South Carolina § 38-79-140 - Plan of operation.

§ 38-79-140. Plan of operation.

(1) The association must operate pursuant to a plan of operation which shall provide for economic, fair, and nondiscriminatory administration and for the prompt and efficient provision of medical malpractice insurance and may contain other provisions including, but not limited to, preliminary assessment of all members for initial expenses necessary to commence operations, establishment of necessary facilities, management of the association, assessment of the members to defray losses and expenses, commissions arrangements, reasonable and objective underwriting standards, acceptance and cession of reinsurance, appointment of servicing carriers, and procedures for determining amounts of insurance to be provided by the association. The plan of operation must be amended within thirty days following the merger provided for in Section 38-79-300. The amended plan must address the orderly and expeditious winding down of the Patients' Compensation Fund.

(2) The plan of operation shall provide that any profit achieved by the association must be added to the reserves of the association or returned to the policyholders as a dividend. If there is no accumulated deficit, any profit achieved by the association must be added to the reserves of the association.

(3) The approved plan of operation may make provisions for combining insurers under common ownership or management into groups for voting, assessment, and all other purposes and may provide that no more than one of the officers or employees of a group may serve as a director at any one time.

(4) Amendments to the plan of operation may be made by the directors of the association with the approval of the director or his designee or must be made at the direction of the director or his designee after due notice and public hearing.

HISTORY: 1987 Act No. 155, SECTION 1; 1993 Act No. 181, SECTION 830; 2019 Act No. 67 (H.3760), SECTION 1, eff May 16, 2019.

Effect of Amendment

2019 Act No. 67, SECTION 1, in (1), added the second and third sentences; in (2), added the second sentence; and rewrote (3).