(1) The general assembly finds and determines that consumers deserve to know the quality and cost of their health care insurance. Health care insurance transparency provides consumers with the information necessary, and the incentive, to choose health plans based on cost and quality. The general assembly further finds that providing reliable cost and quality information about health care insurance empowers consumer choice and that consumer choice creates incentives at all levels and motivates the entire system to provide better care and benefits for less money. Therefore it is the intent of the general assembly to make information regarding the costs of health care insurance readily available to consumers through the division of insurance.
(2) The commissioner shall implement and maintain a consumer guide on the division of insurance website that is easily accessible and available to consumers regarding each carrier authorized to do business in this state. The website shall:
Be derived from the information that each carrier is required to file with the division,except for records that are not open to public inspection pursuant to part 2 of article 72 of title 24, C.R.S.;
Include such information as the commissioner determines, in his or her discretionand after soliciting input from interested parties, to be useful to consumers and purchasers of health care insurance; except that records that are not open to public inspection pursuant to part 2 of article 72 of title 24, C.R.S., shall not be included; and
Include a link to the division's complaint form for use by consumers to file a complaint against a carrier and a link to the division's complaint index so that consumers may access information regarding complaints against carriers.
The commissioner is authorized to include additional health plan and quality information on the website from state or nationally recognized organizations that measure performance of health benefit plans.
The commissioner shall consider alternative methods of making the consumer guideaccessible to consumers who do not have internet access.
(a) An insurance producer licensed pursuant to part 4 of article 2 of this title 10 who solicits or negotiates an application for health care insurance on behalf of a carrier shall disclose to the person purchasing the plan that the insurance producer will receive a commission from the carrier. The insurance producer shall provide the consumer with the standard compensation schedule for the product being sold. Any change to the insurance producer's compensation from the initial disclosure to the time of purchase shall be disclosed by the insurance producer to the purchaser at or before the time of sale.
(b) An insurance producer may charge a client a fee for advising the client on the selection of an individual health benefit plan only if the producer:
Will not receive a commission from the insurer offering the individual health benefitplan selected by the client; and
Provides a written disclosure to the client if the producer will charge a fee for theservice.
(c) The commissioner shall promulgate reasonable rules that are necessary or proper for implementing and administering this subsection (5). The rules shall include a prohibition on an insurance producer charging a fee to assist a client to enroll in medicaid, as defined in section 10-22-103 (8), or the children's basic health plan, as defined in section 25.5-8-103 (2).
Source: L. 2008: Entire section added, p. 2067, § 1, effective January 1, 2009. L. 2018: (5) amended, (SB 18-136), ch. 118, p. 817, § 1, effective August 8.