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 March 21, 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…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A bill to ban insurers (Senate Bill 5010) from using consumers’ credit scores to determine auto and homeowner insurance premiums was gutted by an insurance industry amendment in the Senate Business, Financial Services & Trade Committee on Feb. 15. 

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler for two decades has called out the unfairness of insurers’ use of credit scoring and has requested a ban twice, first in 2001 and later in 2010 during the economic recession. Now, as consumers struggle with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic…

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Vijay K. Prasad pleaded guilty in King County Superior Court on Jan. 27 to attempted insurance fraud in connection with an auto insurance claim. Prasad will serve 20 days in a community alternative program and will be on unsupervised probation for 20 months.  

Officials charged Prasad in 2019 after an investigation by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU).  

According to the investigation, Prasad filed an auto insurance claim with Progressive Insurance on Sept. 20, 2018. She stated that she was in a collision on…

UPDATE: After we published this news release, Bryan Caraway contacted the Benton County Prosecutor's Office to reschedule his arraignment hearing to March 11 in Benton County Superior Court. He is now removed from Kreidler's insurance fraud most wanted. 

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Bryan Caraway, of Richland, Wash., joined Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s insurance fraud most wanted after he failed to appear in Benton County Superior Court to face several felony charges. A bench warrant for his arrest was issued on Feb. 4 and bail is set for $100. 

If you have…