Accompanying its expansive growth over the last fifteen years, the health maintenance organization (HMO) industry transformed from collections of HMOs in local markets into an increasingly national system under the control of centralized corporations. During that time, HMOs established national chains in an effort to capture market share. The move toward nationalization of the HMO industry suggests the need for a critical analysis of the current HMO regulatory structure to determine whether it effectively safeguards the proper functioning of HMOs. As national and regional HMOs compete among themselves and with local HMOs, the need for unified, consistent financial protections with respect to HMOs and similar entities becomes acute. Competition from national HMOs creates increased financial risk for the smaller HMOs whose regional markets were previously insulated from broad-based competition. The need for preventative rules to offset this added risk, as well as a means by which to adjudicate consistently cases of HMO and insurance insolvency, became sufficiently acute that in March 1993 the U.S. House of Representatives sought to regulate federally the solvency of insurance companies by proposing a Federal Insurance Solvency Commission. In addition, to deal effectively with these problems, various industry participants and regulatory entities currently seek other remedies and attempt action of varying degrees.