The Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire (OCI) published a Directive on special fraud assessment calculations. Per GA Code § 33-1-17, OCI must impose an annual charge to all foreign, alien, and domestic insurance companies doing business in the state for the purpose of funding the Special Fraud Unit of OCI. The fraud unit investigates and prosecutes insurance fraud, which in turn protects the public and allows for lower insurance rates for residents of the state.

GA Code says that the money collected from the assessments for each year should not be greater than the amount appropriated by the General Assembly to fund the fraud unit and other related costs. Since there have been a growing number of insurance companies in Georgia, OCI is adjusting the assessment amounts to not be in conflict with the statutory provisions. This means the assessments charged to each insurance company will be lowered.

The table below shows the regulations being suspended and the new percent assessed of the appropriated amount:

Regulation Percent assessed of Appropriated Amount
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(b) 0.0033
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(c) 0.0043
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(e) 0.0053
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(f) 0.0063

Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(b) applies to insurers whose Georgia written premium is $40 million or greater but less than $100 million.

Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(c) applies to insurers whose Georgia written premium is $100 million or greater but less than $500 million.

Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(e) applies to insurers whose Georgia written premium is $500 million or greater but less than $1 billion.

Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 120-2-72-.05(1)(f) applies to insurers whose Georgia written premium is $1 billion or greater.

 

The Directive can be found here (note that this link will automatically download a PDF file).