PCI SAYS INSURERS SURVIVE COLORADO LEGISLATIVE SESSION:

At the conclusion of Colorado’s recent legislative session, PCI said that the insurance industry successfully worked to preserve Colorado’s stable marketplace. Colorado’s insurance scoring law, which is based on the National Conference of Insurance Legislators model act, remained intact after three attempts to ban insurers’ use of credit information. Senate Bill 137, identity theft legislation that would allow a consumer to put a freeze on his or her credit information, morphed from being one of the nation’s worst bills on this subject from an insurance perspective to being one that excluded insurance from its provisions, according to PCI. Lawmakers also rejected three separate bills that would have prohibited the workers’ compensation guaranty fund from seeking reimbursement from large employers. Another workers’ comp bill, SB 134, requires that all expert testimony in a workers’ comp case be presented through deposition. PCI and others asked Gov. Owens to veto the bill. Gov. Owens vetoed legislation, SB 25, which would have put in place automatic inflation adjustments for the cap on non-economic damages. The bill would have increased the cap on non-economic damages from $366,000 to $440,000 next year and allowed for additional increases on an annual basis.