Happy First Day Of Spring! Ohio Insurance Law Effective Today

Ohio recently followed South Carolina as the second state to adopt cybersecurity legislation modeled after the NAIC's Insurance Data Security Model Law. The Ohio law, Senate Bill 273, applies to insurers authorized to do business in Ohio and goes into effect today, March 20, 2019 (the first day of Spring). Companies have, under the law, a year to put the security measures into place. The law, like the NAIC model, requires insurance providers to take several steps to protect personal information, including conducting risk assessments and having a written information security program and incident response plan. Smaller insurers -those with less than 20 employees, less than $5 million in gross annual revenue, and less than $10 million in assets- are exempt from the security program requirements. HIPAA-compliant companies are also exempt from the program requirements. The law impacts how companies select third-party service providers, and requires certification