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A.  No policy or subscriber agreement of a health insurance issuer, hereafter including a health maintenance organization, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state, nor shall any endorsement, rider, or application which becomes a part of any such policy, which may include a certificate, be used in connection therewith until a copy of the form and of the rates and of the classifications of risks pertaining thereto have been filed with the department. No policy, subscriber agreement, endorsement, rider, or application, hereinafter referred to as a policy or subscriber agreement, shall be used until the expiration of sixty days after the form has been filed unless the department gives its written approval prior thereto.  Written notification shall be provided to the health insurance issuer specifying the reasons a policy form or subscriber agreement does not comply with the provisions of this Subpart.  It shall be unlawful for any health insurance issuer to issue any form in this state not previously submitted to and approved by the department.  An aggrieved party affected by the department’s decision, act, or order in reference to a policy form or subscriber agreement may demand a hearing in accordance with Chapter 12 of this Title, La. Rev. Stat. 22:2191 et seq.

B.  After providing twenty days’ notice to the health insurance issuer, the department may withdraw its approval of any such policy form or subscriber agreement on any of the grounds stated in La. Rev. Stat. 22:862.  It shall be unlawful for the health insurance issuer to issue such policy form or subscriber agreement or use it in connection with any policy or subscriber agreement after the effective date of such withdrawal of approval.  An aggrieved party affected by the department’s decision, act, or order in reference to a policy form or subscriber agreement may demand a hearing in accordance with Chapter 12 of this Title, La. Rev. Stat. 22:2191 et seq.

C.  The department shall not disapprove or withdraw approval of any such policy form or subscriber agreement on the ground that its provisions do not comply with La. Rev. Stat. 22:975 or on the ground that it is not printed in uniform type if it shall be shown that the rights of the insured, the beneficiary, or the subscriber under the policy or subscriber agreement as a whole are not less favorable than the rights provided by La. Rev. Stat. 22:975 and that the provisions or type size used in the policy or subscriber agreement are required in the state, district, or territory of the United States in which the health insurance issuer is organized, anything in this Subpart to the contrary notwithstanding.

D. Policy forms and premium rates for major medical health and accident and dental policies, including but not limited to policies subject to the requirements of Title I of Public Law 111-148, shall be exempt from disclosure under La. Rev. Stat. 44:1 et seq., the Public Records Law, until the commencement of the open enrollment period of the policy year during which the forms and rates are to be utilized. A health insurance issuer, including a health maintenance organization, shall mark such filings as confidential or proprietary in order to utilize the exemption authorized in this Subsection. The exemption authorized in this Subsection shall not prevent the commissioner from publishing a summary or description of rate filings in the operation of an effective rate review program pursuant to Section 2794 of the Public Health Service Act.

E.  All references to rates in this Section shall be controlled by Subpart D of this Part, La. Rev. Stat. 22:1091 through 1099.

Acts 1958, No. 125; Redesignated from La. Rev. Stat. 22:211 by Acts 2008, No. 415, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2009; Acts 2009, No. 317, §1; Acts 2010, No. 188, §1; Acts 2010, No. 919, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2011; Acts 2014, No. 695, §1, eff. June 18, 2014; Acts 2014, No. 718, §1, eff. June 18, 2014.