News Archive

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner will have a representative on hand at two Disaster Recovery Centers in the Spokane area this week to help answer insurance questions from people impacted by the wildfires in Eastern Washington in August. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced February 20 (www.fema.gov) that individual assistance was available for residents in Spokane County affected by the Gray and Oregon Road wildfires that occurred between August 18 and 25, 2023. 

The fires, combined, destroyed 369 homes,…

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A small volunteer effort that started in Mount Vernon and grew into one of the nation’s most popular senior customer assistance programs is celebrating 45 years of work.

The Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program, part of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC), has spent more than 40 years providing hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries in Washington state with free, unbiased and confidential counseling services. 

SHIBA helps people in every corner of the state with questions about enrolling in Medicare,…

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A Selah man pled guilty to first-degree theft and money laundering after an investigation by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU).

Jason Eaton was sentenced to 60 days of electronic home detention and ordered to pay $100 restitution after his guilty plea, entered on January 18, 2024, in Yakima County Superior Court.

From July to November 2019, Eaton worked as an insurance producer and issued policies to his clients with American Family Insurance. American Family tried, on multiple occasions, to collect $24,162.24 in…

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Commissioner Mike Kreidler has ordered Zion Health to stop selling insurance illegally in Washington state and fined the company $50,000.

Kreidler’s office issued an initial cease-and-desist order in February of 2022. The final order was signed on December 19, 2023.

Zion Health, domiciled in Salt Lake City, offered and sold insurance in Washington without being authorized to do so by the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. The company also excluded coverage for pre-existing health conditions for two years and excluded coverage for termination of pregnancy…