Washington State advances insurance fraud modernization bill unanimously

The Washington state Insurance Commissioner’s bill would also expand the statutory definition of victims of insurance fraud to include insurance consumers and insurance beneficiaries, making them eligible for criminal restitution, and would broaden statutory reporting of suspected insurance fraud to the Insurance Commissioner by adding regulators of health care or financial services professions, and other law enforcement and public safety agencies, as required reporters. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner links these measures to the wider problem of insurance fraud, which it said costs insurance companies $300 billion a year and is passed along to consumers in the form of higher premiums.