FAQ

FAQ - Data Reporting

The following are Data Reporting questions and answers pertaining to the reporting requirements set forth in the Massachusetts Statistical Plans.

Questions:


If my user-ID for a secure application becomes disabled, what should I do?

What are the thresholds for the reporting of detailed statistical data?

What are the thresholds for being deemed a “low volume” company?

What expenses are reportable as allocated expense?

How can CAR assist you with identifying and correcting reporting problems?

What is a Company Reporting Profile and its value to member companies?

How do I obtain reimbursement for a loss after it has been written-off?

How do I obtain reimbursement for an older year loss that can no longer be statistically reported?

What are the deadlines for cession data?

What is a LEX error and what are the tolerances?

What are the due dates for statistical shipments?

How should Claim Identification Numbers be assigned?

What should a company report in a field that is not required to be reported statistically?

What is an Exposure?

Answers:


If my user-ID for a secure application becomes disabled, what should I do?

If your Telecommunications or website user-ID becomes disabled, you should contact your company’s designated CAR Security Administrator. The Security Administrator will then contact your company’s Data Analyst at CAR, who will work with the Security Administrator to re-activate your user-ID. Your Security Administrator will then contact you when the problem has been resolved.

What are the thresholds for the reporting of detailed statistical data?

The private passenger reporting thresholds are $100,000 in written premium and $50,000 in paid losses. The Commercial reporting thresholds are $50,000 in written premium and $25,000 in paid losses.

CAR utilizes the Statutory Page 14 of the Annual Statement to determine when a company has exceeded the reporting thresholds. Once identified, a company has until the December shipment of the second following year to report detailed statistical data to CAR, or become eligible for penalties.

What are the thresholds for being deemed a “low volume” company?

A company that has written less than $500,000 in premium and $500,000 in paid losses for reportable coverages during the prior calendar year is referred to as a low volume company. A low volume company may request the option of reporting data to CAR on a quarterly, rather than monthly, basis. Penalties on statistical submissions for low volume companies are capped at $1,000 per submission.

What expenses are reportable as allocated expense?

Allocated expenses are loss adjustment expenses incurred by a Servicing Carrier in the settlement of a claim that can be directly allocated to that claim. The following are reportable allocated expenses:

  • Accident reconstruction services
  • Arbitration
  • Autopsy
  • Copies of documents
  • Court
  • Examinations under oath
  • Expert medical or other evidence
  • External attorney fees for claims in suit
  • Forensic analysis of motor vehicles
  • House Counsel fees for claims in suit
  • Independent medical examinations
  • Laboratory and x-ray
  • Motor vehicle registration search fees
  • Preferred provider networks/organization expenses allocated to a specific claim
  • Property appraisals (excluding motor vehicles)
  • Public records, police reports, and fire reports (to the limit provided for by law)
  • Special investigation of a claimant’s background (including asset and credit reports)
  • Stenographer
  • Witnesses and summonses

For further information, please consult the CAR Manual of Administrative Procedures, Chapter IV, pages E:3-4, or the Massachusetts Private Passenger and Commercial Statistical Plans, Part III, Section B.

NOTE: This does not follow the list of allocated expenses that is proscribed by the NAIC.

How can CAR assist you with identifying and correcting reporting problems?

If you know you have a reporting problem, there are a number of ways in which CAR can assist you. First, we can provide training on our data quality programs, including how they work, how you can correct errors, and how you can prevent errors from occurring. Second, we can "query" our databases to provide you with information specific to your problems. The output from our queries can then be used to correct your reporting problems.

If you are unsure about the quality of your data reporting, the Company Reporting Profile can provide you with a summary of how well you are performing. This profile can then help you to identify known or potential problem areas.

What is a Company Reporting Profile and its value to member companies?

The Company Reporting Profile is a tool that CAR and its Advisory Committees developed to assist companies in improving the quality of data reporting in ways that lead to avoidance of costly penalties. The profiles are run on a semi-annual basis for Servicing Carriers and provide companies with a rating of how well the company reported its statistical, cession, and accounting data. (Non-Servicing Carriers receive their profiles on an annual basis, and they are only evaluated in the statistical area.)

There are four major sections containing numerous items, each of which is evaluated and scored individually. In addition to receiving its own profile, each company is also provided with an industry exhibit displaying the section and final scores for all companies being evaluated as well as industry averages and industry standards. This exhibit allows every company to compare its results to the industry average or industry standard.

Items which score below the industry average or standard indicate areas in which a company should be reviewing its own procedures and/or processes for improvement. Furthermore, any item indicating a penalty should be a "red flag" for a company.

How do I obtain reimbursement for a loss after it has been written-off?

If, after reviewing a loss write-off, a company can determine that a loss record was valid, the company can obtain reimbursement via a Write-Off Correction Shipment. Typically, loss records can be validated because the original loss record was "miscoded" (for example, the policy effective year, policy number, or accident date was incorrectly reported on the original record). Errors caused by incorrect, late, or missing cession or premium records generally cannot be validated after a loss write-off.

Rather than creating offset/reenter records for the original loss records, a company should create new loss records with the corrected information. These records should be submitted to CAR in a separate submission, called a Write-Off Correction Shipment. "WOC" shipments may only be submitted during the accounting months of February, May, August, and November. The company must notify CAR, in advance, that this shipment is being submitted. The shipment should be accompanied with documentation referencing the original record that was written-off, as well as the corrected record and how that record was corrected. CAR will review that information in order to verify that the new records are valid and will not cause any new errors. If the shipment passes CAR’s verification, then it will be processed under the normal procedures.

How do I obtain reimbursement for an older year loss that can no longer be statistically reported?

If a company settles a claim for an older policy effective year for which claims can no longer be statistically reported, the company should contact CAR’s Data Operations Department to request reimbursement through a manual bulk adjustment. CAR will verify that the policy was validly ceded and that the loss should be reimbursed by CAR prior to processing the bulk adjustment. In order for CAR to verify proper cession and coverage, the company will need to provide either the S040 – Rejected Records Report with the specific loss record or other documentation containing the policy number, effective year, class code, type of loss, policy limits, accident date, and loss amount. In some cases, CAR may request the claims file for review prior to authorizing any payment.

What are the deadlines for cession data?

In order to receive coverage from CAR, the cession record for new business policies (TX1) must be received at CAR within 23 calendar days subsequent to the policy effective date.

In order to receive coverage from CAR, the cession record for renewal policies (TX2) must be received at CAR on or before the policy effective date.

If a cession record is received after one of these deadlines, then CAR coverage begins on the date that the cession is received at CAR (rather than the policy effective date). If the premium data is received before the cession record, then CAR coverage will begin with the receipt date of the premium data.

What is a LEX error and what are the tolerances?

Limits in Excess (LEX) records are statistical records with an extremely high exposure, premium or loss dollar amount. Companies are requested to review these records to ensure that they are accurate, and if they are not, correct the records. The tolerances are as follows:

  Private Passenger Commercial
Exposure -120 to +120 -10,000 to +10,000
Premium Dollar Amount $-10,000 to $+10,000 $-500,000 to $+500,000
Loss Dollar Amount $-500,000 to $+500,000 $-1,000,000 to $+1,000,000

What are the due dates for statistical shipments?

The due date is the first CAR business day 45 days after the close of each accounting month. Accordingly, the due date for the January submission is generally March 15th. However, if the 45th day falls on a weekend or holiday, then the due date is the next CAR business day. The specific due dates for each accounting year are distributed via an Accounting and Statistical Notice, titled the Call Schedule. This information can also be found on CAR’s website.

How should Claim Identification Numbers be assigned?

The Claim Identification Number must be used to uniquely identify each accident and claimant within a given accident year. The same claim number must be used to identify payments to a particular claimant for all liability and PIP (No-Fault) coverages. Payments are then distinguished by coverage and within coverage by means of the applicable Type of Loss Code.

For an example of the assignment of claim identification numbers, refer to the Massachusetts Private Passenger or Commercial Statistical Plan, Part III – General Reporting Requirements, Section B – Losses.

What should a company report in a field that is not required to be reported statistically?

Appendix A of the Massachusetts Private Passenger and Commercial Statistical Plans contains Decision Tables that identify whether a company is required to statistically report a particular data element for a specific classification code or physical damage coverage code. A value of "Y" in the Decision Table indicates that the noted data element is required to be reported and that CAR will statistically edit the reported field for accuracy.

A value of "N" in the Decision Table indicates that the noted data element is not required to be statistically reported. For those data elements that are not required to be reported, the only acceptable values are either spaces or zeros.

Additionally, there are other field positions on the statistical record layouts to which a specific data element has not been assigned. These are the "Reserved for Future Use" fields. For these fields, the only acceptable reportable values are spaces or zeros.

Finally, there are specific fields on the statistical record layouts for which it may be acceptable for unused positions to exist. Any unused positions of a field designated as alphanumeric (such as Producer Code, ZIP Code, Vehicle Identification Number, Policy Identification Number, and Claim Identification Number) must be coded as spaces. Any unused positions of a field designated as numeric (such as Exposure and all premium and loss amount fields) must be coded as zeros.

Refer to Parts IV and V - Reporting Instructions of the Massachusetts Private Passenger or Commercial Automobile Statistical Plans, for specific information regarding the reporting of particular data fields.

What is an Exposure?

An exposure is a unit used to measure the potential risk of a policy or transaction. For all private passenger and some commercial business, the exposure field identifies the period of time that a policy or transaction is in effect and is reported to CAR in units of car months. A car month is equivalent to one car insured for one month. Therefore, a policy covering one vehicle in force for twelve months will have twelve car months’ of exposure reported. Refer to Part VI - Coding Section of the Massachusetts Private Passenger and Commercial Automobile Statistical Plans for additional exposure information.

For certain commercial risks, exposure is not measured in car months, but in employee months or on a payroll, earnings, mileage or plate basis. An employee month is equivalent to one employee insured for one month and a plate month is equivalent to one plate insured for one month. For payroll, earnings, and mileage, the exposure is the estimated payroll, earnings, or mileage at the inception of the policy and is subject to audit at policy expiration. For more specific exposure information, refer to Part VI - Coding Section of the Massachusetts Commercial Automobile Statistical Plan.

 
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