State insurance regulators may update the standard rules for the health insurance products that are beyond the reach (or mostly beyond the reach) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA).
A team at the Regulatory Framework Task Force, part of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), is asking for comments on two early model revision drafts.
One is a draft update of Model 170, the Accident and Sickness Insurance Minimum Standards Model Act.
The other is a draft update of Model 171, the Model Regulation to Implement the Accident and Sickness Insurance Minimum Standards Model Act.
The NAIC is a trade group for state insurance regulators. States often use NAIC models to shape their own insurance laws, regulations and notices.
When the NAIC approved the accident and sickness models, back in April 1999, the models provided examples of how states could regulate a wide range of products, including individual major medical coverage, basic hospital expense coverage, basic medical surgical expense coverage, individual basic medical expense coverage, disability income protection coverage, accident-only coverage, specified disease coverage, specified accident coverage and limited-benefit health coverage.
The medical coverage requirements in PPACA now appear to prohibit the sale of many of those products, task force officials say.
In the proposed revisions, the drafters have eliminated the sections on basic hospital expense coverage, basic medical surgical expense coverage, basic hospital/medical surgical expense coverage and individual basic medical expense coverage.
