News Archive

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 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 May  16, 2021. 

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

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler ordered Christian Discount Alliance LLC, doing business as Shared Health Alliance, to immediately stop selling insurance illegally and issued a fine of $7,500. 

Shared Health Alliance was acting as an insurance producer for Alliance for Shared Health, which markets itself as a health care sharing ministry. Kreidler asserts that Alliance for Shared Health fails to meet the legal definition of a health care sharing ministry. In April 2020, he ordered it to stop doing business in Washington state and issued a fine of…

UPDATE: On April 15, 2021, Thurston County rescheduled the hearing for 11 a.m. on April 23, 2020.

The Zoom meeting ID is: 821 9697 0976

Passcode: 1234

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance companies hiding behind their industry associations contend no financial emergency exists during the current pandemic and that lower-income consumers in Washington deserve no protection from the discriminatory use of credit scores. 

In a lawsuit filed last week, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association challenged Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has extended his emergency order directing state-regulated health insurers that sell plans outside of the Exchange, Washington Healthplanfinder, to open a special enrollment through May 15 for people who are uninsured. 

Anyone who doesn’t have health insurance can buy a plan directly from an insurer or through the Exchange. Open enrollment through Washington Healthplanfinder continues through August 15. The Exchange is the only place you can get financial help, if you qualify. 

“Over 600,000…