Earlier this year, the Florida Legislature passed a law requiring health insurers to tell consumers how much of any premium increase for 2014 is caused by various requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. See Senate Bill 1842 at section 15, amending section 627.410, Florida Statutes. Last week, the Financial Services Commission adopted a regulation that includes a template for insurers to use when creating the new notices. Insurers must use the template and then submit the resulting notices to the Office of Insurance Regulation for informational purposes by September 1, 2013.
The notices must show the amount of premium increase that is due to the:
- Cost of new benefits that the plan must offer;
- Cost of covering pre-existing conditions;
- New taxes and fees health plans must pay; and
- Cost of charging the same for men and women and limiting how age can affect premiums.
Insurers must then send the notices to customers who purchase new or renewal individual or small group health insurance effective in 2014. However, insurers need not provide the notices for plans that are “grandfathered” under the Act.
The notice is required only for the first issuance or renewal of the policy on or after January 1, 2014, and the notice requirement will be automatically repealed on March 1, 2015.