Subject of Possible Rule Making: Implementing federal Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) requirements for medicare supplement plans, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioner (NAIC) minimum standards (for medicare supplement plans) model regulation language. The commissioner proposes amending chapter 284-66 WAC.

     Statutes Authorizing the Agency to Adopt Rules on this Subject: RCW 48.02.060 (3)(a) and 48.66.165.

     Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: The MIPPA changes the medicare supplement plan requirements; the commissioner proposes updating Washington's administrative code so that our regulations are consistent with MIPPA. The NAIC Model Act addresses plans that will be available as of June 1, 2010. By revising our code to incorporate the NAIC Model Act provisions, the commissioner enables carriers to file and sell these plans by June 1, 2010.

     Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); the commissioner recently responded to inquiries from the NAIC about our plans to update Washington's medicare supplement rules. NAIC in turn aggregated the same information from all states and forwarded it to CMS.

     Process for Developing New Rule:      Agency study; and model regulation use and reference to federal regulation.

     Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Meg L. Jones, Policy and Rules Manager, P.O. Box 40258, Olympia, WA 98504, phone (360) 725-7170, fax (360) 586-3109, e-mail megj@oic.wa.gov. Please provide comments on this proposal by August 26, 2009.

July 20, 2009

Mike Kreidler

Insurance Commissioner

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