Section 404-G:5-a Plan of Operation for the High Risk Pool.
I. The board of directors for the association shall adopt a plan of operation for the high risk pool. The high risk pool shall be funded in part through an assessment mechanism whereby writers of health insurance contribute an amount sufficient to cover the expenses and losses of the pool not covered by premiums.
II. The plan of operation for the high risk pool shall establish:
(a) Procedures for handling and accounting for the assets and moneys of the plan;
(b) Procedures for selecting and retaining a pool administrator;
(c) Procedures to establish and maintain public awareness of the plan, including its eligibility requirements and enrollment procedures;
(d) Procedures to create a fund, under management of the board, for administrative expenses;
(e) Procedures for handling, accounting and auditing of assets, moneys and claims of the pool;
(f) Requirements for keeping financial and other records;
(g) Regular times and places for meetings of the board; and
(h) Procedures by which applicants and participants can submit utilization review determinations and grievances to the pool administrator. The procedures shall ensure that utilization review determinations and grievances will be processed properly and in accordance with all statutory and regulatory requirements.
III. The assessment for the high risk pool shall be based on the number of covered lives times a specified assessment rate. The association shall specify the basis used to set the assessment rate.
IV. The association shall establish a regular assessment rate which shall be:
(a) Calculated on a calendar year basis;
(b) Established no later than November 1 in the year preceding the calendar year for which the carrier's experience shall be used to calculate the assessment; and
(c) Anticipated to be sufficient to meet the high risk pool's funding needs.
V. In addition to the regular assessment rate, the association may establish a special assessment rate. Notwithstanding RSA 420-G:4, a writer of health insurance may increase the premiums charged by the amount of the special assessment. Any assessment may appear as a separate line item on a policyholder's bill.
(a) The association shall only establish a special assessment if the association determines that its funds are or will become insufficient to pay the high risk pool's expenses in a timely manner.
(b) The association shall only assess, through the special assessment, at a rate necessary to fund the deficiency ascertained in subparagraph (1) above.
VI. The regular assessment rate, and any special assessment rate, shall be subject to the approval of the commissioner. The commissioner shall approve the rate if she or he finds that the amount is required to fulfill the purposes of the high risk pool. For the purpose of making this determination, the commissioner may, at the expense of the association, seek independent actuarial certification of the need for the proposed rate.
VII. The association shall impose and collect assessments from its members.
VIII. If the assessment exceeds the amount actually needed, the excess shall be held and invested and, with the earnings and interest thereon, be used to offset future net losses.
IX. Each covered life should be included in the assessment only once. The association shall adopt procedures by which affiliated carriers calculate their assessment on an aggregate basis and procedures to ensure that no covered life is counted more than once.
X. The initial assessment rate to fund the high risk pool shall be 60 cents per covered life per month, and shall take effect on policies or certificates issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2001.
Source. 2001, 295:10, eff. July 1, 2001.