Louisiana Department of Insurance 2009 Legislative Package Bills Signed Into Law

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has signed the 20 insurance-related bills from the Louisiana Department of Insurance’s 2009 Legislative Package into law. 

The bills, with corresponding hyperlinks to more information about each, are listed below.

 

Should you have any questions or comments, please contact Colodny Fass.

 

Louisiana Department of Insurance Legislative Package

2009 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature

Act No. 33 – Representative LaFonta – Medical Necessity Review Organization Fee- Allows for a one time licensure fee for Medical Necessity Review Organizations and also requires an annual report fee of five hundred dollars.

Act No. 34 – Representative LaFonta – Provides for fees for review of continuing education applications.

Act. No. 93 – Representative Cortez – Small Employer Definition – Provides for the definition of a small employer for the purposes of rate limitation provisions for health benefit plans providing coverage for small employers. In order to meet the requirements of this bill a small employer must have a bona fide employer-employee relationship, a majority of the employees must be employed within the state and the employer must not have been formed primarily for the purposes of buying health insurance.

Act No. 94 – Representative Monica – Surplus Lines Broker Fee- In order to make the producer licensing process more uniform, this legislation will require surplus lines brokers to renew their license ever two years in lieu of the current annual requirement.

Act No. 95 – Representative Monica – Securities License Fee- Modifies the fee for the registration of securities to remove the minimum fee and require one flat fee of $200.00 for the registration of securities with the Department of Insurance. The legislation also removes a formula that was no longer being utilized by the department.

Act No. 98 – Representative Foil – Audited Financial Statements – VMB and PRVI – This legislation requires Vehicle Mechanical Breakdown and Property Residual Value Insurers to submit audited financial statements to the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

Act No. 99 – Representative Talbot – Third Party Administrator (TPA) – Removes licensed insurers from the definition of a TPA. Also, provides licensed insurers with an exemption for additional licensure and from obtaining a bond. The legislation requires that insurers acting as third party administrators must comply with all of the other provisions included in the TPA law.

Act No. 101 – Representative Baldone – Provides for regulation of home service contract providers by the Commissioner of Insurance. The legislation requires home service contract providers to register with the Department of Insurance.

Act No. 134 – Representative Kleckley – Named Storm Deductible – The legislation requires the application of a single named storm deductible when a policy includes a separate named-storm, hurricane or wind & hail deductible. If multiple named-storm/hurricane events occur in a calendar year, the full amount of the named storm/hurricane/wind & hail deductible will be applied, only once, to the aggregate loss across all named-storm/hurricane events causing damage under the policy.

Act No. 250 – Senator Quinn – Surplus Lines – Provides that any policy of fire and extended coverage issued by an authorized insurer must be approved by the Commissioner of Insurance. Thereby exempting unauthorized insurers, more commonly known as surplus lines insurers, from approval of co-insurance clause provisions in forms.

Act No. 258 – Senator Quinn – Provides for changes to the Louisiana Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association Law. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners recently updated a model act regarding Life and Health Guaranty Associations. In response to the revised model act legislation was introduced to update Louisiana’s Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association provisions. Included within the bill are measures to increase the coverage limits for both annuities and health.

Act No. 280 – Representative Monica – Permissive User – The legislation prevents motor vehicle liability insurance policies from including language which allows for limiting or dropping down policy limits available under an insured’s policy to the minimum limits required by the financial responsibility law for persons that have express or implied permission (permissive users).

Act No. 317 – Senator Martiny – Hearing Provisions – The bill updates the hearing provisions in the code to include the role of the Division of Administrative Law.

Act No. 326 – Representative Ligi – Lines of Insurance – The legislation updates the lines of insurance definitions in the insurance code to be consistent with the filing requirements for submission of the annual statement. The references in the capital and surplus requirements have also been revised so that they are compatible with the updated definitions for the lines of insurance.

Act No. 367 – Representative Downs – Confidentiality of Health Records – Provides that personal health information in the possession of the Department of Insurance is to be held confidential. The bill was amended during session to allow access upon request to the Office of Inspector General and the Legislative Auditor.

Act No. 404 – Senator Long – Homeowners Policy Premium Assistance Program – During the 2008 Regular Session a program was created to allocate excess money from the Insure Louisiana Incentive Program Fund to a homeowners’ premium assistance program. The money for the premium assistance program has been
reallocated for other state funding needs. The legislation was amended to repeal the Homeowners Policy Premium Assistance.

Act No. 419 – Representative Pearson – Genetic Testing- This legislation seeks to adopt the federal requirements relative to genetic testing by prohibiting health insurers from requiring or using genetic testing and genetic information in certain circumstances.

Act No. 483 – Senator Hebert – Citizens Rate Making Authority- This legislation modifies the rate setting methodology for Citizens Corporation. In order to avoid rates being impacted by outliers, the legislation allows for the inclusion of carriers with a market share of at least 2 percent. Language is also included to provide the rates include any company that wrote 25 more policies in a program/parish.

Act No. 485 – Senator Long – Producer Licensing and Continuing Education Requirements – This legislation adopts several new producer licensing standards from the NAIC uniform licensing standards. Several of the changes in the licensing process include the allowance of pre-licensing education online or self study, an increase of CE hours to 24 hours for all major lines of authority, abolishment of the Insurance Education Advisory Council, and to allow for the Commissioner of Insurance to require fingerprints for all new licensure applicants.

Act No. 503 – Representative Kleckley – Technical Recodification of the Insurance Code – This bill is a part of the recodification efforts of the Department of Insurance and includes technical changes to chapters one through three of the insurance code. The legislation removes inconsistencies, outdated provisions and corrects punctuation errors.

 

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