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Committee advances bill setting response timelines for insurance inquiries, clears amendment on pilot testing requests
Summary
The Kansas Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance voted to advance House Bill 2,043 as amended; the bill sets time limits for commissioner inquiries and insurer/agent responses and provides a process for testing value-added products.
The Kansas Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance voted to advance House Bill 2,043 as amended. The bill sets timelines for commissioner inquiries and responses and provides a process for insurers or producers to seek additional time when testing a value-added product or service.
Committee staff said HB 2,043 requires that "an inquiry from the commissioner of insurance that is related to a particular matter" be made within 14 calendar days, and the House Committee amended the bill to standardize several timeframes to 14 calendar days. During Senate consideration, members debated and adopted an amendment clarifying different timelines: inquiries relating to consumer complaints are subject to a 14-calendar-day trigger, while department-initiated informational inquiries retain a 15-business-day response period.
Senator Gossage offered the amendment clarifying the timelines and explained the rationale: consumer complaints should be handled as quickly as possible, but the department and insurers requested longer timelines for other informational inquiries. The committee also adopted an amendment substituting publication in the Kansas Register for the statute book as the effective-date mechanism.
Committee members discussed but did not offer a pilot-program amendment on the floor; one senator said she would not offer a previously contemplated pilot amendment because it would complicate the process, and she asked that the Senate's position from a companion bill be considered later.
Senator Fagg moved to pass HB 2,043 as amended; Senator Gossage seconded. The committee chair called the voice vote and declared the bill passed in committee and ready for scheduling on the floor.
Senator Francisco asked whether statutory references used "Insurance Department" or "Department of Insurance" in several places and whether the committee should update language now. Committee staff replied the cleanup could not be made until HB 2,333 (the department rename bill) passes and a later cleanup bill is filed; members agreed to leave the language as written pending that cleanup.
