Professional Health Insurance Advisors (D) Task Force

2012 Charge

The Executive Committee Task Force on Professional Health Insurance Advisors shall work in an expedient manner to identify, analyze and recommend options to the Executive Committee for addressing the negative impacts on health insurance brokers/agents, insurance consumers and insurance markets, prior to and as a result of, the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the regulation as issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

NAIC Notice of Hearing
Professional Health Insurance Advisors (D) Task Force
Sunday, March 27, 2011 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Austin, TX Hilton Austin - Austin Grand Ballroom Salon H - 6th Floor.

The purpose of the hearing is to solicit comments from all interested parties regarding the impact of the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on health insurance brokers/agents, insurance consumers and insurance markets. In particular, the Task Force is interested in comments to address the following questions:

• What is or is likely to be the impact of removing commissions from what is defined as premium under the MLR requirements?
• Have commissions been reduced since the passage of the federal law? If so, what is the impact of present and potential future commission reductions? Will this cause access issues? Is it likely agents/brokers will abandon health insurance markets? Please cite specific examples.
• What will be the impact of a legislative change that treats producer commissions in the same manner as Federal and State taxes for purposes of calculating the MLR?
• What is your opinion on the optimal solution to balance health plan/insurer concerns, consumer interests and the interests of agents/brokers?

All written testimony must be submitted in an electronic format to tmullen@naic.org by Monday, March 21st at 5:00 p.m. In addition to considering written testimony from all parties, the Task Force will be inviting specific organizations to provide oral testimony at the hearing. If you have any questions, please direct them to Tim Mullen at tmullen@naic.org or 816-783-8260.