AB 437

This bill modifies various insurance statutes that are generally administered

by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. Specifically, the bill does all of the

following:

1. Allows the commissioner of insurance to appoint the deputy commissioner,

chief legal counsel, or chief financial regulator in OCI to serve as a member on the

Wisconsin Retirement Board, rather than limiting the commissioner's designee to an

experienced actuary in OCI.

2. Eliminates the requirement that the commissioner develop a uniform

employee application form that small employer insurers must use when a small

employer applies for coverage under a group health benefit plan, including the

requirement that small employer insurers must use the form.

3. Eliminates the requirement that the commissioner prescribe, by rule,

uniform questions and the format for applications for individual major medical

health insurance policies and the requirement that all insurers may use only those

questions and that format for individual major medical health insurance policy

applications.

4. Allows the commissioner to enter directly into a contract for the services of

a consultant if OCI is coordinating a review on a regulatory matter with another

state's or U.S. territory's insurance department that has already procured the

services of the consultant.

5. Eliminates the commissioner's remaining responsibility regarding

dissolution of the former Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan.

6. Adds the insurance security fund to the list of persons with whom OCI may

confidentially share or from whom OCI may confidentially obtain information.

Current law includes on that list a similar fund or other entity in another state but

does not expressly include this state's fund.

7. Eliminates the requirement that the commissioner study, and provide a

report to the legislature and governor on, a) whether the cost of health care

administration is likely to be reduced by health insurers' compliance with certain

standards in their transactions with health care providers and b) the feasibility and

cost-effectiveness of certain requirements related to uniform health insurance

identification cards. The bill also eliminates the requirement that the commissioner

must promulgate rules depending on the results of those studies.

8. Changes the procedures for providing notice of the revocation of an insurer's

authority to do business in this state.

9. Increases the forfeiture amount, from $1,000 to $5,000 per violation, for a

violation of an insurance statute or rule that involves or constitutes fraud.

10. Requires a health maintenance organization that participates in the

Family Care Program to make a monetary deposit, in an amount determined by the

Department of Health Services, to pay for services on behalf of an insolvent or