News Briefs

INDIANA

Commissioner Withdraws Controversial ‘Sole-Use’ Bulletin Indiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt has withdrawn a bulletin that interpreted the “sole-use” provision of the state’s credit-based insurance scoring law to prohibit insurers from taking adverse actions on credit unless another factor had changed. Bulletin 123 was issued under the previous Democratic administration and said insurers could not deny, cancel, nonrenew or increase a renewal rate due to a credit score unless at least one other rating factor had changed to indicate a denial, cancellation, declination to renew or increase in the premium rate.

Indiana’s credit scoring legislation was passed in 2003 and was based on the National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ model act on credit scoring. The phrase was purposely left vague in the model legislation in order to garner consensus, but most states have interpreted the provision to mean that insurers must consider other factors in making a decision, but those other factors needn’t have changed to justify an adverse action.

Insurer groups and Indiana’s attorney general objected to Bulletin 123, arguing it contradicted the intent of the legislators who passed the credit scoring regulations. On May 26, Atterholt replaced Bulletin 123 with Bulletin 130. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a former top adviser to the current Bush White House, was elected in 2004 and appointed Atterholt after a previous nominee, Harold Calloway, turned down the job shortly after accepting it.

Move to File and Use Adopted Minnesota’s insurance marketplace will never be the same after lawmakers passed legislation that will make it easier for insurers to offer newer and improved products to its customers, according to a statement released by the Insurance Federation of Minnesota.

The bill makes a number of regulatory reforms, including:

• An expedited file and use system for auto and homeowner rate and form

filings;

• An optional expedited filing system for life and annuity filings;

• Amending the independent agent termi nation provisions in current law to repeal the mandatory rehabilitation

feature of the law and allow a more orderly and certain transition;

• Allowing coverage binders to be

transmitted electronically;

Relaxing the terms of the five-year repapering requirement to allow for consumer electronic retrieval of forms from the Internet in lieu of insurers sending out redundant paperwork.

The reforms combined will help reduce an agent’s workload and improve product availability for Minnesotans, IFM said in its statement.

NORTH DAKOTA

Comp Rates to Rise 2% The agency that manages North Dakota’s monopoly workers’ compensation system announced that premium rates will rise an average of 2 percent beginning July 1, 2005. The agency, Workforce Safety & Insurance, said premiums will be offset by an across-the-board 40 percent premium dividend credit totaling $43 million for nearly all employers who pay above the minimum premium. The premium increase will cover the growth in medical and prescription drug costs.

Even with this premium increase, North Dakota employers will still be paying the lowest premiums in the country and will remain in the top half of benefits paid to injured workers according to separate national studies on rates and benefits. The dividend is made possible because the WSI reserve fund had another successful year of continued positive investment returns. In addition to the 40 percent credit, the WSI board also committed $35 million in workforce safety initiatives and $15 million to set up a education loan fund for qualified injured workers.

OHIO

Taft Names Interim Comp Bureau Chief Republican Gov. Bob Taft announced the appointment of Tina Kielmeyer as the interim administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and appointed a panel of top bureaucrats to review the bureau’s investment portfolio and find a permanent administrator. Previous administrator James Conrad resigned amid a scandal over $10 million in missing rare coins the bureau had purchased as an investment. Kielmeyer, a 23-year veteran of the BWC, has been serving as the bureau’s assistant administrator and chief operating officer since April 2004.

Prior to being named assistant administrator and COO, Kielmeyer served as chief of the BWC’s Injury Management Services Division and was instrumental in developing and implementing the BWC’s managed care Health Partnership Program. Kielmeyer has dedicated her career at BWC in the operational functions of workers’ compensation insurance and is a recognized industry expert in the areas of claims processing, injury management and risk management.

Taft also announced the creation of a management review team to assist interim administrator Kielmeyer with transition issues and to help manage a thorough review of the BWC’s investment portfolio. Taft charged Kielmeyer and the team to do the following and make an initial report to him within 45 days:

• Complete a systematic review of the BWC investment portfolio, including a review of internal audit and control

systems.

• Contract, if necessary, with independent evaluators to assist with the investment review.

• Assess BWC investment management and audit staffing.

• Consult on these matters with the BWC Oversight Commission.

• Cooperate fully with all ongoing

investigations and audits.

• The panel will also assist in the search for a permanent replacement for Conrad.

AIA Cheers Elimination of Publication Requirement The American Insurance Association called the elimination of Ohio’s certificate of compliance publishing requirement a welcome move that reaffirms the state’s commitment to a modern, vibrant insurance market. According to AIA, the requirement was a decades-old regulatory burden on out-of-state insurers.

The state’s requirement forced insurers not headquartered in Ohio to annually publish copies of their Ohio Department of Insurance license in general circulation newspapers in every single county where they do business in order to prove their ability to conduct business in the state. For most insurers, this has meant the forced purchase of ads in papers in all 88 Ohio counties.

The provision removing the requirement was included in ODI’s 2006 budget and passed as part of the state’s omnibus budget bill, House Bill 66.

To submit information for this department, e-mail: koreilly@insurancejournal.com.

Topics Carriers Legislation Workers' Compensation Ohio