The Schaumburg, Ill., affluent markets group at Zurich Financial,
Zurich, says holders of the flexible-premium policy can allocate policy value to
a global index as well as to a domestic index and a fixed index.

Zurich Financial plans to give the top-performing index extra weight
when computing the crediting rate each year. The crediting rate calculators will
disregard the lowest performing index.

Zurich Financial will write the policy through Zurich American Life
Insurance Company, which has its official domicile in Illinois and offices in
Jersey City, N.J.

In other ideas news, Blue Shield of California, San Francisco,
is joining with St. Joseph Health System, Orange, Calif., to form an
“accountable care organization” (ACO) test program.
ACO advocates want doctors, hospitals and health insurers to work more
closely together to improve coordination of patient care.

The California Blue Shield-St. Joseph ACO will try to coordinate care
for about 30,000 California Blue Shield health maintenance organization members
who get primary care from doctors affiliated with one of the St. Joseph Health
System’s three hospitals.

The ACO will begin coordinating patient care Jan. 1, 2012, and the test
program is set to last at least 12 months, California Blue Shield
says.

– Allison Bell