BILL NUMBER: SB 156	AMENDED
	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.