A: Keystone
Smart Launch is an insurance innovation intake program that assists companies in vetting new products with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID).
The Keystone
Smart Launch team is comprised of dedicated individuals within PID who have the experience necessary to provide feedback on ideas that may impact Pennsylvania’s insurance market.
A: The Keystone
Smart Launch program and the Keystone
Smart Launch Idea Submission Portal is open to insurers, entrepreneurs, service providers, and anyone else who wants to bring an innovative insurance product or service to Pennsylvania.
A: No, the Keystone
Smart Launch program was created by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) to review and answer questions regarding innovative products, programs, or service ideas.
Once submitted through the Keystone
Smart Launch Idea Portal, submissions go through an internal cross-functional review. The internal PID team will reach out to the submitter to outline the process and highlight considerations regarding Pennsylvania-specific laws, regulations, and consumer protections. Addressing these considerations from the beginning can help facilitate a faster process to get innovative ideas into the market.
A: Some states have innovation programs that allow insurance ideas to be piloted and evaluated after an agreed-upon time to determine if there is a need in the market for the new product idea that would necessitate a change in law or regulation.
The Keystone
Smart Launch program enables ideas to be assessed by an internal team within the Pennsylvania Insurance Department who then provide feedback on submissions that may impact the Pennsylvania insurance market. This allows insurers the opportunity to address that feedback which could help get their innovative ideas to market faster.
A: Submissions are sent electronically to an internal cross-department team within the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID). The submission will first be assessed to ensure all necessary information is available to complete a preliminary review. A member of the PID Keystone
Smart Launch team may reach out during this time for any needed clarifications or additional questions.
Once the preliminary review has been completed, the submitter will receive an email to request a virtual meeting or phone call to outline the process and summarize the considerations being presented.
A: Keystone Smart Launch encourages submissions of insurance products and services that use newly developed designs or technologies that affect the product/service administration, including ones that the submitter believes may depart from the traditional regulatory framework.
A: Within the Keystone Smart Launch Idea Submission Portal, you will see an option allowing you to request your submitted inquiry be kept confidential. To do this, select “Yes” to, “Should this product or service be considered proprietary and/or confidential?”.
Additionally, in order to ensure any documents submitted during this process are also held confidential, please ensure all documentation submitted to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) has a cover page marked 'Confidential and/or Proprietary Information'. This should be done both when uploading documents via the Smart Launch Idea Submission Portal form and when submitting any documents to PID via any other means. This enables the department to exclude the data from any request made pursuant to the Commonwealth’s Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) as it would be exempt from disclosure pursuant to 65 P.S. Sec. 67.708(b)(11). PID would not provide this information in response to a RTKL request. If the denial were appealed to the Office of Open Records (OOR), the department would expect the submitting company or entity to join as a necessary third party to the appeal, and the company or entity would have the burden to demonstrate to the OOR in any appeal that the data and information is accurately classified as trade secret/confidential proprietary information.