NAIC Reaches Milestone by Okaying ‘Blanks’ Proposal, But Insurers Are Grumpy

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners approved on Tuesday the detailed form insurers will have to fill out to determine whether they are spending enough money on medical care and quality improvement activities under the health care overhaul law.
Approval of the so-called blanks proposal marks a milestone in the arduous, months-long effort by the NAIC [...]

Commissioners OK health rate plan

It was a rare moment in the drawn out and highly partisan health care debate: a unanimous vote.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners approved Tuesday morning a preliminary outline of what insurers will be able to count as medical costs, a document necessitated by the health reform bill’s [...]

State regulators’ vote on medical loss ratio upsets insurers

The health insurance industry on Tuesday criticized state regulators for adopting a narrow category for what health plans can count as medical care and quality improvements when calculating their medical loss ratios.
Barring health plans from counting fraud prevention and other investments, insurers say, hamstrings their ability to [...]

NAIC To Sebelius: States Have Sufficient Ability To Enforce Reform Law

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) informed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that only half of the states have explicit legal authority to enforce the health reform law, but the remaining states can rely on other means to hold insurers accountable for their compliance with federal laws. Those powers — which include form approval, investigative [...]

State Officials Say Some Insurers Have Quit Writing Child-Only Plans, Appeal To HHS For Help

State insurance commissioners say certain health reform mandates have led insurers to stop offering policies specifically for children, and they’re pressing HHS to help them tackle the trend. Insurers are not canceling coverage for existing child-only plans, the officials said, but large carriers in several states have either stopped writing new plans or indicated that [...]

Health care choices fall to states

Congress has left some of the most difficult decisions about health care reform to state insurance commissioners — handing a group of relatively obscure officials enormous power over the implementation of the law and the success or failure of President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which is made up of [...]

States race to supply insurance recommendations

State health insurance commissioners said they are working fast and furiously to complete definitions and recommendations to HHS so the agency can draft hotly anticipated rules on how health plans can spend premium dollars.
The commissioners said they want to make sure that the rules encourage quality and innovation while holding insurers accountable. “If we are [...]

Behind The Scenes of Health Reform: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners

The new health reform act has been widely criticized as a federal government takeover of the health care system. To a remarkable degree, however, the law actually relies on the states to reform health insurance.
The health overhaul does establish new national requirements that insurers must meet. It [...]