I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The state Division of Insurance has secured a $226,000 federal consumer assistance grant to more closely track policyholder complaints and assist consumers who are seeking health insurance coverage.
That money comes on the heels of a $1 million federal grant to revamp the Division’s regulation of health insurance rates.
The new grant will be used to help consumers file complaints and to appeal insurance company decisions, track and analyze trends in those complaints, and to fund a full-time staff position to assist consumers who are seeking health insurance coverage, according to spokesman Gerald Garner and the Division’s grant application.
“I think it’s a very significant development,” state Sen. Dede Feldman said.
The grants will improve the Division’s attention to consumer protection, Feldman said. The earlier grant will help fund a new Consumer Protection Bureau at the Division and a public website detailing proposed insurance rate hikes, Feldman emphasized.
The grants are representative of a larger effort by the Division to reform itself, Feldman said.
Feldman is drafting legislation to strengthen the Public Regulation Commission (PRC)’s and Division’s regulation of insurance rates, she said. A draft of her bill should be available by mid-November and will likely allow Division analysts to consider insurers’ executive compensation and cash surpluses when considering rate hike approvals, Feldman said.
“Anything we can do through the Division of Insurance to assist consumers is a positive step forward,” Superintendent of Insurance John Franchini said. “This grant award allows us to implement new measures and to strengthen existing measures for improving our education efforts and ultimately empower consumers to make sound choices with regard to their health insurance coverage. We’re really excited about it.”
The grant was awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight.
“The Division of Insurance deserves a hand for securing this important grant that will ultimately benefit New Mexico’s insurance consumers,” PRC Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr., said Wednesday. “The staff is working diligently to ensure that the best information and services are available.”
Franchini inherited a beleagered Division that faces allegations of lax oversight of health insurance rates.
Shortly after Franchini took the helm, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) issued a scathing audit report slamming the Division on staff qualifications and poor oversight of industry.
Franchini initially failed to alert commissioners to the audit report’s findings — an “oversight,” he said — and subsequently worked to prevent its discussion at public meetings. The Independent published the audit report last month.
The NAIC placed the Division on probationary accreditation status, pending implementation of the Division’s corrective action plan. The Division has refused to disclose the action plan to the public, in response to public records requests by The Independent.
The Government Restructuring Task Force has drafted a constitutional amendment and companion legislation that would abolish the scandal-plagued PRC, which is the state’s most powerful regulatory agency.
But the proposed legislation would give regulated industries an “unusually blatant” role in reassigning regulatory jurisdictions to other executive-branch agencies, Commissioner Jason Marks warned.
The PRC regulates public water, electricity and gas utilities, insurance and telecommunications companies and motor carriers, including ambulance services. It also administers the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the New Mexico Firefighters Training Academy in Socorro, N.M., the state Pipeline Safety Bureau and the Corporations Bureau.
