(Bismarck, N.D. – Insurance News 360) – On Dec. 20, the North Dakota Insurance Commissioner announced recovery of more than $5.5 million in life insurance benefits for policyholders after examination of how more than two dozen insurers use the database of individuals who have died in the country, also known as the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF).

Examination revealed that many life insurance companies have used the DMF to search for and stop payments to deceased annuity holders but did not use it to provide benefits to named beneficiaries. Twenty eight examinations led to settlements and changes to search practices.

“This is a huge victory for North Dakota consumers,” said Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread. “Searching for and locating life insurance beneficiaries is a critical part of this business. The Department is committed to working together with other states to continue investigating insurance companies’ use of the Death Master File because with the tools available to insurance companies today, there is no reason for them not to search for and locate policy beneficiaries.”

Before this announcement, Aflac and State Farm entered into settlements totaling more than $500,000 after coordinated multi-state examinations in North Dakota, California, Florida, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.

“There are many North Dakotans who don’t know they could be missing life insurance policies, or don’t know where to begin to locate them,” Godfread said. “The Life Insurance Policy Locator tool on our website is critical in helping reconnect people with lost life insurance policies. This tool is simple to use and easy to access, I encourage everyone to check it out.”

Source: North Dakota Insurance Department.

(Oakland, CA – Insurance News 360) – In late December, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in the case of State of California v. Wright. This decision is the second ruling against the Trump Administration’s regulations to allow employers not to cover contraceptives against the mandate of the Affordable Care Act.  The first injunction against the President’s regulations came from a court in Pennsylvania in early December. Both rulings showed that the federal government did not comply with the Administrative Procedures Act in promulgating its Interim Final Rule. In addition, the Pennsylvania decision also based its ruling on the additional grounds of the likelihood of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania prevailing on its substantive challenge to the Interim Final Rule. That decision noted that the regulations “contradict the text of the statute that they purport to interpret.”

In November, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones submitted a declaration that the rule would harm women who were denied access to contraceptives.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance policies must cover contraceptives. Tens of millions of women across the nation benefit from the ACA provision that requires health insurance coverage of contraceptives without any co-pays or deductibles,” Jones wrote.

“Before the ACA was in effect, I spoke to women who could not always afford to fill their prescriptions for contraceptives. President Trump’s regulations would prevent some women from being able to make fundamental decisions about reproductive health care for themselves. Trump’s rule, if allowed to stand, would deprive women of their rights and access to basic health care services, while increasing the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions. Women will suffer serious and irreparable harm if these rules are in place and we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent that from occurring.”

Source: California Department of Insurance.

(New York, NY – Insurance News 360) – On Dec. 18, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a proposal that makes county-wide shared services panels permanent and that the state would provide $225 million in funds to match the savings from those plans.

“This year, we made unprecedented advancements in providing real, tangible savings for property taxpayers across New York and with this proposal we seek to build upon this work,” Governor Cuomo said. “While forces in Washington seek to raise taxes on hardworking middle class New Yorkers, we, with our partners in local government, will continue to work to cut costs, find efficiencies and lower property taxes.”

In the first year of the panels’ existence, 34 counties submitted nearly 400 projects for more than $200 million in savings. As part of this proposal, the governor made state funding for local government performance aid conditional, as long as those shared services panels continued. Approximately $125 million is authorized for planning, implementation and shared services.

Another feature of the proposal is the reduction of local health insurance costs by simplifying creation of local healthcare consortia.

Over the past 10 years, employee benefit costs for local governments have grown at an average of 5.2 percent annually and now account for more than 20 percent of local government spending. One way to lower health insurance costs is to pool local governments health plans into healthcare consortia. There are examples, where leveraging the buying power of many governments could lower costs, save local tax dollars, and not affect employee’s plans.

Governor Cuomo directed the New York State Department of Financial Services to publish guidance and provide technical assistance to local governments in order to ease the process of creating health consortia, specifically for smaller municipalities. They must also work with local governments to ensure that legal and policy impediments to shared services are considered.

Source: New York Department of Financial Services.

(Little Rock, AR – Insurance News 360) – On Dec. 21, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr announced that Tower Hill Signature Insurance, a company based in Florida, gained authority to sell residential property insurance in Arkansas.

“I am proud to welcome Tower Hill Signature Insurance to Arkansas and give Arkansas homeowners more options to protect their most important investment.  Moving into 2018, the Department will continue its aggressive recruitment of new companies by showing that our state is open for business,” Kerr said.

Tower Hill Signature Insurance Company (THS) can now sell property and casualty insurance (except for workers compensation) policies in Arkansas. It currently offers residential property products in Texas and Florida. The Tower Hill group includes five insurers writing residential property business with approximately 80 percent in homeowners coverage and 20 percent in mobile home and commercial insurance.

This is the 29th new company Kerr has granted authority to in 2017.  Since becoming Commissioner in 2015, Kerr has welcomed 64 new companies to Arkansas.

Source: Arkansas Insurance Department.

(New Castle, DE – Insurance News 360) – Even with the challenges to enrollment, nearly 25,000 Delaware residents signed up for insurance coverage on the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace for plan year 2018. This represents a 10 percent decrease from the 27,584 enrollment of 2017.

In a six week time frame ending Dec. 15, a total of 24,860 citizens enrolled, despite the enrllment window being cut in half.

“I am pleased that so many Delawareans saw the value and the need in having health insurance coverage despite the challenges they faced this year during open enrollment,” Governor John Carney said. “Health insurance provides that critical connection to quality health care. That connection is the first step toward building a healthier Delaware.”

In 2017, Aetna left the Health Insurance Marketplace for the upcoming year. This left Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware as the only insurer on the marketplace, and gave enrollees a choice of one of seven Highmark plans that were available for purchase in 2018, or automatically enrolled them in a similar plan offered by Highmark. In October, Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro announced approval of an average rate increase of 25 percent for Highmark’s plans for 2018.

“I am grateful that we were able to get out the message to Delawareans that health insurance is important to have and that financial assistance was available to help them pay for it,” said Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) Secretary Dr. Kara Odom Walker, a board-certified family physician. “Our federal navigators, enrollment assisters and insurance agents and brokers did an outstanding job of working with people to help them understand their options, including the availability of federal financial assistance.”

During 2017, more than 81 percent of Delaware enrollees received financial assistance, including tax credits, which help to reduce the cost of monthly premiums. Financial help was available to individuals with an annual household income up to $47,520 and up to $97,200 for a family of four.

“Access to quality healthcare is the foundation for healthy communities,” said Commissioner Navarro. “Notwithstanding the obstacles during the shortened open enrollment period, Delawareans made clear their willingness to participate in the Affordable Care Act. I commend the efforts of DHSS and the navigators who assisted consumers. I also thank the federal delegation for their efforts to try to extend the signup period.”

Source: Delaware Department of Insurance.

(Washington, D.C. – Insurance News 360) – On Oct. 19, 2017, the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) approved 2018 health insurance plan rates for DC Health Link, which is the District of Columbia’s health insurance marketplace.

Since May, DISB has been reviewing initial rates filed by the insurers. Two insurers lowered their rates from initial proposals.  There was also a public hearing to get input from the public about the process and proposed rates.

“DISB completed a transparent, extended and rigorous rate review process to ensure District residents and small businesses are paying competitive prices for the plans offered by companies on the District’s health insurance marketplace,” said Commissioner Stephen C. Taylor. “The proposed 2018 health plan rates have been reviewed not only by the Department but also by District policyholders and consumer advocates via a public hearing to ensure that all viewpoints were considered before the process ended.”

Across all insurers, the average increase is 15.64 percent in the individual market and 7.26 for small group plans. Four major insurance companies: Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente and United Healthcare will have plans on DC Health Link. CareFirst and Kaiser Permanente plans cover individuals, families and small businesses for the 2018 plan year. Aetna and United Healthcare plans are only available in the small business market.

There were six more plans filed for the 2018 plan year than in the 2017 plan year. 151 of those were small group plans, and 26 were individual plans. The new standard health savings account or HSA plans that will be available for 2018 allow policyholders to set aside pre-tax money for covered medical expenses, if they have a high deductible health insurance plan.

“Under Commissioner Taylor’s leadership for the first time ever DISB held a public hearing on proposed rates. Commissioner Taylor took comments on the impact of proposed rate increases from District residents and small business owners. Dozens of DC Health Link customers testified in person and approximately 900 submitted written comments – and they had a real impact,” said Mila Kofman, J.D., Executive Director of the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority. “At the hearing, we advocated for the lowest possible rates and provided some actuarial analysis for consideration by DISB. We are pleased that Commissioner Taylor worked with one insurer to revise its proposed increase to half of the original request. Overall, District residents and small businesses will see lower rates than what was initially proposed.”

DC Health Link’s open enrollment runs through Jan. 31, 2018.

Source: District of Columbia Department of Insurance.

(Sacramento, CA – Insurance News 360) – In late December, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones sent a request to insurance companies to provide relief from the requirement that claimants provide a full home inventory, and provide up to 100 percent of personal property coverage limits without that inventory document.

“These families have endured unimaginable loss and pain,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. “I’m asking insurers to ease their burden by providing up to 100 percent payment for contents coverage without the onerous requirement of a detailed home inventory, so they may get on with rebuilding their lives.”

The department held a claims workshop in Santa Rosa in early December where policyholders told staff that the required detailed home inventories for payment of personal property coverage were burdensome.

Not all insurers are requiring this inventory. Some have gone above and beyond the Voluntary Expedited Claims Handling Procedures and have offered  full percent contents limit payment without the inventory.

Jones asked that insurers notify the insurance department by Jan. 8 about whether they will accommodate policyholders in that way, and notes that insurers should allow policyholders to get additional benefits if the policyholder subsequently completes a full inventory.

Policyholders who are working with claims adjusters should create a plan that best serves their needs.

Source: California Department of Insurance.