Rhode Island General Laws Title 27. Insurance § 27-4.7-9. Confidentiality--Prohibition on announcements--Prohibition on use in ratemaking

(a) All RBC reports (to the extent the information is not required to be set forth in a publicly available annual statement schedule) and RBC plans (including the results or report of any examination or analysis of a health organization performed pursuant to this chapter and any corrective order issued by the commissioner pursuant to examination or analysis) with respect to a domestic health organization or foreign health organization that are filed with the commissioner constitute information that might be damaging to the health organization if made available to its competitors, and shall be kept confidential by the commissioner. This information shall not be made public or be subject to subpoena, other than by the commissioner and then only for the purpose of enforcement actions taken by the commissioner pursuant to this chapter or any other provision of the insurance laws of this state.

(b) It is the judgment of the legislature that the comparison of a health organization's total adjusted capital to any of its RBC levels is a regulatory tool which may indicate the need for corrective action with respect to the health organization, and is not intended as a means to rank health organizations generally. Except as required under the provisions of this chapter, the making, publishing, disseminating, circulating, or placing before the public, or causing, directly or indirectly to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication, or in the form of a notice, circular, pamphlet, letter, or poster, or over a radio or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement, or statement containing an assertion, representation, or statement with regard to the RBC levels of any health organization, or of any component derived in the calculation, by any health organization, agent, broker, or other person engaged in any manner in the insurance business, would be misleading and is prohibited; provided, that if any materially false statement with respect to the comparison regarding a health organization's total adjusted capital to its RBC levels (or any of them) or an inappropriate comparison of any other amount to the health organization's RBC levels is published in any written publication and the health organization is able to demonstrate to the commissioner with substantial proof the falsity of the statement, or the inappropriateness, then the health organization may publish an announcement in a written publication, if the sole purpose of the announcement is to rebut the materially false statement.