News Archive

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler sent another letter today to insurers providing them with additional time to respond to his request for specific information about consumers’ premiums after they removed credit as a rating factor for auto, homeowners and renters insurance.

Twelve companies representing 5.2% of the auto insurance market responded to his initial request for specific data on how removing credit impacted their policyholders.  “I’m extremely disappointed that the majority of insurance companies are not being transparent with me or the people of…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has extended two emergency orders. His order requiring health insurers to waive copays and deductibles for any consumer requiring testing for the coronavirus (COVID-19) and his order protecting consumers from receiving surprise bills for lab fees related to medically necessary diagnostic testing for COVID-19 are both extended until Jan. 28.

Kreidler's order waiving cost-sharing applies to all state-regulated health insurance plans and short-term, limited-duration medical plans. The order on…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A rule to solidify access to gender-affirming health care in Washington state takes effect Jan. 1, 2022. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler adopted the rule on Nov. 30, 2021, which sets into state law the Gender Affirming Treatment Act (SB 5313), passed by the Washington state Legislature in 2021. 

The rule clarifies several aspects of the existing law to ensure medically necessary gender-affirming treatments are covered by health insurers. The wording in the rule previously allowed insurers to deny coverage in a way that subverted the intent of the law.…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Former insurance agent Vicki Boser, 58, of Snohomish, Wash., was sentenced to prison in federal court on Dec. 7 for wire fraud involving an insurance fraud case initiated by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU) and investigated in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Boser owned and operated InsuranceTek, Inc., from 2003 until Kreidler revoked her license in 2017. 

Kreidler’s investigators found that Boser fraudulently signed policies on…