Learn more about our legislative priorities for the 2025 legislative session, budget requests and our decision packages for the 2025-2027 biennium budget.
Technical cleanup bill (HB 1505 and SB 5262)
Sponsors: Walen, Berry, Lekanoff, Reed, Ormsby, Tharinger, Marci, Hill, Scott, Kauffman, Wilson J., Nobles, Shewmake, Trudeau
Our staff found several technical corrections in Title 48 RCW — the state insurance code. The bill includes approximately 16 amendments and seven repeals.
The bill removes language related to eight one-time or outdated reports and workgroups, strikes obsolete language, updates terminology and clarifies how language is applied.
Learn more about House Bill HB 1505 and Senate Bill SB 5262.
Strengthening consumer protection by increasing insurer accountability for violations of the insurance code (HB 1199 and SB 5331)
Sponsors: Taylor, Berry, Reed, Duerr, Tharinger, Paul, Simmons, Wylie, Pollet, Kloba, Salahuddin, Hill
This bill gives the insurance commissioner authority to order restitution, including interest, to consumers harmed by an insurance company’s violation of Washington state insurance laws.
The bill recommends a simple interest rate of 8% applied to money paid back to consumers, which is the current practice. It also gives the insurance commissioner authority to assess fines against insurers for each violation of state insurance laws, which aligns the fine schedule for insurers with other regulated entities.
Learn more about House Bill HB 1199 and Senate Bill SB 5331.
Modifying reports of fire losses (SB 5419)
Sponsors: Lovick, Muzzall, Nobles, Shewmake
Insurance data from fire loss is critical information for public safety, law enforcement and for the insurance regulator. Currently, the authority to collect insurance data from fire loss resides with the State Fire Marshal, within the Washington State Patrol (WSP); a remnant of when the State Fire Marshal was also the insurance commissioner.
After consultations with WSP and the State Fire Marshal’s Office, it is agreed that the authority to collect fire loss data is better served with the Office of Insurance Commissioner to ensure data is appropriately collected and shared with fire protection entities and law enforcement agencies.
This bill amends RCW 48.05.320 to require the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to collect insurance-related fire loss data from its regulated entities and insurance companies. It will:
- Require insurers to report known or suspected criminal activity to the local authorities.
- Allow the fire loss data to be protected from public records requests when they contain the insured’s property address, date of loss, the amount that the insurer paid on each coverage, the known or suspected origin and cause of the fire loss, except in cases of criminal investigations and charges.
- Allow our agency to share confidential information with the following entities, if confidentiality is maintained: State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), federal government, Tribal Nations, law enforcement and prosecutors, insurance rating bureaus and fire chiefs.
Learn more about Senate Bill SB 5419.
Budget requests
We are making a supplemental budget request for a federal grant unanticipated receipt.
- This request increases federal grant revenue for the 2023-25 biennium by $1,013,000 to match the federal requested appropriation. This follows the procedure for an agency receiving federal grant funding that wasn’t initially anticipated in the state budget.
- The OIC needs increased federal expenditure authority starting in fiscal year 2025 to implement this package. The increase reflects the ongoing cost for one Health Insurance Advisor 1 and one Health Insurance Advisor 2 and the expenses, like advertising and contracting, to comply with federal grant requirements.
Decision packages for the 2025-27 biennium budget
We are requesting funding for the creation of a new Claims Review Team (three full-time employees, $470,000 per year).
Our agency faces rising consumer complaints in property and casualty insurance, fueling consumer frustration over how their claims are being handled. Economic shifts have hardened the insurance market, leaving Washington’s consumers struggling to navigate claims and benefits. This package requests ongoing funding, beginning in fiscal year 2026, to establish a Claims Review Team dedicated to managing and investigating claims-related consumer complaints that allege violations of RCW 48.30 and WAC 284-30. The team would seek a resolution between the insured and insurer and/or initiate regulatory enforcement activities, providing an additional level of claims-related case review and enforcement.
We are also requesting funding to increase behavioral health parity compliance (three full-time employees, $666,000 per year).
- State insurance departments enforce the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) for fully insured health plans. Washington state also has its own behavioral health parity law.
- These laws require health carriers to provide access to mental health and substance use disorder services (behavioral health services) in a way that is comparable to coverage of medical care. Ensuring behavioral health parity compliance is complex and time-consuming and requires expertise from outside of the agency. The federal grant supporting work expired in September 2024. In the 2024 supplemental budget, the Legislature included funding to extend these efforts through fiscal year 2026.
- This package requests ongoing funding, beginning in fiscal year 2027, for three positions and subject matter expert contracting costs to continue addressing behavioral health parity compliance.
Follow our rulemaking activity
We manage an ongoing public rulemaking development process to write regulations that provide guidance to consumers, insurers, carriers, producers and other regulated entities.