On October 22, 2012, The State of Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) fined BCS Insurance Company for issuing policy forms that were not filed with and approved by the OIC. BCS insurance had only two travel insurance policy forms filed and approved by the Washington OIC. Between 2007 and 2009, BCS issued over 500,000 travel insurance policies on up to 72 different forms, that deviated from the two filed and approved forms. The forms omitted language, changed the order of contract sections and filed language which was not incorporated into policy forms.
Likewise BCS Insurance applied rates which were not previously approved by the OIC and which did not conform to the approved rates that were filed. Rates for identical benefits were inconsistent depending on who the insured was.
BCS was fined $750,000, $250,000 of which was suspended and will be dropped provided BCS commits no similar violations for two years. BCS has agreed to pay the initial fine and agreed to a two- year plan which included enacting internal audits to insure compliance withWashingtonStatelaws.