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KATHARINE L. WADE
INSURA NCE CO MM ISSION ER
P.O. Box 816
HARTFORD , CT 06 142-08 16

March 29, 2016

Senator Joseph J. Crisco
Representative Robert W. Megna
Co-Chairs, Insurance and Real Estate Committee
Legislative Office Building, Room 2800
Hartford, Connecticut

Re: S.B. No. 159, An Act Concerning the Insurance Department's Market Conduct
Authority and Data Call Confidentiality
Dear Senator Crisco, Representative Megna, Senator Kelly, Representative Sampson, and Committee
Members:
The Connecticut Insurance Department (the " Department") is very committed to serving consumers in a
professional and timely manner by providing assistance and information to the public and to policy
makers, by regulating the insurance industry in a fair and efficient manner which promotes a competitive
and financially sound insurance market for consumers, and by enforcing the insurance laws to ensure that
consumers are treated fairly and are protected from unfair practices.
I write to you concerning SB 159 which was developed in consultation with the Governor's Office. This
legislation strikes the correct balance of giving the Department the authority to issue data calls to a
segment of the industry it regulates for the submission of specific commercial or financial information.
This allows the Department to appropriately administer and enforce the provisions of the insurance
statutes, while protecting the regulated entity from the harmful effects of having individually identifiable
information available to its business competitors pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Department has reviewed the comments of Demian Fontanella of the Office of Healthcare Advocate
in a March 17 letter to the Committee co-chairmen and ranking members concerning Section 2 of SB 159.
Mr. Fontanella contends that the legislation is overly broad and urges the removal of this section from the
bill by raising a host of concerns . Those concerns, however, reflect a lack of understanding of the
operative effect of this legislation and the apparent lack of due regard that government agencies must act
in a responsible and effective manner to protect the public interest. It is the balance regulators must strike
in order to not unnecessarily cause harm to persons and businesses that seek to be compliant with
government requests for information .
Mr. Fontanella takes issue with the lack of a definition of the term " data call." It is not clear to the
Department whether Mr. Fontanella researched the laws of other states . Had he done so, he would have
noted that it is a commonly understood term that is referenced in legislation without need offurther
definition. Mr. Fontanella simplified and failed to put in proper context the Department' s recent propertycasualty data call. Ln actuality, the Department requested very specific proprietary data to help the

Department determine statewide availability and affordability of homeowners' insurance, which was done
for regulatory purpose and to inform the public policy discussion.
Mr. Fontanella boldly asserts that this legislation could be used to "automatically" transform the public
information the Department receives and generates in its review of Form A mergers or insurance rates
into confidential non-public information. This is simply legally incorrect.

The Form A (merger) filing and rate filing information is legally required to be disclosed under
Conn. Gen. Stat. 1-21 O(b )(5)(B). This section makes clear that any commercial or financial
information collected by a state agency that is required by statute is required to be disclosed.
Form A filings and rate filings both contain commercial and financial information, but they are
required to be filed with the Department pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. 38a-130 and Conn. Gen.
Stat. 3 Sa-481 respectively. The Department posts the associated information on its internet
website for the public to view. It is important to note that Section 2 of raised SB 159 will not
jeopardize these public disclosures, which are protected under laws this Legislature has passed.
This provision of the law does not apply to the public hearings held in Form A proceedings.
Those are governed instead by Conn. Gen. Stat. 38a-132. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. 38a-132, the
commissioner must hold a public hearing in every application that is deemed complete. The
proposed statutory amendment would not apply in that instance.

Conn. Gen. Stat. 3 8a-16 is a statute that relates to the authority of the Commissioner to conduct
investigations and to hold hearings "in aid of any in vestigation" on any matter under Title 3 8a of
the General Statutes. SB 159 will not transform insurance regulatory proceedings conducted
und er other statutes within Title 3 8a into " investigations" held under Conn. Gen. Stat. 3 8a-l 6.
In addition, SB 159 does not operate to "exempt from disclosure" this public information nor
does it operate to transform regulatory proceedings specified by statute such as involving the
review of mergers, acquisitions and insurance rates into an " investigation" or a " hearing" in aid of
any investigation within the scope of Conn. Gen. Stat. 38a- I 6.

The Department is committed to providing consumers and public officials with as much information as
possible and will continue to do so in the future. For this reason, the Department respectfully requests
that Section 2 of SB 159 be amended consistent with its original wording to expressly provide for the
public disclosure of data that has been aggregated with data provided by other participants in a data call in
a format that does not identify any individual participant.
In Iight of the foregoing, I respectfully ask for your support of SB 159.

Katharine L. Wade
Insurance Commissioner

Cc: Colleen M. Murphy, Executive Director, Freedom of Information Commission