NAIC: E-Filing Program On Target
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, Dec. 8, 12:55 p.m. EST?Insurers' use of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' electronic filing system?called System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing, or SERFF?continues to soar and is on target to meet NAIC's 2003 filing goals, said state regulators attending the NAIC winter meeting in Anaheim, Calif.[@@]
First introduced in 2001, SERFF has been growing consistently, according to regulators.
The SERFF board of directors announced at the NAIC winter meeting, now underway in California, that this e-filing program is in production in 49 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Currently, 50 jurisdictions accept property-casualty filings, while 48 states accept life filings and 41 states accept health filings, the board directors announced.
NAIC's goal is to have all states accept all rate-and-form filings through SERFF for all lines of insurance and all filing types.
The directors also said that by the end of last month, 70,068 filings had been processed, which meets the SERFF board's filing goals for 2003. There are currently 207 insurer groups and 1,014 individual companies that use SERFF.
Additionally, the board reported at the meeting that the work on e-filing's programming interface is "progressing rapidly" and a pilot with seven states and 10 insurer groups is also moving ahead well.
Mike Pickens, Arkansas insurance commissioner and the departing president of NAIC, explained to National Underwriter that SERFF is not only more cost effective than "antiquated" filing methods, but it improves accuracy and facilitates communications between states and insurers through status tracking, reports and workflow management.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.