Insurance Department defends actuarial review process as senators press for more tools to lower auto premiums

Louisiana Department of Insurance officials described the state's rate-review process to the Senate Insurance Committee, saying actuaries at the department use nationally accepted standards to evaluate insurer filings and that outright disapprovals for actuarial reasons are rare. At the same hearing, senators and consumer advocates pushed for broader approaches to reduce Louisiana's expensive auto premiums, including legal reforms, greater transparency and non-insurance interventions such as improved street design.

"The commissioner does have the legal authority to deny rates in a competitive market when they're unfairly discriminatory," said Claire Lemoine, deputy general counsel to the insurance commissioner, responding directly to testimony given earlier in a related committee hearing. Lemoine told the committee that the department can and does review profit provisions and other actuarial assumptions under Title 22 when determining whether a filed rate is "actuarially justified."

Nicole Torblett, the department's chief actuary, walked the committee through the rate-filing process and the actuarial review. Torblett said the department reviews more than 800 rate filings a year and that the majority of…