Q&A: Dale Finke, director, Missouri Department of Insurance - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The department exists to see that the publiv gets what they paidfor -- adequate financially strong insurance companies -- and we're goingh to continue every day to work on those things. We expect an environment of cooperation and mutual How has the environment change for independent insurance agents wanting to opensmalkl offices? It's probably a good opportunity for an office to starr up. The insurance business is traditionallyuin cycles.
The market has definitelyy turnedsoft again, so the insurance companiees are looking for opportunities to distribute their productx through agents, and it's probablt a good time in the environment for independent agencies to How will tort reform legislationh affect the insurance industry? it's difficult to predictf exactly how it's going to be. But when you considerr that claims drive up cost and costw have to be translatedinto premiums, the reforme are going to lower costw and thereby lower premiums. But whethet it happens immediately remains to be What do you think can be done to stop the recenr flow of lawsuits against insurers by physicians andspecialtyu hospitals?
Well, we've seen a couple of two or three. That's hardly a flow of But we regard the allegations in those lawsuitwsvery seriously, and we'rwe going to continue to monitor these as well as othefr complaints in general to determine whers it would be best to concentrate the resources of the Additionally, we're going to continues to do market conducr examinations on a regular basis and, as a part of thosse examinations, audit insurance companyt procedures in paying claims as they We're not taking the allegations lightly. They're very serious. What do you thinkl is the primary cause ofthese allegations?
They aris out of contractual obligations between the insurance carrier and the doctors, and the primary causse is probably because there's a differencer of opinion on how to handle the issues, how to resolve the Whether or not the class action is the right way to handle it or not is not for me to say, but there'sa a dispute on the amount of payments that the doctorx think is owed to them. ... It'ss a financial issue, and it's probablyt an issue of contract between the insurance carrierse andthe doctors. It has to do with capitatio and the rateof reimbursement. It's probablyh going to go on, and we're going to monitor it.
I'm here to see that the insurance companies paywhat they've agree to pay. What do you thin should be done to resolve the disputs over the regulation ofvariable annuities? I don'tf think it's really a dispute. Our office did intervens in theWaddell & Reed (Financial Inc.) The attempt was to provider some clarity to the current law. We didn'tt want the judge in any manner to create a situationb where our department has different standard s of professional conduct thanthe (secretary of Securities Division. We're goin to see increased cooperation and coordination with the MissouriSecuritiezs Division.
The industry must be regulatexd by both the Department of Insurance and the Securities Division having a part in the regulation ofvariabld annuities. I really don't see it as a dispute. We intervene d to bring some clarity tothe situation. What other issues is the insuranceindustry facing? The department mainluy is involved in the regulation of the insurance industry and examiningf the conduct of the insurance industry througnh our market conduct exams, so the issues are really how to do more in the area of marketg conduct investigations and financial structures.
The issue is how the department does more of thesew things for the benefit of the policyholdersx withless resources, less dollars, less