N.Y. Executive Law § 160-jj: Assessment of fund members; customer surcharges; audit powers of the fund, the board and the fund's insurer

§ 160-jj. Assessment of fund members; customer surcharges; audit

powers of the fund, the board and the fund's insurer. 1. To pay (a) the

costs of the insurance purchased pursuant to subdivision three of

section one hundred sixty-ii of this article or (b) the benefits due

under the workers' compensation law in the event the fund self-insures

pursuant to subdivision two of section one hundred sixty-ii of this

article, and to pay (c) its expenses in carrying out its powers and

duties under this article and (d) its liabilities, if any, pursuant to

section fourteen-a of the workers' compensation law, the fund shall

ascertain by reasonable estimate the total funding necessary to carry on

its operations.

2. Based upon its estimation of operating costs, the fund shall

establish a proposed uniform percentage surcharge to be added to (a) the

invoices or billings for covered services sent to the customers of the

fund's members by a member or its agent and (b) the credit payments for

covered services received by a member or its agent. The proposed

surcharge shall become effective thirty days after being filed with the

department. Notwithstanding the foregoing, beginning on the first day of

the first calendar month that shall commence at least seventy-five days

after the effective date of this article, and until the fund shall have

filed with the department a different surcharge amount, a three percent

surcharge shall be added to every invoice or billing for covered

services sent by a member or its agent to, and every credit payment for

covered services received by a member or its agent from, the customers

of the fund's members. Each member of the fund shall be liable for

payment to the fund of an amount equal to the product of (i) the

percentages surcharge due pursuant to this article, divided by one

hundred and (ii) all payments received by the member or its agent for

covered services from the member's customers, as provided in this

subdivision, regardless of whether the surcharge was billed or charged.

3. No local licensing authority or the department or the New York

state department of motor vehicles shall issue, continue or renew any

license or registration certificate, or permit for the operation of any

central dispatch facility unless such central dispatch facility, as a

condition of maintaining its license and/or registration certificate,

adds the surcharge required by this section to every invoice and billing

for covered services sent to, and every credit payment for covered

services received from, its customers and pays to the fund no later than

the fifteenth day of each month the total surcharges due pursuant to

this article.

4. Each central dispatch facility shall submit to the fund with its

monthly payment a detailed accounting of the charge and surcharge

amounts charged to and received from customers for covered services

during the previous month. The first such payment and accounting shall

be due on the fifteenth day of the month following the imposition of the

surcharge pursuant to subdivision two of this section.

5. Should the fund determine that the surcharge amounts that have been

paid to it are inadequate to meet its obligations under this article, it

shall determine the surcharge rate required to eliminate such deficiency

and shall file such revised surcharge rate with the department in

accordance with subdivision two of this section. Commencing thirty days

after such filing, the members of the fund shall charge the revised

surcharge rate and shall pay to the fund the total amount of surcharges

in accordance with this article.

6. The fund shall have the power directly or through its agent to

conduct financial audits of its members to verify their compliance with

the requirements of this article. The fund or its agent shall be

afforded convenient access at all reasonable hours to all books, records

and other documents of its members that may be relevant to such audits.

7. For the purposes of conducting payroll audits, an insurer providing

coverage to the fund pursuant to this article may treat the members of

the fund as policyholders. Members of the fund shall be required to do

all things required of employers pursuant to section one hundred

thirty-one of the workers' compensation law, and shall be required to

provide the board access to any and all records and information as

otherwise required by the workers' compensation law and the regulations

promulgated thereunder, and shall be liable as provided in the workers'

compensation law for any failure so to do.