North Carolina Department of Insurance Amends COVID-19 Order

On March 30th, Commissioner Mike Causey amended his March 27th Order regarding COVID-19 to provide for thirty days rather than sixty days.  The Order will now expire April 26th. A copy of the Amended Order can be found here.  Aside from the change in the Order's expiration date, the Order remains in effect as originally reported yesterday.  

The DOI Order notes the emergency conditions in the state and invokes the provisions of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-2-46 (1)-(3). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-2-46(2) requires collection agencies and debt buyers to give their customers the option of deferring premium or debt payments[.]” The DOI Order designates the entire state as the affected geographic area, so consumers located anywhere in the state must be given the option to defer payments. Further, Chapter 58 of the General Statutes broadly defines “consumers” to include businesses, so the mandate applies equally to traditional consumer debt (that incurred for personal, family or household debt) and commercial debt. 

Additionally, the NCDOI has confirmed that licensed entities are not required to preemptively notify "consumers" of the waiver option but do have an obligation to offer the deferred payment to "consumers" when discussing payment. The option to defer payments must be given for payments that are due through and including the time period covered by the DOI Order as amended. Subsection 2 goes on to state that the deferral period “shall be 30 days from the last day the premium or debt payment may be made under the terms of the policy or contract.” While this statutory section is open to (at least) a few possible interpretations, we believe the best reading is that the option to defer must be given until at least April 26, 2020, when the DOI Order is currently set to expire. If a consumer elects to defer a payment, the deferral must be granted and the new payment date should be set 30 days after the original payment date.