News Currents

Lawsuit reform bills advance in Okla. Senate

The Oklahoma Senate recently passed three key lawsuit reform measures, according to a Senate announcement.

Senate Republican leaders said they are negotiating with Senate Democrats and leaders of the House of Representatives to develop a comprehensive lawsuit reform package that can win a majority vote in both houses of the Legislature.

The lawsuit reform bills passed by the Oklahoma Senate include:

• SB 1024 by Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward. This legislation helps teachers and school officials maintain discipline and order by providing lawsuit protections for educators.

• SB 507 by Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City. This legislation provides protection from lawsuits to volunteers and firearms manufacturers.

• SB 824 by Sen. Susan Paddack, D-Ada. This legislation takes a small step toward addressing a December decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that struck down some lawsuit protections for physicians.

Source: Oklahoma Senate

Okla. Commissioner: Faith-based benefit firm considered an insurer

A Tulsa, Okla.-based Christian organization that pools member money to pay medical bills, but says it isn’t an insurance company, is still going to be treated like one, a state official said.

Medi-Share, a Christian Care ministry of the mission-driven American Evangelical Association, will have to prove to the state it can cover claims that members file, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said Mar. 14.

“If it looks like a rose and smells like a rose, then it’s a rose,” Holland said. “We are going to treat Medi-Share like an insurance company.”

But Robert Baldwin, the group’s president, said his organization has no money on reserve other than members’ shared dollars being processed before going to pay a medical bill.

Oklahoma Insurance Code has not historically applied to Medi-Share because it was considered a religious group that helped members with health-care costs but does not promise to pay or assume risk for those costs.

But District Judge Joe Vassar decided recently that wasn’t the case, ruling earlier this month that Medi-Share was “involved in the offering of contracts for insurance” and wasn’t exempt from state Insurance Department regulation.

Judges in four other states have made similar rulings, but Baldwin said Medi-Share still operates in those states: South Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Montana.

He said the group would likely appeal the court’s decision.

“We do believe the ability for Christians to share medical bills on a nonprofit, noninsurance basis should be preserved,” he said.

“If it looks like a rose and smells like a rose, then it’s a rose,” Holland said. “We are going to treat Medi-Share like an insurance company.”