2019: Year-End report

2019 was a record-setting year with more than 200 bills being introduced and 68 new anti-fraud laws passed. 

Key victories were bills in New York making it a crime to be involved in staging an automobile accident and strong new restrictions on “storm chasing” roofing, siding and downspout contractors. In Florida, the Coalition partnered with others to successfully reform the state’s abuse-ridden assignment of benefits law, even though provisions related to auto glass claims were stripped from the bill at the last minute. Kentucky passed a sweeping law to bring insurance fraud penalties more in line with sentencing and fines imposed on other criminals and  in Texas a bill was passed to increase much needed salary funding for insurance fraud investigators. 

Earlier in the year, the first updating in 20 years was completed on the Coalition’s hallmark Model Insurance Fraud Act. 

In 2019 the Coalition spent considerable time addressing the proposed changes to California’s SIU regulations. This included attendance at meetings, the filing of two comment letters and testifying in Sacramento. We are anxiously awaiting the final version of the regulatory changes to be released sometime early in 2020. 

At the December NAIC meeting in Austin, Texas the Coalition partnered with the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership (HFPP) on two presentations to commissioners to acquaint them with the HFPP and its efforts to protect consumers from insurance fraud. 

Finally, we were honored to help educate world leaders on how the Coalition helps fight insurance fraud in the U.S. at October’s Global Insurance Fraud Summit in Barcelona. 16 nations attended the Summit exchanging information on how insurance fraud is addressed around the globe.