Illinois-based insurer enters Missouri market

The company gained approval from the Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration to enter the market March 10, and its major medical and health policies were approved for sale on Dec. 8, according to Joe Amodeo, director of advertising and public relations for USL&H.

“The company has to be approved, but then really, to do anything, you have to have your products filed and then approved,” he said, noting that 90 percent of the company’s business comes from medical and health policies.

State approval

Emily Kampeter, public information administrator with DIFP, said approval for Missouri-based companies that want to sell insurance generally takes about 90 days.

For companies such as USL&H, which are based in other states, the process takes only 60 days.

“If they’re registered in another state, a lot of times (we) will call the state they’re domiciled in, if we have any questions regarding the paperwork,” she said, citing applications filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in streamlining expansion from another state.

Actual policy approval must come from DIFP’s life and health section Kampeter said, and is necessary “to make sure that what they’re giving to the public is compliant with Missouri insurance law.”

Regardless of where a company is based, Kampeter said looking at officers and directors is the first step to approving them to offer coverage in Missouri. Background checks are performed to make sure that there are no criminal history issues.

“The other thing that we do is look at financial statements and check to see if their capital and surplus are OK, and that they’ll be able to have a solvent and healthy business in the state of Missouri. Then we also request their marketing plans,” Kampeter said.

Kampeter said that as of the end of 2006, DIFP had licensed 1,825 insurance companies, and of those, 232 were based in Missouri.

‘An important step’

USL&H was founded in 1973, and is also licensed in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska. The company’s health plans include preferred provider organizations, health savings accounts and indemnity plans.

The qualified HSA plan, however, is the company’s cornerstone, accounting for more than half of the company’s new business policies after just two years on the market.

“Entering Missouri is an important step for our company,” USL&H President Samuel R. Weiss said in a news release. “With the recent downturn in employer-sponsored health care, affordable health insurance is in heavy demand across the state.”

USL&H sent out postcards in the fall to acquaint agents with the company and its plans, but Amodeo said no coverage has yet been written in Missouri.

“We’re really just getting started,” he said, noting that information about USL&H plans and policies is available at www.unitedsecuritylifeandhealth.com.

The company also offers ancillary insurance such as disability income, simple-issue life, and critical disease products. The disability income product already has been approved for sale in Missouri, while the life and critical disease products are expected to be filed for approval during the first quarter.

Amodeo said there are currently no plans to build a physical location in Missouri, but he said that could change as the company picks up business in the state.