Compliance Updates

California:

The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 are the principal health care reform laws. As a result of the new legislation, the Curriculum Board convened a subcommittee to review and amend the Accident and Health Agent Educational Objectives (AH EOs) to include material covering both PPACA and the California Health Benefit Exchange which was implemented to partially address the provisions of PPACA. In addition, the AH EOs were amended to also include curriculum on the Medical Loss Ratio; Major Risk Medical Insurance Program, California public coverage programs, and healthy families programs. Please note that the updated EOs will take effect on January 1, 2012 and the license examinations will also be updated to reflect these changes.

Illinois:

The Illinois Insurance Department and Pearson VUE have jointly announced extensive changes to the insurance pre-licensing education curriculum outline. The announced revisions will be reflected on licensing examinations offered on and after January 1, 2012. Individuals preparing for an insurance licensing exam that will be administered on or after the announced implementation date are urged to ensure that their study materials reflect the most recent curriculum revisions. The new Licensing Information Bulletins will be available from Pearson VUE online at www.pearsonvue.com.

Wisconsin:

Invoices for filing the required annual initial and renewal appointment fee will be mailed shortly after January 1, 2012. All payments must be submitted by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) on the Department’s web site at oci.wi.gov. No other form of payment is acceptable and will be returned unprocessed. Each invoice will have the amount calculated and no reconciliation is permitted. Companies may not take credit for terminating an agent at that time. If there are any questions, contact the agent licensing department at 608-266-8699.

Puerto Rico:

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance of Puerto Rico will begin using State Based Systems (SBS) effective January 23, 2012. With the SBS implementation we will take the opportunity to implement several NAIC uniformity initiatives as well as the opportunity to streamline many of our processes. SBS also provides a wide array of online tools that allow producers to submit, view and print license information on a 24/7 basis.

Utah:

Beginning with licenses that expire February 29, 2012, the Utah Insurance Department will email courtesy renewal notices to licensees at their business email address. No longer will renewal notices be mailed. Correspondence sent by the department to the business email address on file with the department will be considered received by the licensee. All licensees are required to maintain with the department a valid email address where the licensee can receive renewal notices, billing invoices, etc as required by Rule R590-258 effective September 8, 2010. Each licensee is also required to confirm that the spam filter for this email address will accept email correspondence from the department. Submitting and maintaining a current email address is critical and can be done electronically at www.sircon.com/utah or www.nipr.com.

Virginia:

The Bureau of Insurance (Bureau) will mail appointment invoices on or about January 3, 2012, for producer appointments added during the quarter ending December 31, 2011. Payment is due no later than February 10, 2012, for the exact amount billed. Checks must be made payable to: State Corporation Commission/LAP. Do not submit the payment to the Bureau. Payments must be submitted to the Lockbox address on the invoice and the bottom portion of the invoice must be included with the remittance. Failure to include the bottom portion of the invoice or payment of the incorrect amount will reject and could cause a late penalty fee to be imposed. It is the company’s responsibility to maintain its current appointment billing address and contact person on Bureau records. Appointment billing address/contact person changes must be submitted to apptbillinginquiry@scc.virginia.gov.