West Virginia Rate Review Grants Award List

Cycle I Grant Application Summary

West Virginia Grantee: West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner

Award Date: August 16, 2010

Award Amount: $1,000,000

• Improve the Review Process: Currently, West Virginia does not use any certified actuaries to review health insurance premium filings. The Department of Insurance will hire consulting actuaries to review current filing requirements and recommend additional data elements needed to strengthen the review process.
• Increase Transparency and Accessibility: The State will make modifications to develop public consumer-friendly descriptions of health insurance filings.
• Develop and Upgrade Technology: West Virginia will upgrade its information technology system to support improved reporting.

Cycle II Grant Application Summary

West Virginia Grantee: West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner

Total Award: $3,000,000

Baseline Award: $3,000,000

• Introduce legislation: West Virginia proposes to work with a contracting firm to review State statue and administrative code as pertaining to the rate review processes in order to recommend possible changes and enhancements as necessary
• Improve rate filing requirements: West Virginia will continue an existing actuarial contract for the review of individual and small group filings and update and modify a manual of rate review guidelines.
• Improve transparency and consumer interfaces: West Virginia proposes funding for System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF) enhancements.
• Improve IT: West Virginia proposes to develop an analytic model in an electronic format to review trend data, administrative expenses, and other benchmarks during the review of a rate filing.