Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. The seventh paragraph of section 8E of chapter 26 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1994 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- For the purposes of this section, the term medical malpractice insurer shall mean a medical malpractice insurer as defined in section one hundred and ninety-three U of chapter one hundred and seventy-five.

SECTION 2. The last paragraph of section 8I of said chapter 26, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- For the purposes of this section, the term medical malpractice insurer shall mean a medical malpractice insurer as defined in section one hundred and ninety-three U of chapter one hundred and seventy-five.

SECTION 3. Section 9 of chapter 330 of the acts of 1994 is hereby amended by striking out section 6 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 6. Upon the approval of the commissioner, the medical professional mutual insurance company, may for any purposes, including, but not limited to the fixing of separate percentages of dividends under section eighty of chapter one hundred and seventy-five, consider the business of each category of health care provider as a separate line of business; provided, however, that the doctor of dental science category of insured shall continue to be treated as a separate line of business by the medical professional mutual insurance company to the extent required by chapter ninety-two of the acts of nineteen hundred and ninety-one, and, as promptly as possible after the effective date of this act, any excess surplus of the association as determined by the commissioner attributable to the doctor of dental science category of business as of the effective date of the conversion shall be paid as a dividend by the mutual company for the benefit of the association's doctor of dental science policyholders entitled thereto in accordance with the methodology established and employed by the association for the payment of dividends to its doctor of dental science policyholders prior to the date of the conversion. Any person in the doctor of dental science category of insureds who was insured by the association at the time of the conversion may elect to continue to be insured by the mutual company by specifically assigning in writing this first dividend to be paid after the effective date of this act back to the mutual company.

Commencing in nineteen hundred and ninety-six, all excess surplus as determined by the commissioner, allocable to the doctor of dental science category of insureds as of December thirty-first, shall be paid annually, on or about July first of the following year, as a dividend to those persons, firms and entities entitled thereto, pursuant to the methodology established and employed by the association for the distribution of such dividends prior to the conversion. No portion of such excess surplus as determined by the commissioner shall be used or allocated for any other purpose or purposes and upon the payment of such dividend, there shall be no excess surplus allocable to the doctor of dental science category of insureds. The medical professional mutual insurance company shall annually notify each person, firm or entity entitled to such dividend of the amount of such dividend to which he is entitled. For the purposes of this section, "excess surplus" shall mean any surplus allocable to the association's doctor of dental science category of insureds beyond an amount determined by the commissioner to be reasonably necessary as a margin against adverse development.