California Senate Bill SB156 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: SB 156AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 16, 2009 AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 20, 2009 AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 14, 2009 INTRODUCED BY Senator Wright FEBRUARY 12, 2009 An act to add Section 1879.1 to the Insurance Code, relating to insurance fraud. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 156, as amended, Wright. Insurance: fraud prevention and detection. Existing law generally provides for the prevention, detection, and investigation of insurance fraud.  Under existing law,   Existing law requires  insurers are required  to disclose to an authorized governmental agency information relative to incidents of workers' compensation fraud, as specified. This bill would authorize the Department of Insurance  or a district attorney  to convene meetings with  an insurance company   insurance companies  to discuss  a specific insurance fraud and would provide that any person sharing information pursuant to that authorization would be protected from civil liability   specific information concerning suspected, anticipated, or completed acts of insurance fraud and would protect a person sharing information pursuant to that authorization from civil liability  , as specified. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following: (a) The California Department of Insurance regulates more than 123 billion dollars ($123,000,000,000) of insurance business annually. Workers' compensation business accounted for 11.5 billion dollars ($11,500,000,000) of that business as of 2006. (b) A report issued by the Department of Insurance Advisory Task Force in May of 2008 estimated that insurance fraud of regulated businesses amounts to costs of 15 billion dollars ($15,000,000,000) per year, costing each resident an average of more than five hundred dollars ($500) per year. (c) Perpetrators often defraud more than one insurance program. An effective antifraud effort requires greater cooperation, coordination, and communication of impacted insurers, services, and regulating agencies. (d) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory provisions to provide law enforcement regulators and the regulated community additional insurance antifraud tools and protections. SEC. 2. Section 1879.1 is added to the Insurance Code, to read: 1879.1. The  commissioner,   commissioner   or  his or her designated deputy  commissioner, or a district attorney, or his or her designated deputy district attorney, may convene meetings with representatives of an insurance company to discuss a specific insurance fraud. Information shared during the course of those meetings that is related to a specific insurance fraud shall be protected by the provisions of Section 1873.2.   commissioner may convene meetings with representatives of insurance companies to discuss specific information concerning suspected, anticipated, or completed acts of insurance fraud. Information shared during the course of those meetings that is related to suspected, anticipated, or completed acts of insurance fraud, in the absence of fraud or malice, shall not make a person subject to civil liability for libel, slander, or any other relevant cause of action.