(1) Transactions within a health carrier holding company system to which a health carrier subject to registration is a party are subject to the following standards:

     (a) The terms must be fair and reasonable;

     (b) Charges or fees for services performed must be fair and reasonable;

     (c) Expenses incurred and payment received must be allocated to the health carrier in conformity with customary statutory accounting practices consistently applied;

     (d) The books, accounts, and records of each party to all such transactions must be so maintained as to clearly and accurately disclose the nature and details of the transactions, including such accounting information as is necessary to support the reasonableness of the charges or fees to the respective parties; and

     (e) The health carrier's net worth after the transaction must exceed the health carrier's company action level risk-based capital. In addition, the commissioner may disapprove a transaction if the health carrier's risk-based capital net worth is less than the product of 2.5 and the health carrier's authorized control level risk-based capital and the commissioner reasonably believes that the health carrier's net worth is at risk of falling below its company action level risk-based capital due to anticipated future financial losses not reflected in the risk-based capital calculation. This subsection (1)(e) does not prohibit transactions that improve or help maintain the health carrier's net worth.

     (2) The following transactions, excepting those transactions which are subject to approval by the commissioner elsewhere within this title, involving a domestic health carrier and a person in its health carrier holding company system may not be entered into unless the health carrier has notified the commissioner in writing of its intention to enter into the transaction and the commissioner does not declare the notice to be incomplete at least thirty days before, or such shorter period as the commissioner may permit, and the commissioner has not disapproved it within that period. Unless the commissioner declares the notice to be incomplete and requests additional information, the notice is deemed complete thirty days after receipt of the notice by the commissioner. If the commissioner declares the notice to be incomplete, the thirty-day time period in which the notice is deemed complete shall be tolled until fifteen days after the receipt by the commissioner of the additional information:

     (a) Sales, purchases, exchanges, loans or extensions of credit, guarantees, or investments if the transactions are equal to or exceed the lesser of (i) two months of the health carrier's annualized claims and administrative costs, (ii) five percent of the health carrier's admitted assets, or (iii) twenty-five percent of net worth, as of the 31st day of the previous December;

     (b) Loans or extensions of credit to any person who is not an affiliate, if the health carrier makes the loans or extensions of credit with the agreement or understanding that the proceeds of the transactions, in whole or in substantial part, are to be used to make loans or extensions of credit to, to purchase assets of, or to make investments in, an affiliate of the health carrier making the loans or extensions of credit, if the transactions are equal to or exceed the lesser of (i) two months of the health carrier's annualized claims and administrative costs, (ii) three percent of the health carrier's admitted assets, or (iii) twenty-five percent of net worth, as of the 31st day of the previous December;

     (c) Reinsurance agreements or modifications to them in which the reinsurance premium or a change in the health carrier's liabilities equals or exceeds five percent of the health carrier's net worth, as of the 31st day of the previous December, including those agreements that may require as consideration the transfer of assets from a health carrier to a nonaffiliate, if an agreement or understanding exists between the health carrier and nonaffiliate that any portion of the assets will be transferred to one or more affiliates of the health carrier;

     (d) Management agreements, service contracts, and cost-sharing arrangements; and

     (e) Other acquisitions or dispositions of assets involving more than five percent of the health carrier's admitted assets, specified by rule, that the commissioner determines may adversely affect the interests of the health carrier's subscribers.

     (3) A domestic health carrier may not enter into transactions that are part of a plan or series of like transactions with persons within the health carrier holding company system if the aggregate amount of the transactions within a twelve-month period exceed the statutory threshold amount. If the commissioner determines that the separate transactions entered into over a twelve-month period exceed the statutory threshold amount, the commissioner may apply for an order as described in RCW 48.31C.080(1).

     (4) The commissioner, in reviewing transactions under subsection (2) of this section, shall consider whether the transactions comply with the standards set forth in subsection (1) of this section.

     (5) If a health carrier complies with the terms of a management agreement, service contract, or cost-sharing agreement that has not been disapproved by the commissioner under subsection (2) of this section, then the health carrier is not required to obtain additional approval from the commissioner for individual transactions conducted under the terms of the management agreement, service contract, or cost-sharing agreement. The commissioner, however, retains the authority to examine the individual transactions to determine their compliance with the terms of the management agreement, service contract, or cost-sharing agreement and subsection (1) of this section.

     (6) This section does not authorize or permit a transaction that, in the case of a health carrier not a member of the same health carrier holding company system, would be otherwise contrary to law.

[2001 c 179 § 5.]