The Kentucky Office of Workers' Claims as of Sept. 9 will nolonger require insurers to file medical claim information, saidBill Emrick, OWC director.

Mr. Emrick said he was taking the step because the office atthis point is unable to use the data, which included "every billthat was paid."

He said he suspected that collection of the information beganbecause of dissatisfaction over statistical information collectedby the National Council on Compensation Insurance that was thoughtto be "too dated."

The primary material would be good to have "if we had theresources to bring it up to the present date," but his agency isnot staffed to handle such activity, Mr. Emrick said.

When he took office, he said, carriers complained of having tosend in every bill they paid, telling him: "It's costing us a wholepile of money to submit. What are you doing with it?"

Mr. Emrick said there were some high estimates that since 1999it has cost insurers in the state $10 million to provide the data.He said after he proposed the regulatory change to eliminate therequirement there were no requests for a hearing.

The move was warmly received by the insurance industry.According to the American Insurance Association, the requirementled to increased premiums for consumers as insurers had tooutsource the administrative operations involved in gathering andprocessing the information.

"Kentucky's experience is the clearest example yet of how stateschoose to require insurer reporting of data simply because theycan, with no clear benefit in mind," said Raymond G. Farmer, AIAassistant vice president for the Southeast Region.

Mr. Farmer noted that Kentucky appears to be the exceptionrather than the rule, noting that several other states areconsidering medical claims data reporting requirements without alsocrafting a clear plan as to how that data would be used byregulators.

"Unfortunately, such misguided regulation simply increases costswithout producing any demonstrable benefit for the system as awhole," Mr. Farmer said.