SB 488: Insurers: data reporting.

Session Year: 2017-2018
House: Senate

Version:

Existing law requires each admitted insurer with premiums written equal to or in excess of $100,000,000 to periodically submit to the Insurance Commissioner a report on its minority, women, and disabled veteran business enterprise procurement efforts, as specified, and subjects an insurer to a civil penalty if the insurer fails to file the report. Existing law requires the commissioner to maintain a link on the Internet Web site of the Department of Insurance that provides public access to the contents of each report. Existing law provides that these provisions shall remain in effect until January 1, 2019.

This bill would add veteran and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) business enterprises to the entities for which the reporting described above is required. The bill would require each admitted insurer to report information about which procurements are made from minority, women, disabled veteran, veteran, and LGBT business enterprises with at least a majority of the enterprises workforce in California. The bill would require each admitted insurer to submit a report regarding its governing board and board diversity efforts at the same time that it submits the report on procurement efforts. The bill would make an individual governing board members participation in the collection of data regarding governing board diversity voluntary. The bill would require the Insurance Commissioner to maintain a link on the Internet Web site of the Department of Insurance that provides public access to the aggregate of governing board and board diversity data reported by insurers. The bill would provide that governing board and board diversity data collected pursuant to these provisions is confidential, would require the department to keep confidential any information that could be used to identify an individual participating board member, and, except as specified, would prohibit the release of that information by an insurer or the department. The bill would require each report to be submitted on July 1, 2018, and then biennially thereafter. The bill would extend the operation of these provisions to January 1, 2025.

Existing law authorizes the commissioner to obtain information from insurers through various means, including an examination of the business and affairs of the insurer, or by the issuance of subpoenas or subpoenas duces tecum for witnesses to attend, testify, and produce documents before him or her on any subject touching insurance business or in the aid of his or her duties, as specified.

This bill would authorize the commissioner to require any class of insurers to respond to a data call by adopting an emergency regulation, as provided, if the data call directly relates to specified subjects. The bill would authorize the commissioner to initiate a data call on other subjects through an adopted regulation or other specific statutory authorization. The bill would limit the commissioners authority to issue a data call, except as provided, would require the commissioner to limit the subject of data calls to activity within the state, and would prohibit the commissioner from initiating a data call to obtain information that is otherwise available through other specified means.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

Discussed in Hearing