Page 17 - Delaware Department of Insurance

Commissioner Navarro and his team intend to continue to prioritize consumers in all aspects of the Department’s work during 2020.
After securing a double-digit
rate decrease on Delaware’s Health Insurance Marketplace,
the department plans to continue to review methods that push for affordability in the health arena, including pursuing increased competition in the Marketplace. Working with DHSS, the department will continue to review the 1332 Waiver in an effort to understand how it could be used to reduce rates within the small group market and help small businesses better afford benefits for their employees.
Increasing capacity of the Fraud and Medicare Assistance bureaus over the next year will be critical
to keeping up with the level of service that consumers have come to expect and deserve. Moreover, the department plans to continue a proactive approach towards Medicare education outside
of the Open Enrollment period, with public events already scheduled throughout the year.
The department also plans to make significant strides in the creation of the Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery, which the General Assembly tasked it with establishing during the 2019 session. Working with the Primary Care Reform Collaborative, the Department released an RFP for a team to lead the office that will help increase the availability of high quality, cost-efficient health insurance products that have stable, predictable, and affordable rates. Interest in the RFP for such an Office has been high, with responses due in early January 2020.
The legislative agenda includes a proposal to address assignments of benefits in terms of transferring ownership rights of the policy to third parties, which will protect property insurance consumers
in contractor processes. Updates to automobile insurance and property insurance notification processes will be considered,
including the standardization of cancellation notices. To create
a more consumer-friendly automobile insurance environment and increase departmental efficiency, a bill will aim to
make it easier to appeal policy cancellations and nonrenewal, while allowing consumers whose policies have been cancelled due to nonpayment to submit the needed payment within 30 days of cancellation and have their policy reinstated.
Inside of their authority to license individuals and businesses in the bail bond industry, the department will work with legislators to seek
clarifying language around individuals who fund bail bond agents to ensure that unauthorized individuals are not holding
undue power in the industry.
The department plans to negotiate changes to captive insurance licensing authority
and is considering pursuing legislation related to fraud.
Additionally, the department is pursuing renewal of their national accreditation, and will aim to pass, with the help of the General Assembly, bills that align with the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s accreditation standards.
Looking ahead
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