Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5827 – Confidentiality; prohibition on announcements, prohibition on use in …
(a) All RBC reports (to the extent the information is not required to be set forth in a publicly available annual statement schedule) and RBC plans (including the results or report of any examination or analysis of a health organization performed pursuant to this statute and any corrective order issued by the Commissioner pursuant to examination or analysis) with respect to a domestic health organization or foreign health organization that are in the possession or control of the Department of Insurance shall be confidential by law and privileged, shall not be subject to this State‘s Freedom of Information Act, § 10001 et seq. of Title 29, shall not be subject to subpoena, and shall not be subject to discovery or admissible in evidence in any private civil action. However, the Commissioner is authorized to use the documents, materials or other information in the furtherance of any regulatory or legal action brought as a part of the Commissioner’s official duties.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5827
- Corrective order: means an order issued by the Commissioner specifying corrective actions which the Commissioner has determined are required. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5801
- Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
- domestic health organization: means a health organization domiciled in this State. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5820
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- foreign health organization: means a health organization that is licensed to do business in this State under this title but is not domiciled in this State. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5820
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- health organization: means a health maintenance organization, limited health service organization, health service corporation, dental or vision plan, hospital, medical and dental indemnity or service corporation or other managed care organization licensed under this title. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5820
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- NAIC: means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5801
- RBC instructions: means the RBC report including risk-based capital instructions adopted by the NAIC; as such, RBC instructions may be amended by the NAIC from time to time in accordance with the procedures adopted by the NAIC. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5801
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- subsidiaries: shall include , in addition to those such corporations where the insurer owns a majority of their stock, those corporations formed or acquired by an insurer where it owns less than a majority of such corporation's voting stock due to the laws of a foreign national which require the insurer to own less than a majority of the voting stock of such subsidiary insurance corporation if it is to operate in that nation. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 1313
- Testify: Answer questions in court.
- Total adjusted capital: means the sum of:
(b) Neither the Commissioner nor any person who received documents, materials or other information while acting under the authority of the Commissioner shall be permitted or required to testify in any private civil action concerning any confidential documents, materials or information subject to subsection (a) of this section.
(c) In order to assist in the performance of the Commissioner’s duties, the Commissioner:
(1) May share documents, materials or other information, including the confidential and privileged documents, materials or information subject to subsection (a) of this section, with other state, federal and international regulatory agencies, with the NAIC and its affiliates and subsidiaries, and with state, federal and international law-enforcement authorities, provided that the recipient agrees to maintain the confidentiality and privileged status of the document, material or other information;
(2) May receive documents, materials or information, including otherwise confidential and privileged documents, materials or information, from the NAIC and its affiliates and subsidiaries, and from regulatory and law-enforcement officials of other foreign or domestic jurisdictions, and shall maintain as confidential or privileged any document, material or information received with notice or the understanding that it is confidential or privileged under the laws of the jurisdiction that is the source of the document, material or information; and
(3) May enter into agreements governing sharing and use of information consistent with this subsection.
(d) No waiver of any applicable privilege or claim of confidentiality in the documents, materials or information shall occur as a result of disclosure to the Commissioner under this section or as a result of sharing as authorized in paragraph (c)(3) of this section.
(e) It is the judgment of the General Assembly that the comparison of a health organization’s total adjusted capital to any of its RBC levels is a regulatory tool which may indicate the need for corrective action with respect to the health organization, and is not intended as a means to rank health organizations generally. Therefore, except as otherwise required under the provisions of this subchapter II, the making, publishing, disseminating, circulating or placing before the public, or causing, directly or indirectly to be made, published, disseminated, circulated or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, or in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter or poster, or over a radio or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement or statement containing an assertion, representation or statement with regard to the RBC levels of any health organization, or of any component derived in the calculation, by any health organization, agent, broker or other person engaged in any manner in the insurance business would be misleading and is therefore prohibited; provided, however, that if any materially false statement with respect to the comparison regarding a health organization’s total adjusted capital to its RBC levels (or any of them) or an inappropriate comparison of any other amount to the health organizations’ RBC levels is published in any written publication and the health organization is able to demonstrate to the Commissioner with substantial proof the falsity of the statement, or the inappropriateness, as the case may be, then the health organization may publish an announcement in a written publication if the sole purpose of the announcement is to rebut the materially false statement.
(f) It is the further judgment of the General Assembly that the RBC instructions, RBC reports, adjusted RBC reports, RBC plans and revised RBC plans are intended solely for use by the Commissioner in monitoring the solvency of health organizations and the need for possible corrective action with respect to health organizations and shall not be used by the Commissioner for ratemaking nor considered or introduced as evidence in any rate proceeding nor used by the Commissioner to calculate or derive any elements of an appropriate premium level or rate of return for any line of insurance that a health organization or any affiliate is authorized to write.