FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2008
Contact: Jason Moon 517-335-1700

LANSING –Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR) Commissioner Ken Ross announced that a public hearing will be held Thursday, May 29, 2008, starting at 9 a.m., in the Forum on the ground floor of the Michigan Library and Historical Center, 702 West Kalamazoo Street, Lansing, MI 48915.

The hearing will be held to receive public comments that will assist the Commissioner in determining whether to require insurers to file policy forms, rules, and rates electronically via the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF) and also whether to amend or modify Exemption Order 97-010-M to require insurers to submit additional policy forms to OFIR for prior approval before they are utilized in the market.

“We welcome public input on these important insurance filing issues and encourage anyone with concerns or comments to submit them either electronically or at the hearing,” Commissioner Ross said.

With regard to hearing issue number one, insurers currently have the choice either to mail required rule, rate, and policy form filings in paper format to OFIR or to sign up voluntarily with SERFF and submit all documents electronically to OFIR via SERFF. SERFF was developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) staff as a gateway for insurers to submit electronic filings to each state in a uniform manner while being able to meet necessary state regulations.

With regard to hearing issue number two, Order No. 97-010-M exempted insurers from filing policy forms for most types of insurance. Bulletin 97-03 explained the particulars of the Exemption Order. The Order and Bulletin are both available with this Public Hearing Notice on the OFIR website, www.michigan.gov/ofir.

The Commissioner is seeking advice, insight, and input from consumers who purchase insurance products in Michigan, insurers who write insurance products in Michigan, from any public interest group, and from any independent person or source with information pertinent to these two hearing subjects.

The Commissioner will accept oral and written comments at the public hearing site until the close of the public hearing on May 29, 2008 and will accept written comments submitted electronically to Randy Parlor at parlorr@michigan.gov or faxed to 517-373-0549 by 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on May 30, 2008. Any comments that include statistics should also supply the source of the statistics.

For more information on the hearing, contact OFIR toll-free at (877) 999-6442.

###