Latest Oklahoma Headlines
All the headlines from our Oklahoma Topic Page, ordered by recency.
HALLIBURTON ASBESTOS DEAL OK’D:
Dec 20 2004 // Houston’s Halliburton announced that settlement agreements involving asbestos claims were approved on Nov. 18, 2004, and Nov. 29, 2004. The Honorable Judith K. Fitzgerald approved settlements concerning asbestos...
Oklahoma: The Demise of an Insurance Commissioner
Dec 20 2004 // The dominating insurance story in Oklahoma in 2004 was undoubtedly the crash and fall of former Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher. Faced with multiple indictments on felony charges, numerous ethics reprimands, an...
Health Care Service May Add Okla.’s Largest Insurer
Dec 17 2004 // Health Care Service Corp. is considering adding Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma to its network of insurance providers in Illinois, Texas and New Mexico, according to the Associated Press and the Tulsa World. The...
Okla. Has Record Year for Low Workplace Injury, Illness
Dec 15 2004 // For the second year in a row, Oklahoma workplaces set records for the fewest number of recordable injuries and illness as well as the lowest injury and illness rate, according to the state’s Department of Labor. The...
Peterson to Chair Okla. House Ins. Committee
Dec 15 2004 // Rep. Ron Peterson is the new head of a legislative panel responsible for oversight of Oklahoma’s insurance industry, according to the Oklahoma House of Representatives Media Division. House Speaker-elect Todd Hiett,...
Okla. Legislator to Renew Effort to Make Insurance Commissioner an Appointed Position
Dec 13 2004 // A Tulsa, Okla.-area legislator plans to take up the mission he began nearly a year ago to change the position of state insurance commissioner to one that is appointed rather than elected. State Rep. John Trebilcock,...
Okla. Among Four Insurance Departments Receiving Accreditation Honors
Dec 7 2004 // Four state insurance departments received Accreditation Awards under the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Program. The honors were presented to...
Okla. SAYS ‘NO’ TO Fake Discounts:
Dec 6 2004 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department announced it has ordered three medical discount companies to cease doing business in the state. Insurance Department officials alleged that the companies sold cards that purported to...
Oklahoma Looks Ahead, Celebrates Those Who Served Before
Dec 6 2004 // With any luck, by the time you read this, it will be out of date. Why? I hope Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry will have appointed a new insurance commissioner for the Sooner State. One thing that will not change regardless of...
Former Okla. Insurance Agent Gets 97 Months
Nov 30 2004 // A former Shawnee, Okla., insurance agent was sentenced recently to 97 months in federal prison, but state prosecutors say the man has agreed to a much lengthier sentence for swindling scores of investors out of more than...
Okla. Orders Companies to Stop Fake Discounts
Nov 29 2004 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department announced it has ordered three medical discount companies to cease doing business in the state. Department officials alleged that the companies sold cards that purported to provide...
Okla. Approves NCCI Values for Terrorism, Catastrophes
Nov 22 2004 // Oklahoma’s State Board for Property and Casualty Rates announced its approval of NCCI’s Item B-1393—Miscellaneous Values for Domestic Terrorism, Earthquakes, and Catastrophic Industrial Accidents. The purpose...
Okla. Grand Jury Indictment Names Ellis
Nov 22 2004 // A Multicounty Grand Jury indictment unsealed late last week names former Oklahoma Insurance Department employee Opal Ellis on four counts of making a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim, Attorney General Drew Edmondson...
Industry in the Bull’s Eye
Nov 8 2004 // In the days after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a civil lawsuit against insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. for alleged commercial account steering and bid rigging, the insurance industry...
Oklahoma Okays Rate Increase for Med-Mal Insurer
Nov 5 2004 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department reported that a requested rate increase for medical professional liability insurance carrier NCMIC Insurance Company has been approved. NCMIC applied for a rate increase in August 2004,...
Oklahoma Sees Drop in Medical Malpractice Claims But Not Rates
Oct 25 2004 // In the year since Gov. Brad Henry signed the Affordable Access to Health Care Act (Senate Bill 629), Oklahoma has seen fewer medical malpractice lawsuits, the Associated Press reported. Between July 2003 and July 2004 the...
AG SUES ID THEFT PROTECTION CO.:
Oct 25 2004 // The Oklahoma attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against an Arizona telemarketing company after the company allegedly offered Oklahoma consumers a bogus identity theft protection service, Attorney General Drew...
Okla. Grand Jury Still Looking at Fisher
Oct 21 2004 // A state grand jury met Oct. 18 to continue its investigation into former Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher’s conduct, according to the Associated Press. Fisher, who is planning to move to California,...
Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Puts Pen to Paper, Resigns
Oct 11 2004 // With legal questions floating over him, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher resigned from office last month, days before his ouster trial in the Oklahoma State Senate was set to begin. Fisher has been under a...
Malpractice Claims Drop in Okla. a Year After Reforms
Oct 7 2004 // Reforms to Oklahoma’s civil justice system passed last year have contributed to a drop in medical malpractice cases, officials say. “Our claims have gone down as dramatically, if not more dramatically, than...
