Idaho Department of Insurance previews four rule changes, highlights wildfire/fire-code language fix

Dean Cameron, director of the Idaho Department of Insurance, briefed the House Business Committee on Jan. 15 about four rule dockets the department plans to pursue during the 2025 rule-review cycle.

Director Cameron said the department originally reviewed nine rules and now proposes substantive or clarifying changes to four: cleanup of duplicative language in the life-settlement rule; modernization of title-insurance transfer and money-handling provisions to reflect current banking practice; clarifications to the surplus-lines rule (including the board role) after negotiating with the Surplus Lines Association; and revisions to a fire-code-related rule to address concerns about criminalizing violations. "The fire code calls out for there to be a penalty for violation of the fire code. They called it, in the fire code, they call it a misdemeanor. We felt like that was inappropriate," Cameron said. He said the department worked with committee members to draft language acceptable to the chair and other legislators.

Cameron described the department's negotiated-rulemaking process and noted the department will present detailed dockets for committee consideration, where the committee may accept a docket, reject it in full, or reject a specific section of code. He also said the department has a standing actuary and would contract for actuarial expertise where needed in rule implementation.

No committee votes were taken on the rule dockets at the Jan. 15 briefing; Cameron said the department will return with dockets for formal committee action and public hearings.