AN ACT Relating to correcting obsolete or erroneous references in statutes administered by the insurance commissioner, by repealing defunct statutes and reports, aligning policy with federal law and current interpretations, making timeline adjustments, protecting patient data, and making technical corrections;
SB 5262 is a broad insurance-commissioner cleanup bill that updates and modernizes numerous Washington insurance statutes. It corrects obsolete or erroneous cross-references, repeals defunct provisions and reports, aligns state law with federal law and current interpretations, makes timing adjustments, and adds technical corrections across multiple insurance-related chapters. The bill also revises confidentiality and public-disclosure provisions for a wide range of records held by the insurance commissioner and other agencies, including certain health, financial, claims, and examination materials.
Beyond technical cleanup, the bill makes several policy updates in insurance regulation. It adjusts rules for auto insurance rate filings and driver safety-course discounts, dwelling-unit fire alarm and smoke detector credits, market conduct examinations, charitable gift annuities, health plan discrimination standards, maternity coverage, hearing instrument coverage, dental-only plan reporting, fraud program funding, closed-claims reporting, direct practice reporting, and guaranteed asset protection waivers. It also adds or updates requirements related to gender-affirming treatment coverage and reporting on geographic access to that care, and it repeals several outdated reporting and work-group provisions.
The bill amends many sections of Title 48 RCW and related insurance statutes, primarily affecting the powers and reporting duties of the insurance commissioner, insurers, health carriers, and other regulated entities. It changes what information is exempt from public disclosure, modifies filing and reporting obligations, and updates substantive insurance requirements for auto, property, health, maternity, hearing, dental, medical malpractice, direct primary care, and GAP waiver products. It also repeals obsolete statutory sections and reports, reducing outdated administrative requirements while preserving or expanding current regulatory standards in several areas.
The overall sentiment appears strongly favorable and largely noncontroversial. The bill passed the Senate committee unanimously and cleared Senate final passage 49-0, then advanced through the House with broader but still substantial support, including 83-13 on House final passage and 46-2 on Senate concurrence. The vote pattern suggests the measure was generally viewed as a necessary technical and regulatory update, though some provisions drew more divided support in the House.
Most of the bill is technical cleanup, but the most notable points of contention appear to be the substantive insurance policy changes embedded in the bill. These include requirements affecting gender-affirming treatment coverage, maternity/postpartum coverage, hearing instrument benefits, and reporting obligations for dental-only plans and direct practice arrangements. The narrower House committee and floor margins indicate that while the bill’s administrative corrections were broadly accepted, some members likely objected to specific coverage mandates, reporting expansions, or regulatory changes rather than the bill as a whole.