§618. Confidentiality; prohibition on announcements, prohibition on use in ratemaking

A. All risk-based capital reports, to the extent the information is not set forth in a publicly available annual statement schedule and risk-based capital plans, including the results or report of any examination or analysis of an insurer performed pursuant to any corrective order issued by the department pursuant to examination or analysis, with respect to any domestic insurer or foreign insurer, which are filed with the department, constitute information that might be damaging to the insurer if made available to its competitors, and therefore shall be kept confidential by the department. The information shall not be made public or be subject to civil subpoena, other than by the department and then only for the purpose of enforcement actions taken by the department pursuant to this Subpart or any other provision of this Code.

B. The total adjusted capital of an insurer to any of its risk-based capital level shall be a regulatory tool which may indicate the need for possible corrective action with respect to the insurer and shall not be intended as a means to rank insurers. 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 any radio or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement, or statement containing an assertion, representation, or statement with regard to the risk-based capital levels of any insurer, or any component derived in the calculation by an insurer, agent, broker, or other person engaged in any manner in the insurance business may be misleading and prohibited. Except as otherwise required under the provisions of this Subpart, if any materially false statement about the total adjusted capital of an insurer or inappropriate comparison of any other amount of the risk-based capital level of an insurer is published in any written publication, the insurer, after due proof to the commissioner of insurance, may publish an announcement in any written publication solely to rebut the materially false statement.

C. The risk-based capital instructions, risk-based capital reports, adjusted risk-based capital reports, risk-based capital plans, and revised risk-based capital plans shall be intended solely for the use by the commissioner in monitoring the solvency of insurers. The need for possible corrective action with respect to insurers shall not be used by the commissioner for ratemaking or consideration or introduction for evidence in any rating procedure and shall not be used by the commissioner to calculate or derive any elements of an appropriate premium level or rate of return for any line of insurance which an insurer or any affiliate is authorized to write.

Acts 1995, No. 1203, §1, eff. June 29, 1995; Redesignated from R.S. 22:867 by Acts 2008, No. 415, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2009; Acts 2009, No. 503, §1.

NOTE: Former R.S. 22:618 redesignated as R.S. 22:857 by Acts 2008, No. 415, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2009.