Insurance Chief Protests ‘Rules’ Changes

Washington Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn bristled Monday at last-minute changes in legislation designed to curtail the ability of several state agencies to write new regulations.

While acknowledging the need for regulatory reform, she said the amended version of House Bill 1010 singles out her office by forbidding the imposition of any rules not specifically authorized by the Legislature.

The provisions could prevent her from doing something as simple as requiring a receipt for payment of an insurance premium, she said.

“This is not regulatory reform,” she said. “This is dismantling.”

Departments like State Lands, Labor and Industries, and Licensing would also have their rule-making authority constrained, but none as severely as her office, Senn said.

The amended bill, she noted, was passed out of the Senate Operations Committee Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after submittal by Sen. Betti Sheldon, D-Bremerton, but a day before a deadline for action on bills that originated in the other house of the Legislature.

No public hearings were held, despite the measure’s significant departure from anything members of the House and Senate had reviewed earlier in the session, Senn said.

“Whatever happened to the public process,” she said, attributing the revisions to the actions of insurance industry lobbyists.

Senn, a Democrat, conceded she has been an activist commissioner since her election in 1992, but said she has tried to work with consumer and industry groups alike.

Her office has drafted new regulations or legislation on everything from health care to automobile insurance. Steps she took in 1994 to guarantee health insurance portability, renewability and coverage for pre-existing conditions are popular with both Democrats and Republicans, she said.

As an example of the lengths to which she said her office goes to reach a consensus on new rules, she noted a final hearing that will be held in Tacoma tonight on major changes in rules governing policies that cover the cleanup of pollution sites.

Senn said the rules, proposed last fall and due to take effect next week, have been amended to include a mediation process and other changes made in response to insurance industry concerns.

But she added that the objective - protecting businesses with environmental claims against endless, expensive foot-dragging by their insurers - remains the same.

“We have a good set of rules,” she said.