Give today to bring the USNWSAP to life and drive lasting change in drowning prevention.

BEE 16 Require Dissemination of Information Regarding Mandated Pool and Spa Safety Devices

Key area

Barriers

Require the production and dissemination of information to insurance companies, mortgage companies, and home buyers regarding pool and spa safety devices mandated by law.

Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices Strengthening Individual Knowledge and Skills

Evidence level: Low

Implementation levels: National State

Rationale:

Evidence from a successful private sector effort to remove unsafe residential pool diving boards supports the production and dissemination of information to insurance companies, mortgage companies, and home buyers regarding pool and spa safety devices mandated by law. Home insurance and mortgage companies developed industry models for denying home insurance or mortgage financing until the home being covered or financed removed the dangerous diving board. Increasing the involvement of home insurance and mortgage companies with residential pool drowning prevention safety barriers adds a non-governmental partner to efforts to increase the use of residential pool safety barriers. This will also help the water safety community as they will not have to rely solely on the public sector and the passage of state laws or local ordinances.

Anticipated Impact:

After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.

  • Enhanced involvement of home insurance companies and mortgage companies in residential pool drowning prevention safety barriers.
    • The addition of a non-governmental and private sector partners in efforts to increase the use of residential pool safety barriers.

Evidence:

Insurance and mortgage companies had direct influence on the decline of dangerous residential pool diving boards over the last decade, through the private sector, and absent a law. Additionally, Lyon Financial and HFS Financial favored the inclusion of barriers inside pool financing, and Home Site Insurance said that they felt premium reductions for umbrella policy holders that have layers of safety surround their pools would be a good way forward.

Evidence Sources:

Conversation with Lyon Financial and HFS Financial - Need date, time, and method. Conversation with Home Site Insurance - Need date, time, and method.

Lyon Financial - Jesse Wood HFS Financial - Joe Garcia Homesite Insurance - Thomas Vara

High Risk Populations Addressed:

The population whose risk of drowning decreases the most with the implementation of this recommendation may have one or more of the following characteristics:

  • Children age 1-4

Evaluation Metrics:

Indicators of long-term impact:

  • Decrease in fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents among young children

Indicators of intermediate impact:

  • Decrease in the number of residential pools without safety barriers

Indicators of initial impact:

  • Increase in private sector partnerships encouraging use of residential pool safety barriers

Implementation:

Consider the following to ensure successful implementation:

  • Increase knowledge about the risk of drowning, influence of drowning prevention efforts, and the impact of pool barriers among insurance and mortgage company executives, actuarial decision-making staff, and researchers.
  • Develop a drowning prevention and pool safety barrier educational campaign involving insurance company associations, and finance industry associations, and/or the licensing agencies’ leadership.
  • Work with insurance and mortgage trade associations to obtain feedback and support.
  • Develop an open dialogue with policy representatives from various professional associations like realtors.

Challenges to Implementation:

When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.

  • The water safety community is relatively small when it comes to the political clout of the private sector industries, such as insurance and finance companies.
  • There is a perceived tradition that licensed/certified home inspector and building code officials’ defect and failed permit reports should not be shared with other than the immediate homeowner or home buyer.
  • Realtor associations resist any impact new safety policies may have on perceptions of the relationship between a home seller and buyer.
  • There is a political "knee-jerk" reaction to adding any perceived barrier to a home sale.
  • Few states and local ordinances require residential pool safety barriers like the one in place in CA and one local jurisdiction in AZ.
  • Limited research on the the many potential influences a requirement of pool safety defect report sharing would have on the industry and the risk of drowning.

Potential Facilitators:

The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.

  • Professional policy representatives of insurance and mortgage company associations may partner with the public health and drowning prevention community sponsoring residential pool safety barrier laws.
  • Mortgage and financing institutions may include funding for barriers (gates, fences, alarms) in the loan amount of the home or pool at the time of financing.
  • Insurance companies may enable premium reductions for people having different layers of safety in areas where the state and local code doesn't require them in the code.
  • Building code official leadership and home inspector association leadership may help find a way to report in a way that they see such report sharing as non-evasive on the professional landscape (For example, home inspectors file their home safety defect reports with the entity initially hiring them to conduct the inspection. Access by insurance and mortgage companies to the defect report addressing non-compliance with existing pool safety barrier law and, or, defects in pool safety barriers may need to be required of the entity hiring these inspection professionals and not the inspector directly).

GAP Recommendation:

None listed