| Prepared by FOCUS Government Affairs
Connecticut’s legislative session came to an ended on May 4th . Due to the shortness of the session, legislators indicated they wanted to keep the volume of bills to a minimum due to time restraints. Instead, their focus was on a few bigger issues so as to not put too much strain on the nonpartisan staff during this hybrid session. Since the February 9th start date, over 1,244 pieces of legislation were raised, introduced, and proposed, over 600 amendments were filed, 1,042 bills scheduled for a public hearing and 318 pieces of legislation passed both chambers (including the dozens of judicial, executive, and legislative nominations). Some major democratic priorities were passed this session including, but not limited to, the budget, SEBAC agreement, bills addressing children’s mental health, the CT Clean Air Act, and juvenile justice. Other democratic priorities such as aid in dying, allowing striking employees to collect unemployment, and housing affordability, did not advance. Though the job of Connecticut legislators is mostly finished until next year, Governor Lamont’s has since begun singing passed legislation into law. This bill establishes a framework for controlling and processing personal data. As it relates to insurance, the bill specifically exempts both the data and the relevant entity provided they abide by the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) provisions. It also does not include a private right of action, instead only allowing the Attorney General to bring claims. This is an improvement on the 2021 version of the bill, which had a data-level exemption but not an entity exemption, which could have created a number of compliance costs for member companies. Big I Connecticut had issued an action alert on the bill last year as well as testifying this year, and the entity-level exemption was added in the 2022 version of the bill. This bill makes many minor and technical changes. It replaces the term “administrative law judge” or “Chairman” with “chairperson” in several places in the workers’ compensation act. It also makes consistent in many sections of the act the method for delivering notices required in various steps of the workers compensation process by allowing service in person or by registered or certified mail, which are already allowed in another workers’ compensation law on notice process.
Big I Connecticut issues an action alert on this bill urging members to contact their State Representative to oppose the bill. While this bill did pass the Senate, it was ultimately not called in the House and failed this session. The bill would have allowed any employee covered by workers’ compensation law to qualify for PTSI benefits if certain qualifying events occur in the course of the employee’s employment. Current law allows for workers compensation benefits for PTSI to only first responders. This bill was a priority of Insurance Commissioner Mais, which Big I Connecticut testified in support of. This bill allows certain insurance providers (i.e., insurers, fraternal benefit societies, attorneys, insurance producers, and others) to provide, under certain conditions, value-added products or services to a customer (e.g., insured, certificate holder, or applicant) at no cost or a reduced cost even though the product or service is not specified in the customer’s insurance policy. Although current law prohibits providing a customer with any consideration or inducement not specified in an insurance policy, Insurance Department Bulletin S-18 (December 18, 2019) already makes some allowance for value-added products or services. Under the bill, the value-added products or services must (1) relate to the customer’s insurance coverage; (2) be designed to provide loss control, reduce claim costs, or enhance health or financial wellness, among other things; and (3) be provided in a fair and nondiscriminatory way. Examples of this may be a sensor for a home water heater that alerts before a leak occurs, or GPS tracking to monitor safe driving habits. The bill also authorizes the insurance providers to offer or give a non- cash gift, item, or service to or on behalf of a customer in connection with an insurance contract under certain specified conditions (e.g., the offer must be at a reasonable cost and be fair and nondiscriminatory). Additionally, the bill prohibits the insurance providers from (1) offering or providing insurance as an inducement to purchase another insurance policy or (2) using the words “free” or “no cost,” or words with similar meaning, in any advertisement. This bill makes several changes affecting motor vehicle recyclers, scrap metal processors, junk dealers, junk yard owners and operators, and motor vehicle repair shops regarding the receipt and sale of catalytic converters. For motor vehicle recyclers, the bill generally prohibits them from (1) receiving a vehicle’s catalytic converter unless it is attached to a vehicle and (2) selling or transferring a converter unless they affix or write a stock number onto it. For scrap metal processors, junk dealers, and junk yard owners and operators, the bill establishes several recordkeeping requirements and other conditions for receiving a catalytic converter that is not attached to a vehicle. Among other things, it prohibits anyone other than a motor vehicle recycler or motor vehicle repair shop from selling more than one unattached converter to a scrap metal processor, junk dealer, or junk yard owner or operator in a day. The Insurance Association of CT testified in support of the bill, stating that this will help reduce the number of thefts and therefore the number of claims filed with insurance companies. This bill was not raised initially by the Insurance committee, creating an uphill climb. While the bill ultimately did not advance, we worked with PIA to have the House Chair of Insurance file an amendment on this language asking for our language so we will be better positioned and have a legislative document to work off of in advance of the 2023 session.
|