NAIC focused on achieving ‘uniformity’ in the delivery of services to consumers

After having worked in the insurance industry for companies in various roles for almost 30 years, Lois Alexander brings a balanced perspective to her role as Market Regulation Manager, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Providing structure and collaborative oversight to the state-based insurance regulatory system, the NAIC plays a vitally important role in ensuring an orderly, transparent and consumer-focused U.S. insurance industry. Alexander spoke to 2009 Exchange members about the overall structure and organization of the NAIC, which is impressive, to say the least.

“The list of NAIC committees is 68 pages long online,” she said. “Anyone interested in learning more about them can simply go to the NAIC site (www.naic.com), click on the committee you are interested in and print a description. The website will show any interested party every group, committee and subcommittee of the NAIC and what they’re focusing on.”

Many perspectives, one voice

The leadership structure of the NAIC is different from the hierarchies found in most corporate settings. Because it is made up of peers with equivalent professional responsibilities in every state, the NAIC does have a president and CEO. The structure of committees and subcommittees allows members to make important individual contributions to the overall mission of the organization. While committee leaderships may change virtually every year, the goal of the organization is to present a uniform NAIC presence.

“Every company has its own brand and persona,” said Alexander. “While the NAIC is made up of many people often with many different perspectives, we try to speak with one voice on issues important to the insurance consumer.”

Robust, frequent communication is the fuel that drives the efforts of the NAIC and its various committees and facilitates its regulatory leadership agenda. On any given day, one NAIC committee or another is holding a teleconference to bring committee members up to date on important developments and to enable debate and discussion. While calls are sometimes closed when regulators are discussing information about various companies that may be deemed proprietary, many calls are open to individuals from outside the NAIC. They need only contact the NAIC through its Website or some other means and register as an “interested party” to be included on a call. The NAIC pays teleconference providers for regulator use of the lines and interested parties are charged by their own phone providers for their participation. After each call, minutes are distributed to the members.

Uniformity allows room for difference

If one word were used to describe the overall regulatory mission and goals of the NAIC, that word would be “uniformity.” With 50 different states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories all trying to perform similar functions on behalf of insurance buyers in their jurisdictions, naturally there will be differences in style and substance. One of the objectives of the NAIC is to get a broad range of diverse members to identify as one regulatory team.

“Uniformity is not about being identical,” Alexander stressed. “Some rules will be very similar from one state to another, but there are going to be differences based on what consumers in your state need. The goal of uniformity is to achieve similar ends in the oversight and protections provided to insurance buyers. The bottom line is that every group within the NAIC is in one way or another working on issues related to accreditation and uniformity.”

Alexander noted that the NAIC is actively reviewing the ICAE position paper addressing uniformity in the complaint reconciliation and data analysis process. The paper has been presented for comment and is being reviewed by the specific accreditation Working Group for further remarks. It is likely that the Working Group will report out on the ICAE recommendations early in 2010.

The NAIC Website also provides useful information to individual insurance buyers. One such resource is the Consumer Information Service (CIS) function. This application allows the consumer to input the name of a particular company and review a history of  closed and confirmed complaints.

Finally, the NAIC is working diligently to develop an online Market Conduct Annual Statement (MCAS), with the goal of having such a tool available in 2011 using 2010 data.  The MCAS would provide aggregate market conduct findings that would help to show trends and issues related to individual companies’ market conduct information. So far, 29 states have committed to providing MCAS trending information, and Alexander said all remaining states are set to get on board and provide needed trending data in 2011.

Information about the MCAS and all things related to NAIC committees and their activities are available on the organization’s Website at www.naic.org.

Contact info:

Lois Alexander
Market Regulation Manager
National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
816.783.8517
lalexand@naic.org
www.naic.org