Challenger Presses Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner on MVR Fees

The Republican running to replace the current insurance commissioner in Oklahoma in the November election is seeking to make increased fees for access to motor vehicle records a campaign issue.

During the last legislative session, state lawmakers raised to $25 the amount Oklahomans pay for a copy of a motor vehicle report.

John Doak claims that by refusing to challenge the fee hike, Commissioner Kim Holland, a Democrat, has shown she “does not understand the ramifications this fee increase will have on the insurance industry and consumers.”

Doak says the increase, contained in a bill that passed on the last day of the 2010 legislative session, made Oklahoma’s fee for such records the highest in the nation.

“There are countless hard-working commercial drivers as well as insurance companies and agents who require copies of these records for reasons from employment to insurance underwriting,” Doak said. “The additional costs will be passed on directly to the consumer.”

Doak has filed a lawsuit against the State of Oklahoma and the Department of Public Safety in the District Court of Oklahoma County to stop the fee increase.

Oklahoma Assistant Insurance Commissioner Marc Young told Insurance Journal that while Commissioner Holland is concerned about the fee increase, the Oklahoma Insurance Department has no jurisdiction over the new law.

“This law, which went into effect more than three months ago, falls under Title 47 and therefore the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety – and not under the Oklahoma insurance code,” Young said. “For the Department to expend resources challenging a law we have no legal standing to contest would not only be unwise, it would be unethical.”

Young said Holland reached out to industry professionals before the law went into effect. “The use of the Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) is voluntary, and a number of companies have indicated to us that they will restrict or eliminate their use of it going forward. These insurers also alerted the Commissioner that they have other means of getting this information,” he said.

According to Doak, the average cost in the region for “a copy of a driving record is slightly more than $7 – charging $25 is ridiculous.”

Holland was successful earlier this year in overturning a law that would have implemented a 1 percent fee on claims paid by private health insurers and companies with self-insured health care plans. The state Supreme Court in August sided with the insurance department and ruled the law unconstitutional.

The insurance department asserted that the bill failed to get a required three-fourths vote when it passed the House and Senate late in the legislative session.

The Independent Insurance Agents of Oklahoma has said the law would have increased health premiums for Oklahomans as insurers passed the increased cost of doing business in the state on to consumers.

Topics Oklahoma