Help us improve our Medicare webpages!

We are in the process of conducting a usability study on the Insurance Commissioner's Medicare webpages. We want to hear from consumers how we can organize the pages and content in a way that makes sense to you. All it takes is 10-15 minutes to take a simple online survey. The survey is open through May 1. 

Your feedback is very important, so please take a few minutes to help us improve our site!

Online services unavailable Saturday, April 25

The Insurance Commissioner's online services will be unavailable Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Our website, www.insurance.wa.gov, will be available, but people will not be able to access the following applications accessed through our site:

• Licensing services
• Complaints
• SHIBA online
• Insurance company and agent lookup
• Rate transparency

The city is relocating the underground fiber network cables as part of a road construction project, which will disrupt our computer networks. 

Insurance needs are a factor in retirement planning

This week is National Retirement Planning Week, organized by the National Retirement Planning Coalition. The group aims to help people create a comprehensive plan for retirement, which can seem daunting or, for some, too far away to contemplate. Its website, www.retireonyourterms.org, offers tools based on your age, retirement and saving calculators and plenty of information about ways you can be prepared for retirement.

Insurance needs also should be factored into your retirement plans. Medicare plans carry a cost for premiums, doctor visits, prescription drugs and hospitalizations. However, Medicare typically does not cover long-term care, so some people opt for long-term care insurance to pay for home health care, adult day care, nursing home care or group-living facility care.

If you are considering annuities as part of your retirement planning, we have information about the benefits, the types of annuities and payouts.

Questions? You can contact our consumer advocates online or at 1-800-562-6900.

Thank you to our SHIBA volunteers!

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler meets SHIBA volunteers from South Sound Outreach in October 2014

In honor of National Volunteer Month, we’re recognizing the more than 400 people who volunteer their time to our Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program. SHIBA's outstanding volunteers are an integral part of the consumer protection work we do at the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. In 2014, they helped nearly 65,000 Washington consumers understand Medicare in plain English, resolve Medicare disputes and choose a plan that best fits their needs in a timely manner.

Our volunteers donated nearly 90,000 hours in 2014 to helping their fellow citizens. We honor and celebrate our volunteers for their dedication and kindness. Thank you SHIBA volunteers for your time, dedication, commitment and service.

Read more about SHIBA services and where to find help in your area.

OIC helps develop training for examining, analyzing insurers’ climate change risk

As the state’s insurance regulator, one of the things the Office of the Insurance Commissioner does is examine and analyze insurers’ finances to make sure they have enough money in cash and investments to pay consumers’ insurance claims. Climate change is increasingly a risk to insurers’ business, both from a claims standpoint and from an investment standpoint.

Some of OIC’s friendly financial examiners participate in a dry run of a new training for state regulators to evaluate insurers’ climate change risk.

Commissioner Kreidler has led the climate change work group for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) since 2006. As part of that work, the OIC led a work group that developed the guidance for other state regulators to use when evaluating insurers’ climate change risks and investments during financial examinations and analyses. Last week, the OIC’s financial examiners and analysts were given a dry run of the training to offer feedback before it is presented to other state regulators. In essence, insurers are expected to identify climate change-related risk to their business and evaluate how these factors may affect their claims and how they invest their money.

Washington is not new to working with insurers on climate change. Since 2010, our state has been one of a handful that requires insurance companies to answer an annual survey about how they are addressing their risk related to climate change.

You can read more about Commissioner Kreidler’s work with climate change and read the most recent report about how insurers are addressing climate change.

Tacoma woman trades guilty plea, diversion program for dismissed charges in insurance fraud

Isabel Osorto, 23, of Tacoma, pled guilty to insurance fraud and agreed to complete a diversion program in exchange for the charge being dismissed.

The charge stems from a December 2012 collision in which Osorto hit another car. Later that day, she purchased insurance for her car and filed a $9,000 hit-and-run claim on her car three days later. The insurance company was tipped off that something was amiss when the driver of the car she hit contacted her insurance company about the damage to his car, which was supported by the citation she was issued by Washington State Patrol. She was charged with one count of insurance fraud in September 2014.

The terms of the diversion program include pleading guilty, full repayment of the restitution amount, payment of all administrative fees and full compliance with all program requirements. In this case, the restitution amount is zero because the insurance company did not pay Osorto’s $9,000 claim. The charge against Osorto will be dismissed once she completes the terms of the program. If she fails to complete the program, the charge against her will be reinstated.

The OIC’s Special Investigations Unit investigates insurance fraud and works with the Attorney General’s Office or local law enforcement—in this case, Pierce County – to prosecute criminal cases. Consumers can report suspected insurance fraud on the Insurance Commissioner’s website.

Will my insurance pay to replace a damaged convertible top?

The unprecedented sunshine we are experiencing in the Pacific Northwest may be enticing drivers to take their convertibles out for a spin. But do you know what your insurance policy will cover if something happens to your top or interior? 

Depending upon the age of your vehicle, your insurance company may not pay for the full replacement cost of the convertible top if it is torn from the vehicle or someone damages it. Some companies apply what they call “betterment” to the value of the car, taking into consideration the car’s age and condition. Another way of describing betterment is thinking about life span – car parts have different life spans and once they near the end of their life span, paying the full cost of replacing those parts would result in your car being in better shape than it was when it was damaged, thereby increasing its value.

The same idea applies to the interior of your vehicle. If someone damages the interior while your open convertible is parked somewhere, the insurance company may not pay the full cost of replacement or repair. It is also important to note that standard auto policies do not cover any personal property in the vehicle and any equipment that was not installed by the manufacturer. After-market items like sound systems, paint jobs and other special or upgraded equipment very well may not be covered by your policy.

Talk to your insurance agent about what your policy covers and does not cover.

Read more about auto insurance on our website. Questions? You can contact our consumer advocates online or at 1-800-562-6900.