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Senate Bill 14 |
Senate Author: Jackson, Mike et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-05 |
House Sponsor: Smithee |
Senate Bill 14 amends Insurance Code provisions relating to property and casualty insurance. It requires an insurer that is ordered to issue a refund of premiums for personal automobile insurance or residential property insurance determined to be excessive or unfairly discriminatory to also pay interest on the refund amount and prohibits an insurer that does not comply with the requirement from claiming a premium tax credit to which it would otherwise be entitled. For certain residential property insurance policies, the bill allows the use of an optional premium discount by an insurer that uses a tier classification or discount program with premiums based on claims experience, exempts certain types of claims from such a discount or from a premium surcharge on the renewal of such policies, and allows an insurer to assess the premium surcharge on a policy's renewal if one or more claims were filed in the preceding three policy years, rather than two or more claims in the preceding policy year.
In addition, Senate Bill 14 adds the Insurance Market Conduct Surveillance Act to the Insurance Code to establish a framework for the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) to oversee actions by the insurance market in the state by establishing protocols to identify, assess, and remedy market actions that adversely impact consumers, policyholders, and claimants. The bill requires TDI to collect market information by reviewing available public and private data and by performing targeted examinations of insurers no more than once every three years. It also authorizes the commissioner to impose sanctions for violations detected through market conduct oversight.