PPACA: NAIC Pans Multi-State Plan Notice

“Insurance commissioners and the NAIC have serious concerns about the potential for market disruption and adverse selection, and the resulting negative impact on consumers and health insurance markets, which would arise if multi-state plans are allowed to operate under different rules than their competitors,” the NAIC officers say.

The multi-state plans will have an automatic right to sell coverage through the health insurance exchanges, and that will give them a built-in competitive advantage over other plans, the NAIC officers say.

“As a result, multi-state plans have the opportunity to write a significant percentage of the policies offered to individuals and small groups, allowing sulti-state plans to spread administrative costs over a larger number of lives,” the NAIC officers say. “This is an inherent advantage for multi-state plans. It is important not to exacerbate this built-in advantage by exempting multi-state plans from the regulatory oversight of insurance commissioners and programmatic oversight by state exchanges.”

The NAIC recommends, for example, that the multi-state plans should pay all the same exchange fees and assessments that other plans pay.

Moreover, as the law is written, if OPM tries to help a multi-state plan by exempting it from a state regulation such as a market conduct regulation or a privacy regulation,, OPM then would cause all other plans — on and off the exchange, to become exempt from the same regulations, NAIC officers warn.

Other health insurance exchange coverage from National Underwriter Life & Health:

• Kansas to Return Exchange Innovator Grant
• UnitedHealth Arm to Acquire Connextions
• PPACA: Joel Ario to Leave CCIIO
• Moody’s: Exchange Rules Bad for Insurers
• Producers: HHS Exchange Builders Love Ya, Baby
• Larsen: The Exchanges Are Coming