Legal Seminar Website Goes Live

The website for NOLHGA’s 23rd Annual Legal Seminar, which will take place on July 23–24, 2015, at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, is now live. The site offers online registration and hotel reservations as well as other meeting information, and it will be updated as more information about the seminar becomes available.

The registration fee for the 2015 Legal Seminar is $850, and there is a $55 “early bird” discount for those who register by June 22. The seminar will be held in conjunction with an MPC meeting on July 21–22. There is no registration fee for the MPC meeting.

NOLHGA has secured a room rate for this meeting of $270/night (single/double) plus tax at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. Reservations can be made through the meeting website or by contacting the hotel at 877.266.2050 and requesting the NOLHGA rate. Please contact Meg Melusen at [email protected] if you have any questions.

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Dates & Location of 2016 Annual Meeting Announced

NOLHGA’s 2016 Annual Meeting will be held at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas on October 26–27, with an MPC meeting on October 25. Please mark your calendars!

As a reminder, this year’s Annual Meeting will be held in Baltimore at the Four Seasons on October 28–29, with an MPC meeting on October 27. More information about the 2015 Annual Meeting will appear in future issues of the NOLHGA Wire.

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MPC Meets in Austin

The Members’ Participation Council (MPC) met in Austin, Texas, on April 7–9, 2015. The Booker T. Washington/Universal Life Insurance Companies (Alabama), Freestone Insurance Company (Delaware), and SeeChange Health Insurance Company (California) Task Forces held meetings, and the Penn Treaty Network America/American Network Insurance Companies (Pennsylvania) Task Force conducted a presentation for affected guaranty associations. The MPC Executive Committee and Accounting Issues Committee met as well.

The Administrators Education Steering Committee’s “Education Day” featured presentations on new annuity products (by Cathy Marasco with Nationwide), long-term-care insurance (by Jan Graeber with the Texas Department of Insurance, Patrick Reeder with Genworth Financial, and Brian Wegner with Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania), and cyber-security (by Joe Oleksak with Plante Moran).

In addition to the task force reports below, the General Session featured privileged, closed-session presentations by the Lincoln Memorial/Memorial Service Life Insurance Companies (Texas) Task Force and a new task force for a company not yet in receivership. Security Advisory Committee Co-Chair Candie Kinch (Idaho & Oregon) briefed attendees on the dangers of identity theft, NOLHGA President Peter Gallanis provided an update on recent activity in financial services regulatory modernization, and MPC Chair John Colpean briefed attendees on MPC Executive Committee activity.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna CoOportunity Health (Iowa)

Task Force Member Tom Sullivan (Iowa) reviewed the history of the company, a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) authorized under the Affordable Care Act that was placed in liquidation on February 28, 2015. Various special enrollment periods have been authorized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and plan enrollment has fallen from 110,000 at the time the company was placed into receivership to 2,700. The guaranty associations have made approximately $99 million in claims payments, and the remaining individual policies are scheduled to be canceled by August 31 (group policies were canceled on April 15). Claims are expected through the first quarter of 2016.

Task Force Chair – Pam Olsen;   Staff Contact - Bill O'Sullivan Executive Life Insurance Company of New York/GABC

ELNY Task Force Legal Counsel Kevin Griffith (Faegre Baker Daniels) reviewed GABC’s 2014 financials and benefits payments and reported on the status of the Hardship Fund (a fund for former ELNY payees founded by a consortium of life insurance companies, separate from GABC), which has distributed all its funds. GABC plans to file its 2014 financials with the New York Liquidation Bureau and the District of Columbia’s Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking.

Task Force Chair - Jack Falkenbach;   Staff Contact - SeeChange Health Insurance Company (California)

Task Force Chair Janis Potter (Illinois) reported that the California and Colorado guaranty associations are responsible for approximately 98% of the liabilities from this company, which was placed in liquidation on January 28, 2015. The task force has entered into agreements with the company’s third-party administrator (Loomis, with a network access arrangement with CIGNA) and with Tharp and Associates to audit claims. The task force is about to enter into an agreement with a former SeeChange Health employee to audit claims and handle any complaints and claims issues. The affected guaranty associations began paying claims in early February.

In addition, the SeeChange Health MPC unanimously passed a resolution approving an early access agreement between the task force and the receiver.

Task Force Chair – Janis Potter;   Staff Contact - Joanna Akiyama