All companies licensed to write life, credit life, annuity, and accident and health contracts in Mississippi have the option of electing the following procedure for the review and approval of each form and/or rate submitted:
All companies will continue to make their form and rate filings with the Mississippi Department of Insurance.
At the time of filing, a company may elect to use the expedited filing procedure by completing the Expedited Review Filing Election Form, attached hereto as Exhibit "A".
Companies that elect to use the expedited filing procedure shall continue to send the form and rate filing to the Department. The Department will forward the form and rate filing to the actuary. Companies shall not send their form and rate filings to the actuary.
If a company elects this option, they shall include payment for each form and/or rate per the actuarial fee schedule (see subparagraph D. below), any applicable statutory fees and written notification that they are electing the expedited approval process.
The actuarial fees will be represented in a fee schedule, prepared and agreed upon by the actuary, itemizing a flat fee for each type of form or rate. Said fee schedule will be subject to semi-annual review and revision. Each company will be provided with a copy of said fee schedule and therefore will be deemed informed of the flat fee assigned to each type of form or rate. The flat fee assigned to each form or rate applies to its corresponding form or rate only, and is not affected by the actual number of filings made. Please note that the fees represented in the fee schedule reflect the initial review only. Follow-up filings requiring substantial in-depth review or numerous revisions will require an additional fee equal to 50% of the initial filing fee in order to maintain review of the filing on the expedited track. Prompt revisions by the filer in response to basic objections will avoid the necessity of this additional fee. The Mississippi Department of Insurance shall determine what filings necessitate this additional fee. The initial fee schedule is attached hereto as Exhibit "B".
If a company elects to use the expedited filing procedure, the following payments shall be made in the expressed manner:
All companies electing to exercise this option will receive objections, approval or disapproval of each form submitted within five (5) business days of receipt by the actuary.
Once a week, the Mississippi Department of Insurance shall forward all filings, marked for expedited approval, to the actuary for review. The five (5) business day time period for action on a filing does not begin to accrue until the actuary physically receives each individual form and/or rate and the applicable expedited review fee. Please note that no rates or forms will be forwarded to the actuary until all statutory fees have been received by the Mississippi Department of Insurance, and no action will be taken by the actuary until all applicable funds said actuary for review of each individual form and/or rate filing have been received by the Actuarial Resources Corporation of Georgia.
19 Miss. Code. R. 1-38.04