OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) recovered 44.5% more money for policyholders in the first six months of this year than the agency recovered in all of last year, Commissioner Glen Mulready announced.
The OID recovered $5,129,962 from Jan. 1 through June 30 of this year, which was $1.58 million more than the $3,549,619 that the agency recovered in all of last year, Mulready said.
“These recovery amounts make a real impact on peoples’ lives, and Oklahomans should expect their insurance companies to keep the promises made to them,” he said.
OID’s Consumer Assistance Claims Division processes and assists consumers seeking help with their insurance companies. The division opened 3,061 files and answered 7,110 telephone calls during the first half of this year, OID Communications Director Liz Heigle reported.
Policyholders who have an issue with an insurance claim can file a “Request for Assistance” for various types of insurance: auto, home, commercial, life and health, service warranty, title or workers’ compensation.
Lydia Shirley, assistant commissioner in the Consumer Assistance Division, said the Insurance Department recovered more money on life and health claims than on property and casualty claims during the first six months of 2019. “That’s typical,” she said.
The Consumer Assistance Division can be contacted toll-free at 800-522-0071.
REGULATION
The state Insurance Department regulates insurance companies, bail bondsmen, title insurance companies, service warranty companies, funeral home trusts, real estate appraisers, professional employment organizations, cemetery merchandise trusts, charitable annuity trusts, and pharmacy benefits managers.
The agency also licenses third-party administrators who manage self-funded healthcare plans.
The department receives no appropriations of tax dollars from the Legislature, Heigle said. The agency is supported from licensing fees, she said.
Mulready, a 58-year-old Tulsa Republican, has 35 years of experience in the insurance industry.
He started in the business in 1984. During an interview last year, he told the Insurance Journal that he had been an insurance agent or broker for more than 20 years and spent 13 years serving at the executive level of the two largest health insurance companies in Oklahoma.
In 2007 he joined Benefit Plan Strategies, a company that helps businesses provide employee benefits and health insurance to their employees.
Mulready served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives for eight years, and was chairman of the House Insurance Committee, prior to his election as the State Insurance Commissioner.