The regulation of health insurance is beginning to shift toward the Department of Managed Health Care, according to California Healthline.
Here are five observations:
1. The share of the Department of Managed Health Care's commercial market has grown in recent years.
2. This change comes at the expense of the California Department of Insurance, the other agency in the state's unusual bifurcated system, whose authority over commercial health plans plummeted from 20 percent of the market to about 12 percent between 2012 to 2014.
3. California is the only state in the United States with dual health insurance regulators.
4. Critics of the state's divided approach note that it dilutes regulatory power by giving the insurance companies a wedge between the two agencies and creating needless inefficiencies as healthcare and how it's paid for become increasingly complex.
5. Health insurers said the consolidating policies under the Department of Managed Health Care's jurisdiction is more about achieving operational efficiencies and the regulatory requirements are just as rigorous as insurance department rules.