Sec. 612.

(1) Upon receipt of a rate filing under section 610, the commissioner immediately shall notify each person who has requested in writing notice of those filings within the previous 2 years, specifying the nature and extent of the proposed rate revision and identifying the location, time, and place where the copy of the rate filing described in section 610(7) shall be open to public inspection and copying. The notice shall also state that if the person has standing, the person shall have, upon making a written request for a hearing within 60 days after receiving notice of the rate filing, an opportunity for an evidentiary hearing under section 613 to determine whether the proposed rates meet the requirements of this act. The request shall identify the issues which the requesting party asserts are involved, what portion of the rate filing is requested to be heard, and how the party has standing. The corporation shall place advertisements giving notice, containing the information specified above, in at least 1 newspaper which serves each geographic area in which significant numbers of subscribers reside.

(2) The commissioner may charge a fee for providing, pursuant to subsection (1), a copy of the rate filing described in section 610(7). The commissioner may charge a fee for providing a copy of the entire filing to a person whose request for a hearing has been granted by the commissioner pursuant to section 613. The fee shall be limited to actual mailing costs and to the actual incremental cost of duplication, including labor and the cost of deletion and separation of information as provided in section 14 of Act No. 442 of the Public Acts of 1976, being section 15.244 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. Copies of the filing may be provided free of charge or at a reduced charge if the commissioner determines that a waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest because the furnishing of a copy of the filing will primarily benefit the general public. In calculating the costs under this subsection, the commissioner shall not attribute more than the hourly wage of the lowest paid, full-time clerical employee of the insurance bureau to the cost of labor incurred in duplication and mailing and to the cost of separation and deletion. The commissioner shall use the most economical means available to provide copies of a rate filing.

History: 1980, Act 350, Eff. Apr. 3, 1981 Popular Name: Blue Cross-Blue ShieldPopular Name: Act 350