How do Insurance Companies File their Rates with the Government?
SERFF stands for the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing. SERFF is an electronic web-based system which allows insurance companies to send form filings to state departments of insurance. It also allows state regulators to instantly comment and approve or deny insurance industry rates and form filings made by insurance companies. It is a cost effective way of controlling form filings between insurance companies themselves and state regulators. Sort of like going from Point A to Point B with no middle man to clog things up.
The original ideals of this system started developing in the early 90’s in and around the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) as a way to increase efficiency and reduce the time and cost associated with insurance rate and form filings that most states require of insurance carriers. Over the past seven years, the SERFF system’s usage has grown over two-hundred times the usage level it was at when it first started. All fifty states as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and over 3,000 insurance companies are a part of the SERFF system. Georgia, Iowa, Washington D.C., Alabama, Minnesota, Colorado, South Dakota, Utah, Rhode Island, Delaware, New Hampshire, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, West Virginia, New Jersey, Washington, Vermont, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Maine, Ohio, and Maryland accept SERFF as their ONLY way to submit most rate and form filings. States like Iowa, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Minnesota, South Dakota, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Vermont, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Maine not only require that all insurance rate and form filing submissions be through the SERFF system but also be paid by EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer). States accept property and casualty insurance filings, life insurance filings, and health insurance filings through the SERFF system. Everyone who works in the SERFF system must be licensed to do so. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides up-to-date filing requirements when needed. Much more information can be found at the SERFF website.
January 15, 2010, Posted by Rainy Day Mitch