CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

                        HOUSE BILL 1838

                        53rd Legislature

                      1993 Regular Session

Passed by the House March 8, 1993   Yeas 97   Nays 0 Speaker of the        House of Representatives Passed by the Senate April 6, 1993   Yeas 47   Nays 0

CERTIFICATE I, Alan Thompson, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 1838 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.

President of the Senate

Chief Clerk

Approved Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.

FILED

Governor of the State of Washington

Secretary of State                        State of Washington

                              _______________________________________________

                                                      HOUSE BILL 1838

                              _______________________________________________

                                                       Passed Legislature - 1993 Regular Session

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1993 Regular Session

By Representatives R. Johnson, Mielke, R. Meyers, Rayburn, King, Kremen and Holm; by request of Insurance Commissioner

Read first time 02/10/93.  Referred to Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance.

Requiring minimum standards for benefits in medicare supplement insurance.

          AN ACT Relating to minimum standards for benefits in medicare supplement insurance; and amending RCW 48.66.041.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  RCW 48.66.041 and 1992 c 138 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) The insurance commissioner shall adopt rules to establish minimum standards for benefits in medicare supplement insurance policies and certificates.

          (2) The commissioner shall adopt rules to establish specific standards for medicare supplement insurance policy or certificate provisions.  These rules may include but are not limited to:

          (a) Terms of renewability;

          (b) Nonduplication of coverage;

          (c) Benefit limitations, exceptions, and reductions;

          (d) Definitions of terms;

          (e) Requiring refunds or credits if the policies or certificates do not meet loss ratio requirements;

          (f) Establishing uniform methodology for calculating and reporting loss ratios;

          (g) Assuring public access to policies, premiums, and loss ratio information of an issuer of medicare supplement insurance;

          (h) Establishing a process for approving or disapproving proposed premium increases; and

          (i) Establishing standards for medicare SELECT policies and certificates.

          (3) The insurance commissioner may adopt rules that establish disclosure standards for replacement of policies or certificates by persons eligible for medicare ((by reason of age)).

          (4) The insurance commissioner may by rule prescribe that an informational brochure, designed to improve the buyer's understanding of medicare and ability to select the most appropriate coverage, be provided to persons eligible for medicare by reason of age.  The commissioner may require that the brochure be provided to applicants concurrently with delivery of the outline of coverage, except with respect to direct response insurance, when the brochure may be provided upon request but no later than the delivery of the policy.

          (5) In the case of a state or federally qualified health maintenance organization, the commissioner may waive compliance with one or all provisions of this section until January 1, 1983.

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