_______________________________________________
HOUSE
BILL 3052
_______________________________________________
AS
AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed
Legislature - 1998 Regular Session
State of Washington 55th
Legislature 1998 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/28/98.
Referred to Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance.
Authorizing
self-audits by insurers.
AN
ACT Relating to self-audits by insurers; creating a new section; and providing
an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 1. (1)
The legislature finds that protection of insurance consumers likely is enhanced
by insurers' voluntary compliance with this state's insurance and other laws
and that the public will benefit from incentives to identify and remedy insurance
and other compliance issues. One method to encourage insurers both to conduct
voluntary internal audits of their compliance programs and management systems
and to assess and improve compliance with state and federal statutes, rules,
and orders, is to provide an insurance compliance self-evaluative privilege to
protect the confidentiality of communications relating to voluntary internal
compliance audits. The legislature intends to study public policy issues
regarding a limited privilege to encourage voluntary compliance and improve
insurance market conduct quality, and whether the expanded privilege could
inhibit the exercise of the regulatory authority by those entrusted with
protecting insurance consumers.
(2)
The house financial institutions and insurance committee and the senate
financial institutions, insurance and housing committee shall jointly study
insurance compliance self-evaluative audits and make recommendations on whether
a limited privilege should be authorized in Washington state to encourage such
audits. The chairs of the two committees shall oversee the study. If the
recommendations include authorizing the limited privilege, the study shall
develop a bill for consideration in the 1999 legislative session.
(3)
The two committee chairs shall organize a study group that includes the
voluntary participation of the insurance industry, the office of the insurance
commissioner, and other interested parties. The ranking minority members of
each committee shall also participate in the study group.
(4)
The house office of program research and senate committee services shall staff
the study group.
(5) The recommendations of the study group are due by December 31,
1998. This section expires January 1, 1999.
