Section 400-A:39 Administration Fund. - New Hampshire Statutes

   I. There is hereby established in the state treasury an administration fund for the sole purpose of paying all costs of the office of the commissioner. The fund shall be administered by the commissioner. The state treasurer shall be the custodian of the fund and all moneys and securities in the fund shall be held in trust by the state treasurer and shall not constitute money or property of the state.
   II. For the purposes of this section, ""affiliate'' shall be as defined in RSA 401-B:1, I.
   III. The state treasurer is authorized to disburse moneys from the fund upon written order of both the insurance commissioner and commissioner of administrative services in accordance with a budget approved by the general court. The state treasurer shall be required to give bond in an amount to be fixed and with securities approved by the insurance commissioner conditioned upon the faithful performance of his or her duty as custodian of the fund.
   IV. Each insurer licensed to do business in this state, including nonprofit health services corporations organized pursuant to RSA 420-A, health maintenance organizations organized pursuant to RSA 420-B, Delta Dental Plan of New Hampshire regulated pursuant to RSA 420-F, and multiple-employer welfare arrangements licensed pursuant to RSA 415-E, shall make payments to the fund each year of its pro rata share of the fiscal year's costs of the office of the commissioner to be appropriated out of the fund. Such share is to be computed in accordance with paragraphs V and VI of this section.
   V. For each year, the total amount of such payments made to the fund by all such insurers shall be an amount that, when combined with any available fund balance, is not less than the amount appropriated by the general court for the expenses of the office of the commissioner for the fiscal year commencing on the July 1 in which the payments are due.
   VI. The amount payable each year by each such insurer shall be computed by the commissioner as follows:
      (a) Based on the annual statement filed in such year by each insurer under RSA 400-A:31, RSA 420-A:20, RSA 420-B:9, RSA 420-F:9, or other financial statement filed under RSA 415-E:11, the commissioner shall ascertain each insurer's amount of gross direct premiums written, including policy, membership and other fees, service charges, policy dividends applied in payment for insurance, and all other considerations for insurance originating from policies covering property, subjects, or risks located, resident or to be performed in New Hampshire after deducting return premiums and dividends actually returned or credited to policyholders. If any such insurer does not otherwise timely provide the commissioner with the information necessary for such ascertainment, it shall do so on or before May 1 of each year.
      (b) The commissioner shall total the amounts ascertained for all such insurers under subparagraph (a) so that the commissioner has a total for each nonaffiliated individual insurer and for each group of affiliated insurers.
      (c) If the total, determined in subparagraph (b), for any nonaffiliated individual insurer or for any group of affiliated insurers exceeds the maximum allowable assessable premium amount, the commissioner shall effect an adjustment.
         (1) The maximum allowable assessable premium amount shall be $200,000,000 for assessments based on premiums reported in the calendar 2000 annual statements or other financial statement submitted in compliance with RSA 415-E:11. The maximum allowable assessable premium amount shall increase each year based on the change in the Consumer Price Index, all items, as published by the United States Department of Labor Statistics or any successor or substitute index generally used to determine the purchasing power of the United States dollar and adopted by the commissioner through regulation. For calendar years after 2000, the ratio of:
            (A) the index for the period 2 years prior to the calendar year in question to
            (B) the index for 1998 shall be multiplied by $200,000,000 and rounded to the nearest million to obtain the maximum allowable assessable premium amount.

The commissioner shall never implement an adjustment to the maximum allowable assessable premium amount that would cause it to decrease from the prior year.

         (2) The commissioner shall adjust each insurer's assessable premium from that calculated in subparagraph (a) by multiplying the amount ascertained in subparagraph (a) by the ratio of the maximum allowable assessable premium amount ascertained in subparagraph (c)(1) to the greater of the premium amount ascertained in subparagraph (b), or the maximum allowable assessable premium amount ascertained in subparagraph (c)(1).
      (d) The commissioner shall total the adjusted amounts ascertained for all such insurers under subparagraph (c).
      (e) For each such insurer, the commissioner shall determine the percent that the amount ascertained for it under subparagraph (c) is of the total amount ascertained for all such insurers under subparagraph (d).
      (f) For each such insurer, the commissioner shall multiply the percent ascertained for it under subparagraph (e) by the amount indicated by paragraph V. The amount resulting shall be the administrative fee for such insurer, provided that the minimum administrative fee payable by any such insurer shall be $100.
   VII. At the close of each fiscal year, the commissioner shall review the department's actual expenditures against funds collected to determine what part of the fund balance can be treated as an offset to the commissioner's assessment for the subsequent year. To the extent that it is reasonably practicable, the commissioner shall apportion available offsets to insurers based on the insurers' relative contributions to the fund overage. The commissioner shall not be required to return previously collected assessments. Offsets shall only be used to reduce future assessment liabilities.
   VIII. The commissioner shall perform the calculations required by this section and notify each insurer of the insurer's assessment payable under this section as soon as practicable after July 1 of each year.
   IX. The commissioner shall be charged with the conservation of the assets of the fund. In furtherance of this purpose, the attorney general shall appoint a member of his or her staff to represent the fund in all proceedings brought to enforce payment of assessments as provided in paragraph VI.
   X. This section shall not apply to fraternal benefit societies or town mutual insurance companies.
   XI. Any insurer that does not pay amounts due under this section within 45 days of the billing date shall incur a late payment penalty equal to 10 percent of the amount assessed. In addition, the sum total of the assessment and penalty shall accrue with interest, from the 45th day until the date of payment, at a rate of 0.050 percent per day compounded daily.
   XII. The commissioner shall restrict the authority of any insurer, who does not pay amounts due under this section within 90 days of the billing date, to servicing existing in-force business only.
   XIII. For any insurer, who does not pay amounts due under this section within 180 days of the billing date, the commissioner may suspend or revoke, after notice and hearing, the certificate of authority to transact insurance in this state.
   XIV. The commissioner may adopt rules that provide for the administration of this section in accordance with state agency accounting principles and practices.

Source. 1981, 111:2. 1985, 225:2; 316:1, 2; 399:3, I. 1989, 186:1. 1991, 246:2. 2001, 52:1, eff. July 1, 2001.