S-1074.1  _______________________________________________

                         SENATE BILL 5779

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2001 Regular Session

By Senators Patterson and Benton

Read first time 02/02/2001.  Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce & Financial Institutions.

Restricting service providers who pass on costs to casualty or property insurers.

    AN ACT Relating to service providers who pass on costs to casualty or property insurers; and amending RCW 48.30A.015.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 48.30A.015 and 1995 c 285 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) It is unlawful for a person:

    (a) Knowing that the payment is for the referral of a claimant to a service provider, either to accept payment from a service provider or, being a service provider, to pay another; or

    (b) To provide or claim or represent to have provided services to a claimant, knowing the claimant was referred in violation of (a) of this subsection.

    (2) It is unlawful for a service provider to engage in a regular practice of waiving, rebating, giving, paying, or offering to waive, rebate, give, or pay all or any part of a claimant's casualty or property insurance deductible if the costs of such practices are passed on to an insurer, and if a consumer indicates his or her intention of making a claim for property repair from his or her casualty or property insurer, to:

(a) Commence the work without first giving the consumer oral and written notice of:

(i) The total estimated cost of the repair; and

(ii) The total dollar amount the consumer is responsible to pay for the repair, which dollar amount may not exceed the applicable deductible or other copay arrangement in the consumer's insurance policy; or

(b) Request or collect from a consumer an amount that exceeds the dollar amount a consumer was initially told he or she was responsible to pay as an insurance deductible or other copay arrangement for repair of the property under (a) of this subsection, even if that amount is less than the full amount the casualty or property insurance policy requires the insured to pay as a deductible or other copay arrangement, unless:

(i) The consumer's insurance company denies coverage exists for the repair, in which case, the full amount of the repair may be charged and collected from the consumer;

(ii) The consumer misstates, before the repair is commenced, the amount of the deductible or other copay arrangement, in which case, the service provider may charge and collect from the consumer an amount that does not exceed the actual amount of the consumer's deductible or other copay arrangement; or

(iii) The casualty or property insurer reimburses the consumer directly rather than the service provider, in which case the service provider may seek payment of the full amount of the insurance reimbursement over and above any amounts stated in (a) of this subsection.

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