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Senate Bill 698 |
Senate Author: Ellis |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
House Sponsor: Thompson |
Senate Bill 698 amends the Insurance Code to require the commissioner of insurance, not later than January 1, 2010, to establish a registry of each legal entity engaged in the business of insurance in Texas that, formally or informally, has entered into an agreement with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) that disposes of allegations of race-based pricing and under which all or part of the relief agreed on to make insureds whole includes a claims-made offer that remains in place and has not otherwise expired under the terms of the agreement. The bill requires the registry to be prominently published on TDI's Internet website, to identify each insurance company that has entered into such an agreement and the eligibility and terms of the insurance company's claims-made offer, and to include a claim form and links to the Internet website of the company administrating the offer.
Senate Bill 698 requires TDI to preserve all relevant documents regarding race-based pricing that TDI has gathered or created with respect to a race-based pricing investigation that is completed or ongoing on September 1, 2009, with certain exceptions, until the documents are eligible for delivery. The bill requires TDI, on completion of its investigation, but not later than January 15, 2011, to deliver the required records or copies of the records to the state archivist, and requires the state archives to preserve and catalogue the records and make them available to the public not later than January 15, 2015.