The public meetings will be noticed at least 14 days before the meeting. All documents submitted to the Attorney General in the course of the review will be public records subject to applicable state public records acts. Notice to the Attorney General will not be deemed complete until all information required by the Attorney General to review the conversion is submitted. In the Commentary to the Model Act, NAAG states that an Attorney General should make available to the public all information obtained in the review process that is not confidential. Particularly, the Attorney General should be prepared to respond to numerous public requests for documents after the notice of public hearing is published.
Public hearings are an essential, mandatory part of the review process.
This is so because public charities are responsible to their public beneficiaries. Colorado Colorado passed a law in 1996 that created a process and standards to ensure that a conversion by Blue Cross and Blue Shield would protect charitable assets. The statute includes the requirement that the Insurance Commissioner hold public hearings regarding any proposed conversion. The issue of the valuation of the assets was to be considered at subsequent hearings. Community groups raised a number of questions regarding the process under which this occurred.