Page Context
Institution involved: Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc., third party claims administrator for the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency (GIRMA), the property and liability program of the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA).
Timeframe: February to June 2026.
What this page explains: what happened inside the claims channel Gallagher Bassett operated: seven claim numbers set up by mistake, five written accommodation requests, one denial, one letter from litigation counsel, and a state insurance complaint.
Related pages: the GIRMA, GMA, and Gallagher Bassett record and See the Proof.
Gallagher Bassett is the company that answers the phone, or does not, when a person makes a claim against a Georgia city insured through GIRMA. It set up my claim, assigned the adjuster, generated the claim notices, issued the denial, and later sent its own lawyer’s letter. Every document on this page is theirs or was sent to them, dated, with a transcript.
The record, in order
| Date | Direction | Document | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 9 to 12 | Received | Seven automated claim reports from the intake system | Seven claim numbers for one matter, in about 48 hours. |
| Mar 13 | Received | Boscoe: the extra claims were “mistakenly set up” | The volume came from their intake system. Review to finish “next week.” |
| Mar 13 | Sent | ADA accommodation inquiry | An ADA contact, a phone call, one answer on claim structure. No response. |
| Mar 16 | Sent | Time-sensitive follow-up | No response. |
| Apr 1 | Received | The denial: “various administrative tasks” | File closed, on the surgery date, with no word on either request. Policy provisions cited, none named. |
| Apr 2 | Sent | Request to reopen and reassign | To the supervisor, from recovery. No response. |
| Apr 6 | Sent | Fourth accommodation request | A phone call and an ADA contact. GMA’s CEO read it that afternoon. No response. |
| Apr 12 | Sent | Title II demand to the supervisor | Who is the ADA coordinator, where is the grievance procedure. Ten business days. No response. |
| Apr 14 | Sent | Certified notice to GMA’s CEO | Five asks, eleven exhibits. Answered May 1 by GIRMA’s lawyer. |
| May 1 | Received | Wall: “Gallagher Bassett has no involvement” | Litigation counsel’s answer to two ADA demands, without the word accommodation. Page two dated December 11, 2025. |
| May 1 | Received | Westbury, for GMA and GIRMA: harassment | What is your disability; GIRMA may cease voluntary compliance; the emails are harassment. |
| May 7 | Sent | Response to Wall | “That answers a claim I did not make.” Five business days. No response. |
| May 13 | Sent | Scorecard: zero of twelve | Every cure item uncured at the deadline. Gallagher Bassett in copy. |
| May 20 | Received | Insurance Commissioner opens a case | Consumer complaint on Gallagher Bassett’s handling assigned to an analyst. Response clock runs from a date never stated. |
What I asked for, and what came back
I asked for three things on March 13 and kept asking: the name of a person who handles ADA accommodation requests, a phone call from the adjuster or a supervisor, and a plain answer to whether seven claim numbers were one claim. The third was answered the same morning. The first two were never answered by anyone at Gallagher Bassett. The company’s litigation counsel wrote on May 1 that the policy did not cover the matter and that Gallagher Bassett therefore “has no involvement.” I write every one of these letters with voice software because I cannot use my hand. That is the cost, and it was in the file from March 13.
Where it stands
As of September 5, 2026: the file is closed; the ADA contact and the phone call were never provided; the May 7 letter to Gallagher Bassett’s counsel has no reply; the Office of Commissioner of Insurance case opened May 20, 2026 has produced no substantive update. The people: Belinda Boscoe, Robert Angotta, Cameron J. Wall.
The structural question nobody asks
Title II of the ADA covers public entities. Its regulations are at 28 C.F.R. Part 35.
A city is a public entity. Its risk pool is run under an association of cities. Its claims administrator is a private company under contract.
So when a city hands its claims to a private administrator, what happens to the access obligation?
I am not going to tell you the legal answer, because that is a question for a lawyer and courts have to work it out on specific facts. I will tell you the practical answer I encountered, which is that the obligation appears to fall down the gap between the three of them. The city says talk to the pool. The pool speaks through the administrator. The administrator is a private company. And a disabled resident is standing at the bottom of that with a question nobody claims.
Does a Georgia risk pool have to comply with the ADA?
If you are dealing with a claims administrator
Experience, not advice.
- Ask for the ADA contact in one sentence, in writing, and repeat it verbatim. Identical wording across four emails makes “we did not understand the request” unavailable later.
- Ask who the covered entity is. City, pool, or administrator. Ask each of them in writing. Whoever answers has told you something useful, and so has whoever does not.
- Get every claim number in writing, and ask why there is more than one. Claim structure determines who reads your mail.
- Turn on read receipts. They are the only proof of attention you will get from an organisation that does not reply, and they cost nothing.
- Ask for a written reason and a date whenever a file is closed. “Various administrative tasks” is not a reason, and having that phrase in writing is worth more than a better sounding one delivered on the phone.
- Use the state insurance regulator in parallel. It is free and it does not require the administrator to finish with you first. How that route works
Open questions
- Who is the ADA contact for this claims operation, and where is that published?
- What is the published procedure for a disability access complaint about claim handling?
- On what basis was the file closed as “various administrative tasks”?
- Will the characterisation of accommodation requests as harassment be retracted?
I have invited GIRMA, GMA, and Gallagher Bassett to identify any inaccuracy on this page. As of September 5, 2026, it has identified none.
Back to the GIRMA, GMA, and Gallagher Bassett record · See the Proof
Frequently asked questions
Does a third party claims administrator have to follow the ADA?
Title II covers public entities. A city is one, its risk pool is run under an association of cities, and its claims administrator is a private company under contract. Whether and how the obligation follows the contract is a question for a lawyer. In practice the question went unanswered four times.
Who is responsible when a city outsources its claims?
Ask each of them in writing which entity is the covered one: the city, the pool, or the administrator. Whoever answers has told you something useful, and so has whoever does not.
How do I complain about a claims administrator in Georgia?
The Georgia Office of the Commissioner of Insurance accepts consumer complaints about how claims are handled. It is free and does not require the administrator to finish with you first.
What happened to the accommodation requests?
Four written requests for an ADA contact between March 13 and April 12, 2026. One read receipt at 4:41 PM on April 6. No reply. The file was closed on April 1, 2026 and the reason recorded was “various administrative tasks.”