Opinion ID: 883077
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Association Plans

Text: State Fund has agreements with three trade associations (loggers, food distributors, and motor carriers) under which it reimburses the association for providing safety inspectors in lieu of State Fund safety inspectors. These agreements are called association plans. Appellants complain that State Fund has no policies or criteria regarding the creation or administration of association plans, and that State Fund has never met with MHCA, as it promised it would in March 1990, to determine whether MHCA is eligible for an association plan. Appellants assert that association plans provide substantial benefits to the employers that have them, and that all State Fund policy holders pay indirectly for the safety inspectors hired under these plans. Therefore, appellants argue, State Fund should be ordered to adopt as formal rules its criteria and standards for awarding and administering the plans. State Fund asserts that it has no policy of general application with respect to association plans and that formal rule-making is not appropriate because each plan is a unique contract, with provisions that depend on the nature of the trade association involved. State Fund also implies, though it does not state directly, that it intends to make association plans available to all trade associations, including MHCA if it is willing and able to enter into the contract. The District Court held that State Fund must make association plans available to all associations and must let associations and employers know that such plans are available, but it was not convinced that State Fund must adopt rules setting forth uniform standards for such plans. We agree. The intent of the 1989 act that created the state fund was that the state fund must, as the primary means of insuring its solvency, institute safety programs and set rates in a manner that rewards employers who provide a safe working environment and penalizes those who do not. Statement of Intent, 1989 Mont. Laws, Ch. 613. So long as State Fund administers its association plans consistently with this intent, formal rulemaking is not required. Indeed, State Fund probably can fulfill the intent of the Act only by entering into contracts tailored to the needs and circumstances of each trade association or class of employers.