How to Reduce Your Wildfire Risk

A wildfire is an unplanned fire that burns in a natural area such as a forest, grassland, or prairie. Wildfires are often caused by humans or lightning and can happen anywhere at any time. Wildfire...

What is Roadside Assistance?

Roadside assistance helps you when your vehicle breaks down. Some companies automatically include this coverage, but it is often an optional coverage that can be added to your auto policy. It is...

OPIC’s 2019 Achievements

OPIC has been working hard for consumers this year, analyzing over 2,100 rules, rates, and policy forms. We are a small, 10-person agency, but we did big things in 2019, saving Texas consumers over...

Understanding PIP vs Med-Pay

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and Medical Payments (Med-Pay) are auto coverages that pay regardless of who is at fault in an accident. While these coverages have some things in common, they are...

Avoid Contractor Fraud After a Disaster

After a tornado or storm, you may need to hire a contractor to fix damage to your home. It’s important to be aware of common contracting scams that occur after disasters, and how to go about the...

OPIC Staff Shop Their Policies

OPIC always encourages consumers to shop around for insurance, so we took our own advice and did the same. OPIC staff recently shopped for our own policies to see if we could get a better deal on...

What You Need to Know About Medical Codes

What Are Medical Codes? Medical codes are the way doctors and other healthcare professionals describe medical diagnoses and treatments. These codes are important for understanding how medical...

Avoiding a Car Crash

Each year over 6.5 million car accidents happen in the United States. These crashes result in 2.75 million injuries and 34,000 deaths every year (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)....

Know Your Coverage: Air Ambulances

What is an air ambulance? Air ambulances are medical transport aircraft such as helicopters or airplanes that take patients to medical facilities. Like regular ground ambulances, air ambulances have...

Insurance Consumer Protections from the 2019 Legislative Session

The 86th Texas Legislative Session concluded on May 27, 2019. Several bills passed that positively impact Texas insurance consumers. Below are summaries highlighting some of the consumer protection...

Policy Comparison Tool

Agent Comment Portal

Highlights and News

OPIC's Kimberly Donovan Named 2020 NAIC Consumer Liaison Representative

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recently announced their 2020 Consumer Liaison Representatives. OPIC’s Chief Policy Analyst, Kimberly Donovan has been appointed as one of the funded Consumer Liaison Representatives. The Consumer Liaison Program “promotes consumer interaction with the NAIC’s members, the insurance industry and interested parties through the individuals’ dedication and commitment to serving the public interest,” an NAIC press release said.

OPIC Provides Comments on TWIA Rate Recommendation

OPIC sent comments to TWIA regarding their 5% rate increase recommendation made on November 19, 2019. OPIC asks TWIA Board to delay rate vote pending additional information regarding the hurricane modelers.

OPIC’s Letter to TWIA

Now Accepting Applications for TAIPA Alternate Public Member

OPIC is seeking applicants to serve as an alternate public member for the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association (TAIPA). TAIPA provides auto insurance to qualifying Texans in order to help them comply with the requirements of the Texas Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act. The deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 17, 2020.

For more information and to apply, visit our TAIPA Application page.

OPIC Creates Claims Handling Information Pages

Suffering damage or loss to your home or auto can be stressful. Filing a claim doesn’t have to be. OPIC created pages dedicated to residential property claims, first-party auto claims and third-party auto claims. These pages include tips on filing a claim, what to expect during the claims handling process, and what to do if there is a problem with your claim.

OPIC Provides Comments on TWIA Rate Analysis

OPIC sent comments to TWIA regarding their rate adequacy analysis on July 31, 2019. We expressed concerns with the methodologies and assumptions used, and that TWIA’s overall rate indication is inflated.

TWIA Rate Adequacy Analysis Letter

2018-2019 Guide to Texas HMO Quality Report Released

OPIC published the 2018-2019 edition of our Guide to Texas HMO Quality report. You can download and print a copy or request a copy to be mailed to you.

Tweets by TXOPIC