Insurance Division bill establishes rate increase oversight
April 01, 2010
Senate File 2201, the Insurance Division bill, requires commercial health plans to immediately notify policyholders of an application for a rate increase that exceeds the average annual health spending growth rate identified by CMS. Health plans must state the factors impacting the rate increase request and inform policyholders how to contact the Division's consumer advocate for assistance. A public hearing will then be scheduled with testimony on behalf of the public given by the consumer advocate. Rate increase applications and documents supporting them are public records unless the commissioner agrees, upon request of a health plan, that certain documents give an unfair advantage to competitors.
Senate File 2201 further directs the Division, through its consumer advocate, to annually issue a report to the governor providing: 1) aggregate loss ratio data for each health plan; 2) rate increase data; 3) health care expenditures in the state and the effect of such expenditures on health insurance premium rates; 4) current capital, surplus, and reserve amounts of each health plan; and 5) a listing of medical trends affecting health insurance costs in the state.
Senate File 2201 also requires the insurance commissioner each year to convene a work group, including providers, to consider ways to reduce the cost of providing health insurance coverage and health care services, including but not limited to utilization of uniform billing codes, improvements to provider credentialing, reducing out-of-state care expenses, assessing the impact of federal health reform on health care costs in our state, and electronic delivery of EOBs. The bill also states that a review shall be conducted each year on the cost of health insurance mandates imposed on health plans.