Around the PIA Western Alliance States – Week of March 30, 2026

Hawaii — Storm Damage at Least $1 Billion: Aon’s report on the back-to-back storms that hit Hawaii earlier this month says damages from wind and flooding will hit $1 billion. Homes and businesses were hard hit and so was the state’s agriculture. Estimates for farmland damage is $9.4 million with Oahu seeing $2.7 million of that figure. 

Source link: Reinsurance News — https://bit.ly/4dmcwpU

Idaho — Work Comp for Coroners & Investigators PTSD: A bill has been introduced in the Idaho Legislature to offer workers’ compensation benefits for first responders experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from their jobs.

If SB 1425 passes it will add coroners and medicolegal death investigators to those able to claim a psychological injury from their duties.

Source link: Business Insurance — https://bit.ly/4m20Zyh

Idaho — Post Falls Church Fire Investigation Completed: Investigators with the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office have concluded their investigation into the March 15 fire that destroyed the River Church and Little Explorers preschool in Post Falls.

Initial reports from Kootenai County Fire & Rescue noted three separate burning areas inside the structure. Because this raised concern for possible criminal activity, additional resources were requested, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), an accelerant‑detection K‑9 team from Spokane County Fire District 4, and the Post Falls Police Department.

Investigative efforts focused on the three burn areas. Neither detection equipment nor the K‑9 team found evidence of accelerants. Investigators did find that each burn location involved a natural gas‑fueled appliance. Detailed examination revealed significant fire damage in and around appliance control valves and pilot lights. This led investigators to examine the building’s exterior natural gas regulator and meter.

The regulator was found to have deteriorated over time due to weather and other factors. This deterioration caused the regulator to fail in the open position, resulting in over‑pressurization of the building’s gas system and connected appliances.

The regulator and meter have been secured for further analysis by a forensic engineering laboratory on behalf of the building owner’s insurance carrier.

The fire has been officially classified as accidental.

Washington — From the Insurance Commissioner: I’ll be out on the road, joined by some of our insurance experts, starting this spring to meet with communities and hear about the insurance issues most important to them. So far, I’ve scheduled events in the Spokane area, including Medical Lake, in May for Wildfire Awareness Month with more events to come. You can learn more about this initiative and follow along for updates on upcoming events at our new web page. I hope to see you at one of our events!

With the 2026 legislative session in the rearview, I’m proud to report that ESHB 2242, the bill I jointly requested with Gov. Bob Ferguson, has been signed into law.

The bill keeps important preventive services like wellness visits and immunizations free for Washington residents. It ties the recommendations for those services to trained medical experts, not political appointees with no medical or scientific background. It’s a necessary step to counter recent federal actions on vaccine recommendations.

My office also requested five consumer protection bills, all of which failed to move out of the House Consumer Protection and Business committee before the Feb. 26 deadline. All but one of these bills passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support and I’m thankful for the work done by their original sponsors:

SSB 5331, sponsored by Sen. Adrian Cortez (D – Battle Ground), would grant the Insurance Commissioner authority to order insurers to give consumers their money back when an agent or company violates the law. A similar restitution bill requested by North Dakota’s Insurance Commissioner, Jon Godfread, was enacted in his state last year. SSB 5331 passed the Senate 29-20.

SB 6178, sponsored by Sen. Victoria Hunt (D – Issaquah) would prohibit post-loss assignment of benefits agreements and protect consumers from signing away their coverage rights during an insurance claim. The bill passed the Senate 48-0.

SB 6031, sponsored by Sen. John Lovick (D – Mill Creek) would modernize the state’s insurance fraud laws, giving the OIC’s Criminal Investigations Unit the tools it needs to fight increasingly sophisticated and complex insurance fraud. It would also classify insurance fraud as its own felony. The bill passed the Senate 49-0.

SB 5928, sponsored by Sen. Judy Warnick (D – Moses Lake) would require insurance companies to disclose details about their use of wildfire risk scores when those scores impact a consumer’s insurance costs and availability. Today, the biggest factor forcing a property owner into the state’s FAIR plan (the state’s insurer of last resort) is their wildfire risk.  The bill passed the Senate 48-1.

SB 6079, sponsored by Sen. Marcus Riccelli (D – Spokane) would create a voluntary wildfire mitigation grant program to help homeowners meet standards set by the IBHS to fortify their property against wildfire damage. Homeowners who met these standards would not be cancelled or nonrenewed due to wildfire risk. The pilot would be funded from the OIC’s regulatory account. The bill passed the Senate 37-11.

After a tame winter, we’re expecting a particularly dangerous wildfire season. The two wildfire bills would make a significant difference to the people in our state struggling to keep their homes insured due to increased wildfire risk.

We’ll have legislation back in front of our lawmakers next year and spend the coming months sharing information on how to protect and mitigate against wildfires, both physically and financially. The bills may be temporarily stopped, but our consumer protection work continues.

Developing our CODR Program

Last year, we launched the Consumer Outreach and Disaster Response Program to both better educate Washingtonians about insurance preparedness in advance of natural disasters and to support communities after disaster strikes. We deployed voluntary teams of staff from across our agency to 33 different community events in 50 days in response to the December flooding. I had the opportunity to stop by a Disaster Assistance Center in Issaquah and see firsthand what Washingtonians experience when they interact with us and other state agencies after one of the worst moments in their life. Our CODR team will be revisiting areas hit by the flooding in addition to areas of higher risk of wildfire for outreach events.

On Campus podcast series: https://bit.ly/4sRzPNq

We tried something new during the legislative session and hosted a variety of elected officials and lawmakers in my office for weekly episodes of the OIC Answers podcast. The On Campus miniseries featured appearances from Gov. Bob Ferguson, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Rep. Roger Goodman, Sen. Claire Wilson, Sen. Victoria Hunt, Sen. Marcus Riccelli and Sen. Shelli Short, as well as North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread and Delika Steele and Richelle Geiger from my own policy staff. We’ve got a recap of the full miniseries on our blog.