NOTE 7. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

The Company leases certain facilities under various operating leases. Most of the lease agreements provide the Company with the option of renewing its lease at the end of the lease term, at the fair rental value. In most cases, management expects that in the normal course of business, facility leases will be renewed or replaced by other leases. Minimum payments under these leases, exclusive of property taxes and insurance, are as follows:

(in thousands)
Year Ended December 31,
2018	$	1,632
2019		1,282
2020		941
2021		839
2022		863
Thereafter		1,964
	$	7,521

Rent expense was $3.6 million, $3.5 million and $3.5 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The Company is involved in various lawsuits and routine claims arising out of the normal course of its business. The Company maintains insurance coverage for its operations and employees with appropriate aggregate, per occurrence and deductible limits as the Company reasonably determines necessary or prudent with current operations and historical experience. The major policies include coverage for property, general liability, auto, directors and officers, health, and workers’ compensation insurances. The Company records a provision for a liability when it believes that it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. Significant judgment is required to determine both probability and the estimated amount. The Company reviews these provisions at least quarterly and adjusts these provisions to reflect the impact of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and updated information. Litigation is inherently unpredictable and is subject to significant uncertainties, some of which are beyond the Company’s control. In the opinion of management, there was not at least a reasonable possibility that the ultimate amount of liability not covered by insurance, if any, under any pending litigation and claims, individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on the financial position or operating results of the Company.

The Company’s health and workers’ compensation plans are self-funded high deductible plans with annual stop-loss insurance of $200,000 and $250,000 per claim, respectively. Insurance providers are responsible for making claim payments that exceed these amounts on an individual claim basis. In addition, the Company has stop loss insurance that pays for claim payments made during a twelve month coverage period that exceeds certain specified thresholds in the aggregate. The Company records an expense when health and workers compensation claim payments are made and accrues for the portion of claims incurred, but not yet paid at period end. The Company makes these accruals based upon a combination of historical claim payments, loss development experience and actuarial estimates. A high degree of judgment is required in developing the underlying assumptions and the resulting amounts to be accrued. In addition, our assumptions will change as the Company’s loss experience develops. All of these factors have the potential for impacting the amounts previously accrued and the Company may be required to increase or decrease the amounts previously accrued. At December 31, 2017 and 2016, accruals for the Company’s health and workers’ compensation high deductible plans were $2.9 million and $2.4 million, respectively.