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House · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1262: Insurance; increase amount of monetary penalties authorized to impose for certain violations of the Georgia Insurance Code

Last action March 3, 2026 · Senate Read and Referred

House Bill 1262 would raise the maximum fines Georgia's Insurance Commissioner can impose on insurers and licensees for violations involving mental health parity, general insurance law, surprise billing, and prepaid legal services plans.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia law currently caps most monetary penalties the Commissioner of Insurance can impose at $2,000 per violation, rising to $5,000 if the violator knew or should have known they were breaking the rules. This bill increases those caps significantly across four areas of the Georgia Insurance Code (Title 33): mental health parity reporting requirements, the Commissioner's general enforcement authority over licensees, the Surprise Billing Consumer Protection Act, and prepaid legal services plan licensing. Under the bill, the base penalty amounts rise from $2,000 to $10,000 per violation, and the enhanced penalty for knowing or reasonable-should-have-known violations rises from $5,000 to $25,000 per violation. These changes apply uniformly to health insurers that fail to report mental health parity data, licensees who violate Title 33 or Commissioner orders, insurers that violate surprise billing rules, and prepaid legal services plan sponsors subject to disciplinary action. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it or it becomes law without signature.

What the bill does

  • Raises the base penalty for health insurers that fail to submit required mental health parity reports or data from $2,000 to $10,000 per violation.
  • Raises the enhanced penalty for knowing mental health parity violations from $5,000 to $25,000 per violation.
  • Increases the Commissioner's general penalty authority against any licensee violating Title 33 or Commissioner orders from $2,000/$5,000 to $10,000/$25,000 per violation.
  • Raises penalties under the Surprise Billing Consumer Protection Act (O.C.G.A. § 33-20E-26) from $2,000/$5,000 to $10,000/$25,000 per violation.
  • Increases the maximum fine the Commissioner can impose on prepaid legal services plan sponsors from $2,000 to $10,000 per offense.

Who it affects

Health insurers subject to mental health parity reporting rules, any person or company licensed under Georgia's insurance code, insurers covered by the surprise billing law, and sponsors of prepaid legal services plans all face higher potential fines from the Commissioner of Insurance under this bill.

Why it matters

Insurers and licensees who violate these insurance rules would face fines up to five times larger than current law allows, which could increase the financial consequences of noncompliance with mental health parity reporting, surprise billing protections, and general licensing rules enforced by the Commissioner of Insurance.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 raises mental health parity reporting penalties under O.C.G.A. § 33-1-27 from $2,000 to $10,000 (base) and $5,000 to $25,000 (knowing violation).
  • Section 2 raises the Commissioner's general enforcement penalties under O.C.G.A. § 33-2-24 against licensees to the same $10,000/$25,000 tiers.
  • Section 3 raises surprise billing penalties under O.C.G.A. § 33-20E-26 to $10,000/$25,000 per violation.
  • Section 4 raises the maximum fine for prepaid legal services plan sponsors under O.C.G.A. § 33-35-7 from $2,000 to $10,000 per offense.
  • Section 5 sets the effective date as the date the Governor signs the bill or it becomes law without signature.
  • Section 6 repeals conflicting laws.

Discussed in meetings (9)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House Insurance Committee, February 19, 2026

    From 0:15:00 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1262, requested by the Department of Insurance, would raise maximum fines for unknowing violations from $2,000 to $10,000 and knowing violations from $5,000 to $25,000. The sponsor said the changes cover mental health parity, general enforcement, surprise billing and prepaid legal service plans, without creating new violations or expanding regulatory authority. The sponsor argued that inflation and market growth had weakened penalties that had not been updated for many years. A committee member asked what conduct would trigger fines against prepaid legal service companies. A representative of the Insurance Commissioner’s Office said general violations could qualify but could not provide a specific example. The member and department representative agreed to discuss the question later. The committee approved the bill by voice vote and sent it to Rules.

  2. House Rules Committee, February 23, 2026

    From 1:26:33 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1262, requested by the Department of Insurance, would increase maximum fines for insurance-law violations so penalties remain an effective enforcement tool rather than a business expense. The sponsor described raising the maximum for unknowing violations from $2,000 to $10,000 and for knowing violations from $5,000 to $25,000. The sponsor said those limits had not been updated in 15 years and more than 30 years, respectively. There were no questions.

  3. House Rules Committee, February 25, 2026

    From 1:45:48 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1621

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HB 1262 on Thursday's floor calendar after a motion and second. The chair asked for opposition and declared it added. No substantive discussion was shown.

  4. House floor session, February 26, 2026 (legislative day 25, AM)

    From 2:30:06 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1646

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1262 would raise the insurance commissioner's fines for mental health parity violations, surprise billing violations, general insurance violations and prepaid legal service plans. The sponsor said fines for unintentional violations would rise from $2,000 to $10,000 and intentional violations from $5,000 to $25,000, after 15 and 30 years respectively without updates. No members asked questions. The House passed the bill, 170 to 1.

  5. Senate Insurance and Labor Committee, March 17, 2026

    From 0:37:13 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that a subcommittee would handle HB 1262. The committee did not discuss its provisions or vote on it.

  6. House Insurance Committee, March 20, 2026

    From 0:28:14 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor of SB 462 identified HB 1262 as an added measure concerning monetary penalties. A supporting committee member described increased fines for wrongdoing that harms insurance customers as part of the insurance-affordability package. The chair said the added House measures had already passed the House. The committee approved SB 462 with the package, then reconsidered and approved it with a local-government reporting amendment. Later, a committee member said the same package had been added to SB 503. The committee approved that bill with the same reporting amendment. No separate vote on HB 1262 was taken.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-03Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  2. 2026-02-26House Passed/Adopted (House)
  3. 2026-02-26House Third Readers (House)
  4. 2026-02-19House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  5. 2026-02-12House Second Readers (House)
  6. 2026-02-11House First Readers (House)
  7. 2026-02-10House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Eddie Lumsden (R, HD-12)Primary sponsor
  • Matt Reeves (R, HD-99)
  • Darlene Taylor (R, HD-173)
  • Matthew Gambill (R, HD-15)
  • Bruce Williamson (R, HD-112)
  • Mark Newton (R, HD-127)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteFebruary 26, 2026

    170 yea, 1 nay (4 not voting, 2 excused)

    PASSAGE: House Vote #573

Topics

  • insurance regulation
  • mental health parity
  • surprise billing
  • insurance penalties
  • prepaid legal services

Ask about this bill

Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1262.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp