On this episode of OIC Answers On Campus miniseries, Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45th District) joins Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer to discuss House Bill 2394, which was request legislation by the OIC.

Insurance fraud has gotten a little more complex in the last two decades. House Bill 2394 gives the Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s Criminal Investigations Unit a few more tools to catch those fraudsters.

The Protecting consumers by modernizing Washington’s insurance fraud laws bill expands the definition of insurance fraud and expands the definition of “victims of insurance fraud” to include insurance consumers and insurance beneficiaries and make them eligible for criminal restitution. It authorizes those criminal investigators to investigate other crimes that impact the insurance industry, or insurance consumers or beneficiaries.

It also includes a rare instance of adding a felony to state law, with “insurance fraud” becoming a Class B felony rather than a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor.