44-2406.

Claims; filing; determination.

(1) The association shall be obligated only to the extent of the covered claims existing prior to the date a member insurer becomes an insolvent insurer or arising within thirty days after it has been determined that the insurer is an insolvent insurer, before the policy expiration date, if less than thirty days after such determination, or before the insured replaces the policy or on request effects cancellation, if he or she does so within thirty days of such dates, but such obligation shall include only the amount of each covered claim that does not exceed three hundred thousand dollars, except that the association shall pay the amount required by law on any covered claim arising out of a workers' compensation policy. In no event shall the association be obligated to a policyholder or claimant in an amount in excess of the face amount of the policy from which the claim arises. The association shall be obligated on covered claims, including those under a workers' compensation policy, for unearned premiums only for the amount of each covered claim that does not exceed ten thousand dollars per policy.

(2) The director shall transmit to the association all covered claims timely filed with him or her pursuant to the Nebraska Insurers Supervision, Rehabilitation, and Liquidation Act. The association shall thereupon be considered to have been designated the director's representative pursuant to the act, and it shall proceed to investigate, hear, settle, and determine such claims unless the claimant shall, within thirty days from the date the claim is filed with the director, file with the director a written demand that the claim be processed in the liquidation proceedings as a claim not covered by the Nebraska Property and Liability Insurance Guaranty Association Act. In regard to those claims transmitted to the association by the director, the association and claimants shall have all of the rights and obligations and be subject to the same limitations and procedures as are specified in the Nebraska Insurers Supervision, Rehabilitation, and Liquidation Act for the determination of claims.

(3) In the case of claims arising from bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death resulting therefrom, the amount of any such award shall not exceed the claimant's reasonable expenses incurred for necessary medical, surgical, X-ray, and dental services, including prosthetic devices and necessary ambulance, hospital, professional nursing, and funeral services, and any amounts actually lost by reason of claimant's inability to work and earn wages or salary or their equivalent, but not other income, that would otherwise have been earned in the normal course of such injured claimant's employment. Such award may also include payments in fact made to others, not members of claimant's household, which were reasonably incurred to obtain from such other persons ordinary and necessary services for the production of income in lieu of those services the claimant would have performed for himself or herself had he or she not been injured. The amount of any such award under this subsection shall be reduced by the amount the claimant is entitled to receive as the beneficiary under any health, accident, or disability insurance, under any salary or wage continuation program under which he or she is entitled to benefits, or from his or her employer in the form of workers' compensation benefits, or any other such benefits to which the claimant is legally entitled, and any claimant who intentionally fails to correctly disclose his or her rights to any such benefits shall forfeit all rights which he or she may have by the provisions of the Nebraska Property and Liability Insurance Guaranty Association Act.

(4) A third party having a covered claim against any insured of an insolvent insurer may file such claim with the director pursuant to the Nebraska Insurers Supervision, Rehabilitation, and Liquidation Act, and the association shall process such claim in the manner specified in subsections (2) and (3) of this section. The filing of such claim shall constitute an unconditional general release of all liability of such insured in connection with the claim unless the association thereafter denies the claim for the reason that the insurance policy issued by the insolvent insurer does not afford coverage or unless the claimant, within thirty days from the date of filing his or her claim with the director, files with the director a written demand that the claim be processed in the liquidation proceedings as a claim not covered by the Nebraska Property and Liability Insurance Guaranty Association Act.