CDI Legislative Package

 

The California Department of Insurance has introduced 10 new bills in 2012.  They are as follows:

AB 1846 (Gordon): Spot bill relative to health insurance oriented and operated plans.

AB 1921 (Hill): This bill, until January 1, 2018, would establish a transitional reinsurance program for health plans, and require participation by health care service plans and health insurers.  The bill would require the Insurance Commissioner to select a reinsurance entity, which would collect payments from contributing health plans and pay claims, as specified.  The bill would authorize the commissioner and the Director of Managed Health Care to take various actions to implement the program.  The bill would require contributing entities to make payments to the reinsurance entity no earlier than October 1, 2013, and would provide for the reinsurance entity to pay claims to a reinsurance-eligible recipient no earlier than January 1, 2014, with payments and claims to cease on December 31, 2016, except for necessary adjustments.

AB 2029 (Ammiano): This bill would provide for the regulation of bail fugitive recovery persons, defined as a person given written authorization by the bail or depositor of bail and contracted to investigate, surveil, locate, and arrest a bail fugitive and any person employed to assist the bail or depositor of bail to investigate, surveil, locate, and arrest a bail fugitive.  This bill would require that bail fugitive recovery persons be at least 18 years of age and complete 12 hours of classroom education pertinent to the duties and responsibilities of a bail licensee and a course of training in the exercise of the power of arrest, as specified.

AB 2138 (Blumenfield): Existing law provides for the regulation of disability insurers by the Insurance Commissioner.  Existing law requires a disability insurer or other entity liable for any loss due to health insurance fraud doing business in California to pay an annual fee that does not exceed $0.10 per year for each insured in order to fund increased investigation and prosecution of fraudulent disability insurance claims.  Existing law requires that 50% of those funds be distributed to the Fraud Division of the Department of Insurance for enhanced investigative efforts and that the other 50% be distributed to local district attorneys for the investigation and prosecution of disability insurance fraud cases, as specified.  This bill would authorize the commissioner to increase the fee to no more than $0.20 per year for each insured and would require that 30% of those funds go to the Fraud Division of the department and that 70% go to the local district attorneys.  The bill would require the commissioner to adopt regulations to implement these provisions.

AB 2152 (Eng): This bill would require a health insurer to submit a transition plan to the department at least 75 days prior to terminating a contract with a provider to provide services at alternative rates of payment and would require the insurer to send a written notice within a specified time period to all insureds who have obtained services from that provider within the last six months, as specified.  With respect to health insurance policies, this bill would require the disclosure form to include additional information, including conditions and procedures for disenrollment, a description of the limitations on the insured's choice of provider, and a statement describing the basic method of reimbursement made to its participating providers, as specified.  The bill would also require the front page of the disclosure form for health insurance policies to include specified information.  The bill would require a health insurer, medical group, independent practice association, or participating provider that uses or receives financial bonuses or other incentives to provide a written summary of specified information to any requesting person.

AB 2303 (Assembly Insurance Committee): This is the CDI’s omnibus bill.  This bill would incorporate the federal Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 by authorizing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to stand in the place of the commissioner and file a verified application in state court to place the insurer into liquidation under the laws and requirements of the state.  This bill would delete the requirement of that the insurer child care liability claims experience report for the preceding calendar year ending on December 31 be submitted to the commissioner on or before May 1 of each year, and would instead require that the report for the preceding calendar year be submitted at the request of the commissioner, but not more than annually, on a form prescribed by the commissioner.

SB 1172 (Lieu): Spot bill relative to restitution.  This bill will be last year’s SB 631.

SB 1216 (Lowenthal): Spot bill seeking to bring California in compliance with federal reinsurance law.

SB 1431 (De Leon): Existing law provides for licensing and regulation of health insurers by the Insurance Commissioner.  Existing law, with respect to health insurance for small employers, requires a health insurer to file a copy of the form of the health insurance policy, contract, certificate, or statement of coverage with the commissioner for approval prior to issuance or delivery to the purchaser.  This bill would require the filing to be done electronically.

SB 1448 (Calderon): This bill would enact several provisions relative to the sale, merger, acquisition of insurers.  SB 1448 would authorize the commissioner to hold hearings relative to acquisitions statements. In addition, this bill would require any controlling person of a domestic insurer seeking to divest its controlling interest in the domestic insurer to file with the commissioner confidential notice of its proposed divestiture.  It would require that the ultimate controlling person of every insurer subject to registration file an annual enterprise risk report.  The measure would define "enterprise risk" for purposes of these provisions.  The bill would instead require the commissioner to approve or disapprove an acquisition of control on or before the latter of 60 days after the statement has been filed with the commissioner or 30 days after the close of the hearing.

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