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STATE OF MAINE
The Board of Directors of the Dirigo Health Agency made its filing with the Superintendent in the above-captioned proceeding on August 12, 2008, identifying the Board’s determination of One Hundred Forty-nine Million Six Hundred Thousand Dollars ($149, 600,000) in aggregate measurable cost savings for the fourth assessment year. The Superintendent issues this Order setting the actual hearing date, ruling on applications for intervention, and establishing further procedures. ACTUAL HEARING DATE Consistent with the Notice of Pending Proceeding and Hearing issued on July 10, 2008, the Superintendent hereby sets the public hearing in this matter for September 9, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. in Room 209 of the Burton M. Cross Building, 111 Sewall Street, Augusta, Maine. INTERVENTION ORDER Timely applications for intervention were filed in this proceeding by the Maine Automobile Dealers Association Insurance Trust, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, the Maine Association of Health Plans, Anthem Health Plans of Maine, Inc., and Consumers for Affordable Health Care. Each of these persons were intervenor parties in the underlying proceeding before the Dirigo Board. No opposition was filed to any application for intervention. The Superintendent hereby grants intervention in this proceeding to the Maine Automobile Dealers Association Insurance Trust, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, the Maine Association of Health Plans, Anthem Health Plans of Maine, Inc., and Consumers for Affordable Health Care. As parties to this proceeding, each intervenor shall be bound by all procedural requirements set forth in Title 24-A of the Maine Revised Statutes, Bureau of Insurance Rule Ch. 350, and all procedural orders issued by the Superintendent during the course of this proceeding. PROCEDURAL ORDER Maine Insurance Rule Chapter 350(3)(A) provides that the Superintendent may, where good cause appears, deviate from the provisions of Rule 350 insofar as she finds compliance therewith to be impracticable, inexpedient, or unnecessary. The Superintendent anticipates that this proceeding will involve unique issues, involve multiple parties, and will require stringent procedures for the issuance of a decision by the statutory deadline of September 23, 2008. Thus, the Superintendent determines that good cause appears to set out in detail the procedures to be applied in this proceeding. This proceeding will be conducted pursuant to the Maine Administrative Procedure Act, 5 M.R.S.A. Chapter 375, subchapter 4, 24-A M.R.S.A. §§ 229 to 236, and the procedures set forth in this Order. Maine Insurance Rule Chapter 350 also shall apply to the extent not inconsistent with this Order. Unless and until otherwise ordered, the provisions of Insurance Rule Chapter 350, § 5 shall govern the computation of any period of time prescribed by the Superintendent in this proceeding. For purposes of complying with filing deadlines, the Superintendent will accept official documents filed by electronic mail, but will not accept any such documents filed by facsimile transmission. Unless otherwise ordered by the Superintendent, all documents due to be filed by a date certain must be filed no later than 3:00 p.m. of the due date. Filings made after that time will be considered filed late and will be date stamped as having been received the next day. I. SCHEDULE OF PROCEEDING The schedule of the proceeding is set forth below. All persons are advised that this schedule is subject to change and prospectively should verify the current schedule as necessary.
II. SERVICE OF DOCUMENTS A. Where to File All filings and other correspondence relating to this proceeding should be either hand delivered to the Superintendent, during business hours, at the offices of the Bureau of Insurance, 124 Northern Avenue, Gardiner, Maine, or mailed to the Superintendent at the following address:
B. Method of Filing All documents filed by parties in this proceeding must meet the following criteria: 1. Hard Copies: (a) Two (2) hard copies must be filed with the Superintendent of Insurance; (b) One (1) hard copy must be filed with the Superintendent’s consultant at the following address:
(c) One (1) hard copy must be filed with the Superintendent’s legal counsel at the following address:
and (d) One (1) hard copy must be served on all parties to the proceeding; provided, however, that any party may, by agreement with another party, choose to be served solely via e-mail in lieu of hard copy delivery. 2. Electronic Copies: One (1) identical electronic copy of the document must be filed with the Superintendent and her consultant and counsel via e-mail sent to the following addresses: C. Service on Other Parties A service list will be established and maintained by the Superintendent. Each party shall provide the Superintendent immediately with the name, address, telephone number, FAX number, and e-mail address of one person upon whom service for that party is to be made. Service on parties shall be made electronically, with hard copy promptly posted for mail delivery. If service is made on a party both electronically and by hard copy, the document shall be considered received on the earliest date of receipt and the time to respond shall be calculated using the date the document is first received. Unless otherwise ordered by the Superintendent, all documents due to be filed and served by a date certain must be delivered no later than 3:00 p.m. of the due date. The service of all other documents where there is no service or filing deadline also shall be made by 3 p.m. Unless otherwise ordered by the Superintendent, service after 3 p.m. will be considered as having been made on the following business day. Each party must include a certification of service on other parties as part of any filing or submission made to the Superintendent. Service on other parties shall be simultaneous with filing with the Superintendent (i.e., delivered to the party for receipt on the same day as delivery is made on the Superintendent). Neither the Superintendent nor Bureau of Insurance staff will be responsible for providing copies of filings or other documents to the service list. If a party fails to serve all other parties on the designated service list, the filing will not be accepted by the Superintendent until proof of service on all parties is provided. III. FORMAT OF FILING All documents created electronically by or on behalf of a party must be served and filed in a printable format which does not convert text to graphics and does not convert formulas to values, subject to the right to request an appropriate protective order if one or more formulas are bona fide trade secrets. Format shall either be the format in which the document was created, an equivalent Microsoft Office format, or PDF if the document is not a spreadsheet. Acceptable formats include filing an original Microsoft Office Word document or to use Adobe Acrobat or a third-party equivalent to create a PDF directly from the Word document, without scanning (thereby creating a non-imaged, non-converted text document). Scanning a paper document to create a PDF results in a “converted text” document (i.e., an imaged document), which is unacceptable for filing with the Superintendent. Non-substantive graphic content (i.e., logos and facsimile signatures) are discouraged if they materially increase the file size, especially if it adds more than 25 KB to the file size. All spreadsheets shall be filed in electronic operational form, in addition to the hard-copy reproductions (paper versions). The electronic files shall contain all the embedded data, formulas, assumptions, and underlying electronic workpapers. All documents filed by parties to the proceeding shall be appropriately captioned following the caption format at the top of the first page of this Order, specifically including the Docket Number assigned by the Superintendent to the proceeding, INS-08-900. All filings made by parties in this proceeding must include a table of contents only if more than one document is contained within the filing, or if one document contains multiple sections. In addition, all documents filed by parties must include a separate cover sheet that includes all of the information set forth below:
All documents filed with the Superintendent by parties to the proceeding must be paginated, to the extent practicable. IV. SUBMISSION OF CONFIDENTIAL AND/OR PRIVILEGED INFORMATION A. Submission All confidential or privileged documents or portions of documents for which a party seeks protection from public disclosure must be filed separately. Hard copy filings of documents under claim of confidentiality and/or privilege must be made with red covers. Electronic copy filings of documents must conspicuously identify in the e-mail subject line the claim of confidentiality and/or privilege. All pages of any documents for which confidentiality and/or privilege is asserted must be prominently labeled or stamped as confidential and/or privileged. All submissions properly identified in accordance with this paragraph will be maintained as confidential and/or privileged unless and until the Superintendent rules otherwise. B. Presumption of Public Access Under both the Maine Insurance Code and Maine’s Freedom of Access law, the Superintendent is required to disclose public records. See 24-A M.R.S.A. § 216(2); 1 M.R.S.A. §§ 401, 408(1). The presumption is that citizens have a right of free access to documents filed with the Superintendent. Thus, the public has a right of access to Bureau records unless it is demonstrated that such information meets one of the strictly construed exceptions to disclosure. See 1 M.R.S.A. § 402(3)(A)-(O). C. Memorandum in Support The party requesting confidentiality and/or privilege must provide the Superintendent with a memorandum of law in support of the request. Except with leave of the Superintendent, the memorandum in support must be submitted with the documents for which confidentiality and/or privilege is requested. The memorandum must clearly identify those documents, or portions of documents, for which confidentiality and/or privilege is requested, the reason for the request, and any supporting legal authority. Specifically, the memorandum of law shall include detailed legal analysis as to why the information is not a public record pursuant to the provisions of Maine’s Freedom of Access law, including identification of which statutory exception protects the information from being made publicly available. D. Challenges to Confidentiality Assertions If an assertion of confidentiality and/or privilege is challenged, the party claiming confidentiality and/or privilege will be notified and provided an opportunity to argue in favor of continued protection. E. Protective Order All information or documentation for which protection from public disclosure is provided by the Superintendent, and all parties to the proceeding, are subject to the terms of any protective order(s) that the Superintendent may issue. V. DISCOVERY; EVIDENCE As stated in the Superintendent’s July 10, 2008, Notice of Pending Proceeding and Hearing:
Hearing Notice, section IV(E). VI. MOTIONS Every request or motion for an order or ruling of any kind by the Superintendent shall be in writing, unless made on the record during a hearing to which the request or motion is related. Every request or motion should include or be accompanied by a clear statement of the support for the order or other action sought. The statement supporting the request or motion also should include any arguments with respect to policy or law that have a bearing on the request. Requests or motions and their supporting papers should be clearly labeled on the first page and in the caption with a title that includes “motion” or “request,” a short description of the action or order requested, and language in the caption sufficient to identify the matter to which the request or motion relates. If legal arguments are advanced, the supporting statement accompanying the motion shall include citations to all supporting authorities relied upon by the moving party. Any party opposing a request or motion shall file a statement in opposition to the motion or request within four (4) days after receipt of the motion, unless the Superintendent establishes some other period. The Superintendent may rule on any request or motion prior to the expiration of the deadline for filing statements in opposition. VII. COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE BUREAU Except as otherwise noted in this section, parties shall not communicate with respect to this proceeding with the Superintendent, Bureau Staff advising the Superintendent in this proceeding, or consultants retained by the Superintendent without notice and opportunity for all parties to be present. Parties may direct questions of a strictly ministerial nature to Vanessa J. Leon, Legal Secretary. Procedural queries should be directed only to Thomas Sturtevant, Assistant Attorney General and counsel to the Superintendent in this proceeding. The Superintendent has hired the consulting firm of Compass Health Analytics, Inc. (“Compass Health”) to assist her in this proceeding. Compass Health shall be deemed an agent of the Superintendent and the rules applicable to staff members set forth herein shall apply equally to them. VIII. INTERESTED PERSONS LIST & INTERNET POSTINGS The Superintendent is maintaining an interested persons list with respect to this proceeding. Persons on the interested persons list will receive copies of Notices of any Prehearing Conferences and Hearings with respect to this proceeding, but will not receive other pleadings and correspondence except as the Superintendent, in her discretion, may direct. Persons may direct requests to be placed on the interested persons list to Vanessa Leon, Legal Secretary, Maine Bureau of Insurance, 34 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0034. E-mail requests to be place on the interested persons list should be addressed to Vanessa.J.Leon@maine.gov. Subject to the Superintendent’s discretion, non-confidential documents relating to this proceeding will be made available to the public via the Bureau’s webpage at www.maine.gov/insurance. The Dirigo filing made on August 12, 2008, is a public record. Due to its voluminous nature, the Dirigo filing will not be posted to the internet but, instead, is made available for inspection at the Bureau of Insurance’s offices in Gardiner, Maine. IX. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH RULES AND ORDERS Should any party or participant violate or disregard any Bureau Rule or Order of the Superintendent, the Superintendent shall have and may exercise the option to impose an appropriate sanction without further notice, including but not limited to denial of any party or participant request; striking material from the record; or consideration and reduction or elimination of that party’s or participant’s participation in the proceeding. X. SPECIAL NEEDS The Department of Professional and Financial Regulation does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs, services, or activities. Individuals in need of auxiliary aid or with other special needs for effective communication with respect to any aspect of this proceeding are invited to make their needs and preference known to Vanessa J. Leon, tel. 207-624-8452, sufficiently in advance of the hearing so that appropriate arrangements may be made. 1 See Hearing Notice, section IV(E). 2 See Hearing Notice, section IV(B). 3 See Hearing Notice, section IV(C). 4 See Hearing Notice, section IV(C). 5 See Hearing Notice, section IV(C). Although the Notice provided 5 days for the filing of optional intervenor reply briefs, by this Order the Superintendent has modified and superseded that schedule as set forth herein. PER ORDER OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INSURANCE
Last Updated: June 24, 2009 |
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