This bill (Substitute House Bill 1793) modifies existing Washington law by amending RCW 42.56.400, RCW 48.05.320, and RCW 48.50.040 to create new procedural reporting duties for insurers and to change public disclosure, confidentiality, and information‑sharing rules relating to fire losses. It requires an authorized insurer to report each in‑state fire loss reported to the insurer to the insurance commissioner within 90 days of closing a claim or any subsequent non‑de minimis adjustment or investigation, with the commissioner prescribing the manner of reporting (including via a third‑party vendor). Minimum required report elements include the property zip code, date of loss, amounts paid by coverage, known or suspected origin and cause (including whether criminal activity is suspected or undetermined), and the insurer’s NAIC company number. If an insurer knows or suspects a loss may be due to criminal activity, the insurer must immediately report details and the basis for the suspicion to local or tribal law enforcement and to the commissioner and, upon request, provide investigative materials. The bill makes the reports, data, investigations, and related materials confidential and privileged by law, exempts them from public disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW (adding item (32) to RCW 42.56.400), and limits civil subpoenas and testimony about the information while preserving cooperation in criminal matters. It authorizes the insurance commissioner to share the confidential information with specified recipients (including the NAIC and affiliates, other regulatory and law enforcement authorities, state agencies, rating bureaus, the state fire marshal, and in‑state prosecutors, fire chiefs, and fire marshals) and sets limits on public disclosure of personally identifiable information; it also permits certain uses by the state fire marshal and by rating bureaus under confidentiality constraints. The bill provides insurers immunity from civil liability for reports to law enforcement and the commissioner or for cooperating with criminal subpoenas, unless actual malice is shown, and explicitly allows Washington law enforcement, prosecutors, fire chiefs and marshals, and limited authority peace officers employed by the insurance commissioner to use and, when necessary for investigation or prosecution and due process, release information received under the section. The insurance commissioner may adopt rules to implement the section, and the new reporting requirements in subsections (1) and (2) are not enforceable against insurers until one year after the commissioner adopts implementing rules. RCW 48.50.040 is amended so that when an insurer has reason to believe a reported fire loss may be other than accidental, the insurer must notify the insurance commissioner in the manner prescribed under RCW 48.05.320 and include all relevant material developed from the insurer’s inquiry; this notification does not relieve the insurer of responding to other authorized agencies or other reporting requirements. Important text is missing from the provided material (including the remainder of RCW 48.05.320(3)(d), the full amended text of RCW 48.50.040, and some definitions and subsection numbering), so some implementation details and the complete scope of certain exceptions and recipients cannot be confirmed from these excerpts.

If enacted, insurers will have a new, routine responsibility to supply the insurance commissioner with standardized information about fire losses and to immediately notify law enforcement and the commissioner when they suspect a fire was criminal; that will require insurers to change claims workflows, collect specific data points (zip code, date, amounts paid, suspected origin/cause, NAIC number), and bear the administrative cost of reporting (including any third‑party vendor fees). Insurers also gain a limited civil‑liability shield for making those reports absent actual malice, and enforcement of the reporting duty is delayed until one year after the commissioner adopts implementing rules, but the bill leaves unclear exactly how reporting will be delivered and what the commissioner’s rule requirements and vendor arrangements will cost insurers. The insurance commissioner will need to establish rules, receive and manage confidential privileged fire‑loss data, and will be authorized to share it with other regulators, law enforcement, the state fire marshal, NAIC, and rating bureaus for investigations, prosecutorial purposes, wildfire planning, and rating analysis while restricting public disclosure of personally identifiable information; as a result, local and tribal law enforcement, fire investigators, prosecutors, and limited authority peace officers will gain more timely access to insurer information to investigate and prosecute suspected criminal fires. Some parts of the bill text are missing in the provided facts, so the precise limits on sharing and the full amendment to RCW 48.50.040 are unclear.