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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

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

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

Last month, the Delaware Department of Insurance (the “Department”) issued Domestic/Foreign Insurers Bulletin No. 46 to provide guidance regarding the implementation of the Civil Union and Equality Act of 2011 (the “Act”), which becomes effective January 1, 2012.  The Act provides that two persons of the same sex who establish a civil union shall be subject to the same requirements and entitled to the same rights, protections and benefits as married couples under Delaware law. …
Read More Delaware Department of Insurance Issues Bulletin Relating to the Implementation of the Civil Union and Equality Act of 2011

Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick signed H. 3795, which bans the use of credit-based insurance scores in the underwriting and rating of private passenger automobile insurance, into law on November 22, 2011 as Chapter 195 of the Acts of 2011.  H. 3795 amends the Massachusetts General Laws and codifies a similar credit score prohibition in current Division of Insurance Regulations. …
Read More Massachusetts Passes Statutory Ban on the Use of Credit-Based Insurance Scores for Private Passenger Automobile Insurance

In May 2011, we reported on the UK Government’s adoption of the Law Commission’s draft Bill on Consumer Insurance (Pre-Contract Disclosure and Misrepresentations). (See our previous post here). The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill (the Bill) is currently progressing through Parliament. …
Read More UK: Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill Continues Its Progress Through Parliament