance Advisors (SHIBA) at 1-800-562-6900 or contact a local SHIBA office.

SHIBA also holds Medicare fraud prevention workshops throughout the state. 

Are you covered for flood damage? The answer may surprise you

This month has been the soggiest March on record in the Seattle area, according to the Associated Press, and some areas of the state are experiencing heavy rain that may cause flooding today and tomorrow. Here are some things that are good to know about floods and insurance:

• Homeowner policies typically do not cover flood damage. Flood damage is not on standard homeowner policies and most commercial policies, although many people assume it is. That can be a costly assumption. Your mortgage lender may require you to have flood insurance if your home is located in a flood-prone area, also known as a "special flood hazard area." You can estimate your property's flood risk online.
• Most people buy flood insurance through the government’s National Flood Insurance Program, which is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These policies are sold through local insurance agents and brokers, which you can locate online. As with most policies, there are limits to what is covered.
• Flood insurance rates are in flux. In July 2012, Congress passed the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, which changed the way the National Flood Insurance Program is run. Among those changes were premium rate increases to make the program more financially stable. However, a new bill is being heard in Congress that would slow the premium increases for certain policyholders. That bill, call Grimm-Waters, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 4.
• If your vehicle is damaged in a flood, your auto policy’s comprehensive coverage typically will cover it. However, you should verify you have that type of coverage with your insurance agent or broker. Read more about auto insurance.

You can read more about flood insurance on OIC’s website. 

OIC�s SHIBA can help consumers find health benefits

During National Consumer Protection Week, OIC is offering tips to help protect insurance consumers in Washington.

The Office of the Insurance Commissioner oversees Washington’s Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA). SHIBA offers free, unbiased and confidential assistance with Medicare and other health care choices.

SHIBA can help you:

• Understand your health care coverage options and rights.
• Determine your general eligibility for health care coverage programs.
• Evaluate and compare health insurance plans.

In 2013, our 570 SHIBA volunteer advisors helped 54,000 people understand their health insurance. Advisors are available in communities throughout the state;.

For people who are about to turn or recently turned 65, we host Medicare events around the state. You can also find information about Medicare on our website. 

Are you interested in becoming a SHIBA volunteer? Find out more.

Important tips for insurance consumers

Editor's note: During National Consumer Protection Week, OIC is offering tips to help protect insurance consumers in Washington.

Today, we are sharing tips with Washington insurance consumers based on questions and complaints we’ve received over the years. These tips are general and are intended to help you avoid common insurance pitfalls.

• If you are having a problem with your insurance company or agent that you can’t get resolved, we recommend that you call us about it as soon as you are having the problem. We do get calls from people who wait years (yes, years) before they call us. By that time, it’s very hard to untangle the issues. We will try, but it’s significantly more difficult. Contact us at 1-800-562-6900 or on our website. The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can determine how we might be able to help.
• Do an annual review of your policies and what possessions you are covering. A lot can happen in 12 months—did you remodel your home? Buy a car? Sell a car? Buy a boat? Have a birthday? Any of these things could affect your insurance premium. For homeowner or renter insurance policies, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has a home inventory checklist available as a PDF or as an app.
• Many people have their auto and home policies with the same insurer. However, many do not. If you change address or have any other issue that might involve both policies, be sure to contact both insurers to discuss your situation and make any needed changes to policies.

It’s important to be an informed consumer, and we are here to help. OIC’s website has a wealth of information about auto, home, health and life insurance for Washington consumers at www.insurance.wa.gov. Our consumer site is tablet- and mobile-friendly.

Consumers have rights to appeal claim denials

Editor's note: During National Consumer Protection Week, OIC is offering tips to help protect insurance consumers in Washington.

Sometimes, insurance companies deny claims for reasons that vary as widely as there are claims. Here is some information about insurance claim denials and your appeal rights.

Health insurance

Most health plans are required to comply with a very specific appeal process. However, this requirement doesn’t apply to some health plans, such as Medicare or Apple Health (Medicaid) plans.

Other types of insurance, such as long-term care or disability insurance, are required to provide an appeal process but can create their own process.

If you want to file an appeal with your health plan, contact them and ask: “What do I need to do to file an appeal?” After that, you’ll need to collect materials that support your appeal, such as:

• The health problems that can or will arise if the company doesn’t pay for this treatment, plus an estimate of the cost of treating those problems.
• Any medical journal articles or studies that show the treatment’s effectiveness.
• Letters from your doctors describing why you need this treatment.

After you send your appeal materials to the health plan, be persistent. Most people don’t win at the first level of appeal, but the odds of winning increase as you reach higher levels of appeals. The chance of winning is highest when your health plan appeal reaches the final level, called an “Independent Review Organization.”

For more tips, please visit the appeals section of our website.

Property and casualty insurance

With property and casualty insurance—such as homeowner, renter and auto insurance—consumers generally can use the appraisal provision of their auto or home policy or the arbitration provision for personal injury protection (PIP) and under- or uninsured motorist (UIM) claims on auto policies. Appraisal provisions are used for disputes of claim value, and arbitration provisions are generally used when the application or availability of coverage is being questioned.

More information

• You can file a complaint against your insurance company, regardless of what type of policy you have, with OIC’s consumer advocates.
• For Medicare questions, you can contact a Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisor (SHIBA).
• People must apply for Apple Health through Washington Healthplanfinder. Consumers who are enrolled in Apple Health must contact the Health Care Authority with appeals and follow-up issues.

Review: K�lner R Meeting 26 Feburary 2014

Last week's Cologne R user group meeting was all about R and databases. We had three talks from a generic overview on how to connect R to databases, to a specific example with kdb+ and perhaps the future with ArangoDB, a NoSQL database.

Connecting R with databases

Diego de Castillo's talk focused on the use of relational databases, such as PostgreSQL, SQLite and Oracle. For all these databases dedicated R drivers exist on CRAN that can be used in a generic way via the DBI package. This allows for a consistent approach to connect, query and return data to R. A popular alternative on Windows to the DBI framework is the use of the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) API via RODBC or RJDBC.

R and kdb+

Kim Kuen Tang gave an overview of kdb+, a proprietary database that appears to be popular for time series data. kdb+ comes with its own expressive query language, q. Kim demonstrated how he could analyse large amount of stock market data stored in a kdb+ database using R and q all via sublime.

ArangoDB

Michael Hackstein and Claudius Weinberger introduced us to ArangoDB, a NoSQL (Not only SQL) database. ArangoDB is an open source document database. This means that data is stored as documents, which are similar to JavaScript objects, in so-called "collections". Their slides presented nicely the different concepts outside the traditional relational databases, such as key values stores, document stores and graph data. Claudius mentioned that they had received several requests from users who wanted to connect R to ArangoDB. Although a native driver does not exist for R yet, ArangoDB can be accessed by R using the HTTP-API via the packages bitops, RCurl and RJSONIO.

Next K�lner R meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for 23 May 2014. This will be our 10th meeting, clearly something we need to celebrate!

Please get in touch if you would like to present and share your experience, or indeed if you have a request for a topic you would like to hear more about. For more details see also our Meetup page.

Thanks again to Bernd Wei� for hosting the event and Revolution Analytics for their sponsorship.

Review: K�lner R Meeting 26 Feburary 2014

Last week's Cologne R user group meeting was all about R and databases. We had three talks from a generic overview on how to connect R to databases, to a specific example with kdb+ and perhaps the future with ArangoDB, a NoSQL database.

Connecting R with databases

Diego de Castillo's talk focused on the use of relational databases, such as PostgreSQL, SQLite and Oracle. For all these databases dedicated R drivers exist on CRAN that can be used in a generic way via the DBI package. This allows for a consistent approach to connect, query and return data to R. A popular alternative on Windows to the DBI framework is the use of the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) API via RODBC or RJDBC.

R and kdb+

Kim Kuen Tang gave an overview of kdb+, a proprietary database that appears to be popular for time series data. kdb+ comes with its own expressive query language, q. Kim demonstrated how he could analyse large amount of stock market data stored in a kdb+ database using R and q all via sublime.

ArangoDB

Michael Hackstein and Claudius Weinberger introduced us to ArangoDB, a NoSQL (Not only SQL) database. ArangoDB is an open source document database. This means that data is stored as documents, which are similar to JavaScript objects, in so-called "collections". Their slides presented nicely the different concepts outside the traditional relational databases, such as key values stores, document stores and graph data. Claudius mentioned that they had received several requests from users who wanted to connect R to ArangoDB. Although a native driver does not exist for R yet, ArangoDB can be accessed by R using the HTTP-API via the packages bitops, RCurl and RJSONIO.

Next K�lner R meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for 23 May 2014. This will be our 10th meeting, clearly something we need to celebrate!

Please get in touch if you would like to present and share your experience, or indeed if you have a request for a topic you would like to hear more about. For more details see also our Meetup page.

Thanks again to Bernd Wei� for hosting the event and Revolution Analytics for their sponsorship.

March 2-8 is National Consumer Protection Week

You may have seen that this week is National Consumer Protection Week. The Washington state Insurance Commissioner has an entire unit devoted to helping consumers who experience trouble with their insurance policies or companies. In 2013, we responded to more than 5,000 inquiries from consumers and helped recover $8.4 million in insurance billings, refunds and other claims-related issues.

Our consumer advocates can help:

• Answer questions about home, auto, health, life, annuities, business and other insurance. 
• Understand your insurance rights, including your health insurance appeal rights and the process. 
• Understand how health reform works. 
• Look into complaints against insurance companies. 
• Provide you with information about your shopping options. 
• Verify if an agent, agency, or company is authorized to sell insurance in Washington state.

We also share information of interest to insurance consumers on this blog and through our social media channels. Many of our posts are generated by questions our consumer advocates receive from Washington citizens. Consumers can reach us by phone at 1-800-562-6900 and online via our web form. Read more about consumer advocacy at OIC.