AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine has joined a nationwide investigation into price fixing and other abuses in the insurance industry.

Maine Insurance Superintendent Al Iuppa said his department is working with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to gather information in the collaborative investigation.

The national effort was spurred by a criminal investigation launched last month by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Some of the largest insurance brokers in the country are accused of rigging prices and steering business to insurers in exchange for kickbacks.

The scandal has led to high-level resignations, employee layoffs and guilty pleas by some executives.

Spitzer, in a civil lawsuit, accuses Marsh & McLennan, the nation’s largest insurance broker, of bid rigging, price fixing and the heavy use of incentive fees to steer business to particular insurance companies.

American International Group Inc., ACE Insurance Co. of North America, The Hartford and Munich American Risk Partners are named in Spitzer’s suit.

The allegations have prompted some to say that state insurance laws should be reworked to combat fraud.

Maine is now working with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on how to better protect consumers, Iuppa said.

The association last month formed a task force to come up with ways to prevent abuses in the insurance industry.

The group on Monday released draft model legislation designed to ensure that consumers are provided the necessary information to understand how brokers are compensated for the sale of insurance products.

AP-ES-11-17-04 1601EST