OAR 836-042-0220: Filing Requirements and Procedural Rules

(1) Before issuing any policies to group members that are to be rated by the combined experience of the group: (a) The insurer must file the following with the Director for each group: (A) The name and nature of the organization to which employers in the group belong; (B) A copy of documentation forming the organization; (C) The number of employers in the organization; (D) The number of covered workers employed by employers that have signed consent-to-group-rating forms; (E) An explanation of how the grouping of employers is likely to improve accident prevention and claims handling and reduce expenses; (F) A specific description of how the combined experience of the group will be used for rating group members; and (G) The initial group anniversary rating date; and (b) The insurer must maintain a listing of employers in the organization that have signed consent-to-group-rating forms and make the listing available to the Director upon request. (2) If the combined experience of a group of employers is used for experience rating, the following standards govern a group established under this rule: (a) The supplemental modification factor shall be calculated 90 days in advance of the group anniversary rating date using the experience of employers that participated in the group during the experience rating base period. The experience to be combined is the experience of the individual employers for the policy year or years that they participated in the group plan. The employers participating in the group during the base period that also are participating at the time of the supplemental rating calculation must be at least 50 percent of the current participants. (b) A group must meet at least one of the following conditions at the time of the supplemental rating calculation: (A) Total annual standard premium prior to the supplemental modification of $250,000 or greater; or (B) At least 50 participating employers. (c) The insurer of an organization or another insurer may request approval from the Director under section (1) of this rule to form a new group that will be experience-rated if the organization is composed of a group of employers that satisfies all requirements of ORS 737.316, if the employers are participants in an existing group that is experience-rated based on the combined experience of participants in the existing group and if the employers have signed consent to group rating forms for the formation of a new group. Formation of a group under this subsection is subject to the requirements of subsection (e) of this section. (d) An insurer may request approval from the Director under section (1) of this rule to form a new group that will be experience-rated if the organization to which the members of the new group belong is composed of a group of employers that satisfies all requirements of ORS 737.316, if the organization has been in existence for one or more years, if more than 50 percent of the members have been members of the organization for one or more years, and if the employers have signed forms giving consent to group rating for the formation of a new group. Formation of a group under this subsection is subject to the requirements of subsection (e) of this section. (e) The requirements for formation of a new group as provided in subsection (c) or (d) of this section include the following: (A) The group experience rating supplemental modification factors shall be calculated as follows: (i) The supplemental modification factor that applies on the new group's initial anniversary rating date shall use all the experience during the experience rating base period of each employer who has signed a consent to group rating form for the formation of the new group. (ii) The supplemental modification factor that applies on the new group's second anniversary rating date shall use all the experience during the experience rating base period of each employer who has signed a consent to group rating form for the formation of the new group and each employer who began participating in the group effective prior to the time of the second supplemental modification factor calculation. (iii) The supplemental modification factors that apply on the new group's third and fourth anniversary rating dates shall use all the experience during the experience rating base period of the employers participating in the group at the time of the supplemental modification factor calculation and the experience for the policy years during the experience rating base period that each employer participated in the new group for those employers who previously participated in the group but are not participants at the time of the calculation. (B) The supplemental modification factor shall be calculated 90 days in advance of the group anniversary rating date, and for the second and subsequent supplemental rating calculations the employers participating in the group during the base period which also are participating at the time of the supplemental rating calculation must be at least 50 percent of the current participants. (C) Notwithstanding paragraphs (A) and (B) of this subsection, for a new group formed in accordance with subsection (c) or (d) of this section, the supplemental modification factors effective on the new group's initial anniversary rating date and on the new group's second anniversary rating date shall not be less than the simple average of the current supplemental modification factors for all approved experience rating groups as verified by the licensed rating organization during the previous four calendar quarters. (f) From one group rating anniversary to the next, a supplemental experience modification factor for a group shall not increase by more than the greater of 0.01 or 50 percent of the difference between the factor and 1.00, or decrease by more than the greater of 0.05 or 50 percent of the difference between the factor and 1.00. This limitation does not apply if the supplemental modification factor calculated for a group before this limitation is 1.00 or greater for three consecutive group rating anniversaries or if supplemental experience rating factors are not applied to a group for a period of one or more years. (3) If the combined experience of a group of employers is used for premium discounting, the discount must be determined from the actual premium of all participating employers. (4) The effective date of a proposal by an insurer to combine the experience of a group of employers shall be the date specified in the filing required under section (1) of this rule, but not sooner than 30 days after the filing is received by the Director. The Director may approve an earlier effective date, upon written request by the insurer, but the date shall not precede the date the filing was received. If, within the 30-day period, the Director finds the proposal does not meet the standards and requirements of ORS Chapter 737, the Director shall notify the insurer that the proposal has been disapproved, stating the basis for such action, and the proposal shall not become effective. If, following the 30-day period, the Director finds the grouping proposal does not satisfy the requirements and standards of ORS Chapter 737, the Director may proceed according to 737.336(2), 737.215, and 737.045 to disapprove the group rating. (5) Forty-five days before each group anniversary rating date after the initial effective date: (a) The insurer must file with the Director for review according to the preceding paragraph the following information for each grouping of employers: (A) The number of employers in the organization; (B) The number of covered workers employed by employers participating in the group; and (C) A specific description of how the combined experience of the group will be used for rating group members; and (b) The insurer must maintain a listing of employers participating in the group and make the list available to the Director upon request.