Senate Bill No. 434
(By Senator Minard )
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[Introduced March 4, 2009;
referred to the Committee on Banking and Insurance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-8a, relating
to training of insurance producers selling long-term care
products; setting minimum standards for long-term care
training; and mandating that certain records be retained by
companies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-8a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 12. INSURANCE PRODUCERS AND SOLICITORS.
§33-12-8a. Producer training for long-term care products; record
retention requirements.
(a) (1) No individual may sell, solicit or negotiate long-term
care insurance unless he or she is licensed as a producer for accident and sickness insurance in accordance with the provisions
of this article and has completed a one-time training course that
meets the requirements of subsection (b) of this section
:
Provided, That a producer selling, soliciting or negotiating
long-term care insurance on July 1, 2009 is permitted to continue
such activities and must complete the one-time training course
prior to July 1, 2010.
(2) In addition to the one-time training course required in
subdivision (1) of this subsection, every producer who sells,
solicits or negotiates long-term care insurance shall complete
ongoing training that meets the requirements of subsection (b) of
this section.
(b) (1) The one-time training shall be no less than eight
hours.
(2) Beginning July 1, 2010, the ongoing training required by
subsection (a) of this section shall be no less than four hours in
each mandatory continuing education biennium subsequent to that in
which the one-time training was completed.
(3) The training required by this section shall consist of
topics related to long-term care insurance, long-term care services
and, if applicable, qualified state long-term care insurance
partnership programs, including, but not limited to, state and
federal regulations and requirements and the relationship between
qualified state long-term care insurance partnership programs and
other public and private coverage of long-term care services, including Medicaid; available long-term services and providers;
changes or improvements in long-term care services or providers;
alternatives to the purchase of private long-term care insurance;
the effect of inflation on benefits and the importance of inflation
protection; and consumer suitability standards and guidelines
:
Provided, That the training required by this section may not
include training that is insurer or company product-specific or
that includes any sales or marketing information, materials or
training, other than those required by state or federal law.
(4) The training required by this section may be approved for
continuing education credit by the board of Insurance Agent
Education in the manner as set forth in section eight of this
article.
(c) An insurer subject to this chapter shall:
(1) Verify that each producer appointed to sell its long-term
care products is compliant with this section before the producer is
permitted to sell, solicit or negotiate such products; and
(2) Maintain records supporting the verification for five
years and make the records available to the commissioner upon
request.
(d) If this state participates in the federal Long-Term Care
Partnership Program established under the Deficit Reduction Act of
2005, Pub. L. 109-171:
(1) All training required by this section must be approved by
the commissioner; and
(2) Any insurer subject to this chapter shall maintain records
with respect to the training of its appointed producers that will
allow the commissioner to provide assurances to the state Medicaid
agency that producers have received the training required by this
section and that completion of such training is sufficient to
demonstrate that the producer understands partnership policies and
their relationship to public and private coverage of long-term
care, including Medicaid, in this state.
(e) A nonresident individual producer's satisfaction of
another state's training requirements is satisfaction of this
section if the commissioner determines that the other states'
requirements are substantially equivalent to those contained in
this section.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate training for
insurance producers (agents) who sell long-term care policies. It
would also add record retention requirements for companies selling
such products.
This is a new section; therefore, underscoring and
strike-throughs have been omitted.)