On January 4, the Rhode Island legislature easily overrode the Governor’s veto of legislation to require insurers to pay for markup on certain auto body shop expenses.
The “Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act”, H bill 6324 and S bill 870, had passed both houses of the legislature on July 1 and was vetoed two weeks later. The override was taken up by the legislature as they returned for the 2022 Legislative Session.
The bill requires insurers to pay auto body shops for necessary sublet services including electronic calibration. The new law:
1) clarifies that the unlawful “unfair practice” of refusing to compensate an auto body shop for documented charges can be identified by the use of current version automotive industry software programs, including Mitchell’s RMC, PMC Logic and Micromix, and prohibits the insurer from discounting documented charges by failing to use a system in its entirety, including an automotive industry standard markup, and
2) makes it an unfair practice for an insurer to refuse to pay an auto body repair shop for documented necessary sublet services for specialty or unique services such as towing, transportation, suspension, alignment, electronic calibrations, diagnostic work and mechanical work.
For the full text of the legislation CLICK HERE.