Insurers Fined More Than $ 580,000 In Washington In 2010

In 2010, he published more than $ 580,000 fine against insurers for a variety of violations, including illegal telephone solicitations and overcharging customers.

Society doctor in Napa, California, for example, was fined $ 104,200 - with $ 50,000 suspended - for failing to file insurance rates with us before using these rates.

Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Co., Warwick, RI, and several related entities, was sentenced to a fine of $ 45,000 to $ 20,000 suspended after an investigation revealed numerous problems with the insurance documents. Among the problems: U.S. $ 190,704 in additional costs for the elderly. (The company also refunded money to the affected policyholders.)

Spot fines is to ensure that insurers comply with these rules. This will protect consumers and the market fair and just.

We should probably also point out that money does not go to our agency. It is deposited in the state general fund to pay for other utilities. In 2009, $ 407.600 in fines. A year earlier, totaling over $ 1,200,000.

Here is a list of links of our enforcement actions in the past six months.

And to find more than a decade of orders and fines - including violations committed by agents and brokers - see this online search tool, we have built.

Insurance news...

-In a much-talked-about article Sunday, the New York Times reported that "The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama's call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate."

-In a commentary for CNN, former longtime insurance company spokesman Wendell Potter blasts health insurers and their "army of PR people":

Until I quit my job last year, I was one of the leaders of that army. I had a very successful career and was my company's voice to the media and the public for several years.

Potter writes. And he maintains -- citing his two decades of experience in such campaigns -- that much of the opposition to the Obama administration's efforts at health-insurance reform is fueled by ghostwriters within the industry. He writes:

So the next time you hear someone warning against a "government takeover" of our health care system, or that the creation of a public health insurance option would send us down the "slippery slope toward socialism," know that someone like I used to be wrote those terms, knowing it might turn many of the very people who would benefit most from meaningful reform into unwitting spokespeople for the industry.

-In North Carolina, a high-school teacher was arrested for allegedly filing thousands of dollars in false burglary claims, in some cases claiming things that she'd rented. From the North Carolina Department of Insurance press release:

Investigators say she...gave the company several computer print-outs, many from Rent-A-Centers in Durham. An investigator with Liberty Mutual found several of the items Blount claimed stolen were actually still in the store.

Legislation wrap-up: new rules for flood insurance, organ transplants, annuities and discount health plans

“Get your medical bills lowered.” “A solution so simple, it’s brilliant.” “The savings do not stop there.”

As people struggle to find affordable health care, many are turning to discount health plans. And some buyers, who mistakenly think they’ve bought insurance coverage with full benefits, are discovering that the discounts are much more limited than they thought.

Several new laws, including one requiring more regulation and disclosure for such plans, took effect yesterday. The others include laws shortening the insurance waiting period for some people getting organ transplants, consumer-protection changes involving flood insurance, and new rules for annuities.

Click here for more information on the specifics.

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Welcome to the blog of the office of the Washington state Insurance Commissioner.

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