Texas Insurance Department to Seek Input on Rules that Need to Be Updated

The Texas Department of Insurance announced plans for a structured process to begin later this year to collect suggestions on departmental rules that need updating.

The department said best practices, strong consumer protection, modernization, user-friendly processes and clear communication are goals for improvements happening across every program at the agency. As part of that focus, Insurance Commissioner Kent Sullivan will be issuing a call later this year to identify specific agency rules that need to be updated or changed.

“We want people to comply with the law,” Sullivan said in TDI’s announcement. “To facilitate that, you have to make sure your rules and processes are user-friendly. We’ll be asking interested stakeholders to identify any rules that make compliance unreasonably difficult or that they find to be ambiguous, out of date, or inconsistent with statute.”

TDI staff are working on a structured process and timeline to collect, review and prioritize suggestions about specific rules that need to be modernized or changed. Details about the process will be provided later this year.

“We want to announce this now so our stakeholders have plenty of time to think through their suggestions,” Sullivan said. “It will be most helpful when interested parties can tell us exactly what issue or confusion the current language causes and have proposals on how we can change it. That information also will help us determine which rules need to be updated and how to prioritize those projects.”

Sullivan noted that the agency’s rulemaking standards remain the same. “Our rules must be authorized by and consistent with state law,” he said. “We also will continue to review our rules on a regular schedule as required by law. This project is an additional effort to identify rules that need to be modernized.”

Source: TDI

Topics Texas