Bill Text: CA AB1148 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Workers’ compensation insurance reporting.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-05-19 - Referred to Com. on L., P.E. & R. [AB1148 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB1148-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1148
| Introduced by Assembly Member Daly |
February 18, 2021 |
An act to amend Sections 11752.75 and 11752.8 of, and to repeal Section 11759.2 of, the Insurance Code, relating to insurance.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1148, as introduced, Daly.
Workers’ compensation insurance reporting.
Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including workers’ compensation insurance. Existing law requires a licensed rating organization to establish and maintain an internet website to assist a person in determining if an employer is insured for workers’ compensation. Existing law required the Insurance Commissioner to review and evaluate the establishment and operation of the internet website, assess whether the internet website is achieving its purpose, and report the findings to specified legislative and executive entities no later than July 1, 2013.
This bill would require the commissioner to review and evaluate the operation of a licensed rating organization’s internet website and assess whether the internet website is achieving its purpose at least every 5 years, beginning in 2023. The bill would require the commissioner to
provide a written report on the findings no later than July 1, 2023, and no later than July 1 of each reporting year thereafter. The bill would also make technical, nonsubstantive changes and delete obsolete provisions.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 11752.75 of the Insurance Code is amended to read:11752.75.
(a) (1) Notwithstanding any other(2) An Internet Web site
internet website
developed pursuant to this section shall not include any links to a commercial, for-profit Internet Web site, internet website, other than a link to the licensed rating organization’s homepage, and shall not contain any advertising other than the name, logo, and contact information of the licensed rating organization.
(b)The Internet Web site shall:
(b) The internet website shall:
(1) Permit a person to submit a query for coverage information concerning a specified employer on a specified date. The specified date shall be within five years of the date of query.
(2) Permit the query to specify an employer, using the name, address, or other identifying information of the employer, or combinations of identifying information, as may be provided by regulations adopted by the commissioner. Other identifying information may include, but need not be limited to, the employer’s federal employer identification number.
(3) In response to the query, provide the name of the workers’ compensation insurer or insurers for the employer on the date specified in the query according to the most recent information available to the rating organization, subject to paragraph (7), and provide a contact address for the
insurer from information available to the rating organization, or by providing a hypertext link to insurer information available on the department’s Internet Web site.
internet website.
(4) Be accessible for inquiries without charge. However, the commissioner may, at his or her the commissioner’s discretion, permit the rating organization to impose access restrictions as necessary to deter the use of the Internet Web site internet website for purposes other than those for which it was intended.
(5) Contain a hypertext link to the Department of Industrial Relations’ Internet Web site
internet website for the purpose of locating employers who may be self-insured.
(6) Include any disclaimers that the commissioner may prescribe.
(7) Be updated to reflect policy information as soon as is reasonably feasible following submission of that information by insurers to the rating organization, as the commissioner shall require.
(8) Include a disclaimer stating that the search results may not reflect recent changes in information.
(9) Include a disclaimer stating that the failure of an employer to appear in response to a query does not mean that the employer does not have insurance or is operating in violation of California law.
(10) Include
the date that the Internet Web site
internet website was last updated.
(c) A rating organization shall not be required to disclose on the Internet Web site internet website any policy numbers, inception or expiration dates, or confidential information, as defined by the commissioner.
(d) The Internet Web site internet website specified in this section shall become operative no later than one year after the effective date of regulations adopted by the commissioner implementing this section.
(e) The commissioner shall adopt regulations to implement this section no later than January 1, 2011. These regulations shall specify a method by which an employer may dispute through the rating organization or the employer’s insurance company the accuracy of the information displayed on the Internet Web site. internet website.
(f) No A rating organization, member of a rating organization, or member of a committee of a rating organization when acting within his or her
their capacity as a member of the committee, or officer or employee of a rating organization when acting within the scope of his or her employment, shall not be liable to any a person for injury, personal or otherwise, or damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, either directly or indirectly, by the good faith disclosure of information pursuant to this section, or for the accuracy or completeness of any information disclosed in good faith.
(g) This section shall not be construed to
does not create liability except as provided in this section, nor as and is not a legislative recognition that, except for the enactment of this section, a liability would exist.
(h) Nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting This section does not limit the authority of a rating organization to disclose information contained in its records to others.
(i) The commissioner shall
shall, at least every five years beginning in 2023, conduct a review and evaluation of the establishment and operation of the Internet Web site internet website and an assessment of whether it is achieving its intended purpose and provide a written report on his or her the commissioner’s findings no later than July 1, 2013. 2023, and no later than
July 1 of each reporting year thereafter. The report shall include, to the extent possible, statistics on usage, error rates, user complaints, and efforts undertaken by the commissioner to improve the operation of the Internet Web site. internet website. The commissioner shall present a copy of the report to the office of the President pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Senate Committee on Banking, Finance and Insurance, the Assembly Committee on Insurance, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Industrial Relations and shall make it available on the Internet Web site
internet website of the Department of Insurance.
SEC. 2.
Section 11752.8 of the Insurance Code is amended to read:11752.8.
(a) For all policies of insurance issued, or renewed for the first time on or after January 1, 1995, the insurer shall provide a notice, approved by the commissioner, to the policyholder, explaining in easily understandable language the workers’ compensation rating laws.(b) The notice required by this section may be combined with the notice
required by subdivision (h) of Section 11752.6.
SEC. 3.
Section 11759.2 of the Insurance Code is repealed.(a)A licensed rating organization designated as the Insurance Commissioner’s statistical agent shall prepare a report to be submitted to the Insurance Commissioner by April 1, 2003, on the potential underreporting of workers’ compensation exposure in the taxicab industry. The report shall include an analysis of workers’ compensation exposure, loss, and premium in the taxicab industry. The licensed rating organization shall submit a report to the Governor, the Legislature, and the commissioner by May 1, 2003, that describes its findings.
(b)A licensed rating organization designated as the insurance commissioner’s statistical agent may confer with state agencies, including, but not limited to, the Employment Development Department, in the preparation of the study. The state agencies shall provide all necessary statistical or other information requested by the licensed rating organization designated as the Insurance Commissioner’s statistical agent.
