SCORING BILL PASSES OKLA. LEGE

The Oklahoma Legislature has approved an insurance scoring bill based on model legislation developed by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), according to the American Insurance Association (AIA). John Marlow, AIA assistant vice president, southwest region, said while SB 539 places limits on insurers’ use of insurance scores, “it also provides important consumer protections and affirms the right of insurers to use this accurate and cost-effective underwriting tool.” Major provisions of SB 539 include: Prohibits an insurer from denying, canceling, non-renewing or basing renewal rates solely on the basis of credit information, without consideration of any other applicable underwriting factor; Requires an insurer to disclose to an applicant for insurance that credit information will be used in underwriting and rating; Requires an insurer to notify a consumer in the event of an adverse action based on credit information, including up to four factors that were the primary reasons for the adverse action; Prohibits insurers from using certain information in scoring models, including income, gender, address, zip code, ethnic group, religion, marital status, or nationality of the consumer as a factor; and Limits the manner in which an insurer may handle a consumer who lacks credit information or for whom no score can be generated.

Topics Carriers