The New York Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) issued a circular letter on December 19, 2011 (the “Circular Letter”) emphasizing the importance of risk management and indicating that the DFS expects every insurer to adopt a formal enterprise risk management (“ERM”) function.  The ERM function should identify and manage risk exposures to the insurer within a group enterprise or at the company level when the insurer is a stand alone enterprise. …
Read More New York Issues Circular Letter Regarding Enterprise Risk Management

SENATE PASSES TEMPORARY “DOC FIX”; HOUSE ACTION AWAITED

On December 17, the U.S. Senate voted 89-10 to pass the “Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011,” which included a two-month delay in implementing the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for calendar year 2012. As we reported in our Healthcare Update on November 7, the new Fee Schedule calls for an overall 27.4% reduction in payment rates for physicians, nurse practitioners and physical therapists. …
Read More Healthcare Update: Senate Passes Temporary “Doc Fix”; MedPAC Issues Draft Recommendations for 2013; CMS Issues “Essential Health Benefits” Bulletin; Home Care Worker Wage Protection Proposed

In November 2011, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity held a hearing to discuss proposed legislation to:

  • Prohibit the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of the Treasury and other financial regulators from collecting data directly from insurers. 

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Read More House Financial Services Subcommittee Holds Hearing: “Insurance Oversight and Legislative Proposals”

On December 8, 2011 the House Financial Services Subcommittee on  Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity approved legislation eliminating the Federal Insurance Office’s (“FIO”) and the Office of Financial Research’s (“OFR”) authority to subpoena information from insurance companies.  H.R. 3559 (the Insurance Data Protection Act), was introduced by Representative Steve Stivers (R-OH) and was approved by a party-line vote of 7-5, with each Republican on the Subcommittee voting in favor. …
Read More Subcommittee Approves Removal of FIO Subpoena Power Over Insurers

On December 9, 2011, the Federal Office of Insurance (“FIO”) held its first meeting at the U.S. Department of Treasury, entitled “Insurance Regulation in the United States: Modernization and Improvement.”  The conference was attended by insurance regulators and industry representatives. …
Read More FIO Conference — Reaffirming Support of State Regulation

We previously reported on the first instance decision of Re Digital Satellites Warranty Cover (see our previous blog here). Digital Satellites Warranty Cover Limited (DSWCL) and Satellite Services (SS) (the Appellants) were in the business of selling extended warranties to satellite television customers. …
Read More UK: Court of Appeal Upholds Decision That Extended Warranties are Regulated Insurance Products

Connecticut has amended its captive law pursuant to Public Act No. 11-1 (the “Act”).  The Act creates three new subgroups of Connecticut-domiciled captives: sponsored, branch, and special purpose financial captives. …
Read More Connecticut Amends Regulation of Domestic Captives

On 8 December 2011, Julian Adams, Director of Insurance at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), explained in a speech to the Association of British Insurers how UK (re)insurance companies may be permitted to start their Solvency II implementation as initially scheduled on 1 January 2013 rather than on the delayed implementation date of 1 January 2014. …
Read More UK: Insurers Given Chance to Early Adopt Solvency II

In March 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that, with effect from 21 December 2012, the use of gender as a risk factor by insurers should not result in individual differences in premiums and benefits for men and women (see our previous blog post here). The Government has expressed its disappointment with the judgment, believing that financial services providers should be allowed to make sensible decisions based on sound analysis of relevant risk factors, but is nevertheless required to implement the ECJ’s judgment. …
Read More UK: Consultation on Use of Gender as a Risk Factor

Several healthcare consumer advocacy groups are signatories to a letter (the “Letter”) that was sent to members of Congress in response to a letter that was sent to Congress by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the “NAIC”), as discussed in our previous post here.  The NAIC letter urged Congress to exempt fees and commissions paid to health insurance producers from the medical loss ratio (“MLR”) calculation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) in order to preserve consumer access to agents and brokers. …
Read More Consumer Advocate Groups Issue Letter to Members of Congress Imploring Them Not to Amend the Medical Loss Ratio in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act