FWCJUA Producer Committee Meeting Report: February 3
Feb 5, 2009
On Tuesday, February 3, 2009, the Florida Workers’ Compensation Joint Underwriting Association (“FWCJUA”) held a Producer Committee (“Committee”) meeting to discuss producer fees, producer/agent financial reliability policies, the on-line producer application process and certificate of insurance issuance.
Committee Chairman Dan Dannenhauer called the meeting to order with a quorum of Committee members in attendance. Also in attendance was FWCJUA Executive Director Laura Torrence.
Producer Fees
Pursuant to a request received by Chairman Dannenhauer, FWCJUA Staff has reviewed the Agency Producer Fees Rule, located in Section 4 of the Operations Manual. After review, FWCJUA Staff found the current Rule provides sufficient producer compensation.
Given its role as the workers’ compensation market of last resort, FWCJUA Staff has determined that it should not pay competitive agency producer fees, and that maintaining the lower fee level provides an additional incentive for agencies and producers to place business in the voluntary market.
The Committee approved the Staff opinion and will not recommend further review by the Board of Governors.
Agency/Producer Financial Reliability
Ms. Torrence detailed FWCJUA agency/producer financial reliability policies. The FWCJUA currently does not require credit checks on agencies or producers that it authorizes to submit business. It has been FWCJUA policy to revoke or terminate the privileges of an agency/producer that issues a non-sufficient fund (“NSF”) check, unless it is due to bank error. Ms. Torrence stated that NSF checks are not received often by the FWCJUA and, of the few that have been received, none have been appealed.
After lengthy discussion, the Committee suggested that Ms. Torrence and Chairman Dannenheuer review current FWCJUA producer/agent financial reliability polices and present their findings to the Committee at its next meeting.
On-Line Application Process
Ms. Torrence gave an update on the FWCJUA Staff’s efforts to evaluate and redesign the on-line application process as part of an effort to streamline the submission process and improve efficiency.
The proposed re-design would provide agencies with the ability to submit application information through the Web for FWCJUA eligibility review and underwriting prior to the submission of hard copies or payment. FWCJUA Staff currently is in the process of developing an action plan with estimated delivery times and costs.
Certificate of Insurance Issuance
Ms. Torrence updated the Committee on FWCJUA Staff’s efforts to evaluate and develop an on-line certificate of insurance issuance method for its authorized agencies and designated producers that would capture certificate holder information for policyholder underwriting and audit.
Travelers, the company that provided the database currently used by the FWCJUA, does not offer a Web-based certificate of insurance issuance program for any of its workers’ compensation markets. Further, the daily electronically-submitted policy information provided by Travelers does not contain most of the data required to issue a certificate of insurance. Identification of minimum premium policies or policies with cancellations also is not provided by Travelers’ system.
FWCJUA Staff is working with Travelers to determine whether there is a feasible method by which it might receive this additional information.
The meeting was then adjourned.
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