The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has issued guidance for property/casualty insurers in the state to continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in rate filings.
“Much has changed since the start of the pandemic, and there will be lasting impacts on insurance products, which must be accounted for in rate filings to ensure Pennsylvanians are not paying more than they need to for their insurance coverage,” said Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman in a department press release.
The notice specified the need for rate filings to account for telework, which the department said continues during the pandemic and is expected to transition to more permanent arrangements even after the pandemic is over. The notice added that insurers will also need to account for the negative impact on miles driven as workers are no longer commuting into workplaces.
Insurers, rating organizations and third-party filers were instructed in the notice to include within their rate filings a specific section describing their analysis and assessment of the impacts of the pandemic and how this has been accounted for in the filing. The filings should also include claim frequency statistics by month on both a Commonwealth and national basis, according to the notice.
The notice added that five years’ worth of claim frequency data should be provided when available in Excel and separated by coverage type.
For property/casualty insurance products that insurers, rating organizations and third-party filers believe have not been impacted by the pandemic, rate filings should include a specific section describing why they believe there has not been an impact and be prepared to provide the claim frequency statistics to support this assessment if requested.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department said it will continue to monitor the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and will alert insurers when these types of analyses are no longer needed for rate filing requests.
Source: The Pennsylvania Insurance Department
Topics Carriers Pennsylvania COVID-19
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