Category: Government Relations/Policy

Insurers and brokers selling long-term care (LTC) insurance in California should be aware of the California Department of Insurance (CDI) bulletin of August 23, 2023, expressing concern over certain complaints received by CDI regarding marketing efforts being used to encourage California residents to purchase LTC insurance in advance of any LTCi public option that may be implemented in California. Specifically, the complaints alleged that marketing efforts have included statements that such LTCi public option will be implemented in 2024; that a payroll tax will be levied on California residents as part of the public option program; and that – like the regime in Washington – such tax can be avoided by purchasing LTCi before the end of 2023.

As part of the bulletin, the CDI emphasized that no legislation concerning a public option has been passed. Rather, pursuant to California Assembly Bill 567 (2019), a task force has been created to study potential design structures, which feasibility study was issued in December of last year. Additionally, the task force is currently working on an actuarial analysis of the proposed design structures, due to be issued by January 1, 2024. The CDI emphasized that, following the issuance of any actuarial report, the Legislature “may choose to adopt some, all, or none of the recommendations of the Task Force.”

Continue reading “CDI Issues Bulletin Warning Insurers of False and Misleading Advertisements Related to Public Option Legislation Pending in California”

On June 5-6, 2023, the NAIC Privacy Protections (H) Working Group (“PPWG”) held an in-person interim meeting (“session”) to continue its work on drafting a new model privacy law, the Insurance Consumer Privacy Protection Model Law #674 (“Model Law”). Model Law #674 is intended to replace the current Models #670 and #672. The session was intended to be a drafting session focused on certain provisions of the current exposure draft not yet covered during the three preceding PPWG open drafting calls.

During the session, the working group covered third-party service providers, definitions of “insurance transactions” and “additional permitted transactions,” marketing (and joint-marketing agreements), consent to marketing (opt-in versus opt-out), and consumer privacy notices. The PPWG announced it intends to release a new exposure draft (version 1.0) of the Model Law by the end of June to address many of the comments the working group has received and discussed to date. There will be no 60-day comment period for this draft and instead, open calls to discuss drafting will restart once the new exposure draft is released.

Continue reading “NAIC Privacy Protections Working Group Meets to Discuss New Model Privacy Law”

We wanted to bring your attention today to a new client alert two of our Insurance practice colleagues have written highlighting Florida’s recent tort reform bill and its impact on insurance litigation.

On March 24, 2023, a sweeping tort reform bill was signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. House Bill 837 was touted by DeSantis as being designed to reduce frivolous lawsuits and prevent predatory practices of trial attorneys. Notably, the bill will have a significant impact on insurance litigation as it modifies the bad faith framework, eliminates one-way attorneys’ fees, shortens the statute of limitations for negligence claims and changes the comparative negligence standard.

Continue reading “The Impact of Florida’s Tort Reform Bill on Insurance Litigation”

NAIC’s Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) Task Force recently adopted a revised checklist for regulators to use when drafting and reviewing LTCI reduced benefit options (RBO) policyholder communications. The checklist is meant to provide regulatory guidance only (i.e. does not carry the weight of law) and can be used with the RBO Communication Principles. Following the most recent exposure, the task force established a drafting group made up of consumer groups and regulators from California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia. The drafting group incorporated some changes in response to stakeholder feedback – those changes are highlighted in Attachment Two of the Meeting Materials.

Fred Andersen (MN) provided an update on industry trends in light of regulators’ review of year-end 2021 reserve adequacy filings. Here were the main takeaways from Andersen’s report:

Continue reading “NAIC LTCI Task Force Adopts Revised RBO Checklist, Receives Update on Industry Trends”

In a December 2022 bulletin published by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS made clear that the use of third-party tracking technologies by covered entities and business associates is subject to HIPAA privacy and security rules. The use of tracking technologies developed by third-party vendors is increasingly common, and much of the LTCi industry is subject to HIPAA privacy and security rules as either covered entities or business associates. HHS noted in the bulletin that covered entities and business associates “are not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures of [protected health information (“PHI”)] to tracking technology vendors or any other violations of the HIPAA Rules.” And, as applied to the use of tracking technologies, HHS’s view of what constitutes PHI may be broader than expected.

What Are Tracking Technologies?

Tracking technologies (including cookies, pixels, and other similar technologies) collect information about individuals who interact with an entity’s website or mobile application (“mobile app”). Businesses use a variety of tracking technologies on websites and mobile apps to improve functionality and learn more about users’ activities. Tracking technologies developed by third parties generally involve the sharing of data back to that third party, so when a HIPAA-covered entity or business associate uses these tracking technologies, they must be cognizant of what data is being shared, to who, and for what purpose.

Continue reading “HIPAA Regulation of Online Tracking Technologies”

Election outcomes affect every industry. Insurance, however, is unique in the range of elected policymakers who can impact it directly — insurance commissioners, governors and Congress (not to mention state legislatures and other statewide officials). So as insurance stakeholders settle in the night of November 8 with popcorn and other traditional fare, what are our “ones to watch?”

Continue reading “Election Night for Insurance Geeks: November 2022”