Prior to the adoption of the Fourth Amendment to Regulation 146, the Insurance Department met with interested parties on numerous occasions and incorporated their suggestions into the regulation. In addition, once the regulation was finalized, the Department issued circular letters, posted questions and answers on its Web site, and held an industry-wide meeting that all carriers participating in the pools were requested to attend. This outreach was intended to ensure that carriers would be educated as to the new pooling requirements.

          Despite the information provided by the Insurance Department, almost all of the 74 companies subject to the pools failed to meet the initial filing deadline of January 31, 2003 for the six submissions covering years 7/1/99 - 1/1/03. In addition, half of the companies were required to send in revised submissions due to errors found when the Pool Administrator, Alicare, reviewed their submissions. The impact of deficient submissions is that the entire pooling process is delayed because each company’s data must be taken into consideration in order for Alicare to establish the regional averages. Once the averages are established, Alicare can determine whether companies should collect money from or will owe money to the pools, depending on whether they are above or below the average.

          In order to move the process forward, the Department notified companies identifying the common submission errors and directing companies that corrected submissions must be submitted to and received by Alicare no later than February 27, 2004. The Department further advised companies that after February 27, no further revisions will be accepted and that disciplinary action will be pursued for a company's failure to make a good faith effort to adhere to the requirements of the 4th Amendment to Regulation 146.