Three Trades Rule

Theory that when three trades are likely to be required to repair the damaged property, a general contractor is presumed to be required to coordinate, supervise, and oversee the repairs and, therefore, a 20 percent contractor’s overhead and profit payment should be included in the ACV settlement.

Three-digit diagnostic codes

Diagnostic codes consisting of three numbers with descriptions that appear in ICD-9-CM code books and are used only when no fourth or fifth digits are available. Approximately 100 codes are at the highest level of specificity in the three-digit characters. Third-party payers, as well as Medicare fiscal intermediaries, do not accept three-digit codes if a higher level of specificity is available.

Three-year accounting system

Lloyd’s system whereby an underwriting year is not closed until the end of the third year following inception of the underwriting year and all premiums and claims for that year are accounted to that year. An account opened on 1 January 2003 will be open until 31 December 2005. A reserve for outstanding claims liability is then carried forward to the next open year by a reinsurance to close. Lloyd’s is now moving to ‘annual accounting, the approach used by insurance companies.

Threshold

(i) In no-fault Insurance, the minimum extent of injury which a claimant must suffer before being entitled to being a tort suit against a wrongdoer causing the injury. If the injury does not exceed the threshold, the injured claimant can receive only no-fault (or other first-party Insurance) benefits. (ii) In physiology, the minimum stimulus to which the body responds or is consciously aware. Physiological thresholds can be described as either absolute or relative. Absolute Threshold : Minimum amount of stimulus energy to which a sense can respond. Relative Threshold : Minimum difference in stimulus that a sense can recognize.Threshold Limit Value (T.L.V.) : Maximum airborne concentration of a harmful substance to which it is believed nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse effect. Air at such a value may be breathed continually for eight hours per day without harm. Because of wide variations in individual susceptibility, exposure of an occasional individual to or even below, the TLV may not prevent discomfort, aggravation of a pre-existing condition, or occupational illness.