What you need to know about the OIC’s new website

The Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s new website went live on Monday, April 21, and our staff couldn’t be happier about it!

Here’s a few answers to popular questions about our new site.

Why did you redesign your website?

Our website is our biggest communication tool with more than a million visitors a year with a variety of users either coming to us needing help or trying to comply with our laws and regulations. It’s been over a decade since our last website redesign and our current site had many issues, including difficult navigation, poor search results, an outdated Content Management System and significant “content creep.” We’re proud of our website, but we knew we could build something even better and reimagine what a government site could deliver.

What’s better about the new website?

Some many things are better!

• We’ve given the design a clean, modern look
• Made it easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for
• We built ‘resource tagging’ into our search filters, which allows us to tag popular content and tools, making them only one or two clicks away.
• Improved our search tool so you get the results you expect
• Created a homepage that’s a welcome mat for all our users, with landing pages for the groups we regulate, making it easier to complete tasks.
• Improved and streamlined our content. For example, we turned complicated PDF instructions into simple and clear resources, providing step-by-step guidance in plain language.

How did you know what to change and how do you know it’s better?

Before we started rebuilding our website, we went through lots of user testing to see what was working well and what wasn’t. This information helped guide us and gave us a road map to make improvements. We put our users at the center of every change we made and tested our decisions over and over with real people, measuring their success at completing tasks and finding what they were looking for.

The feedback has been great so far, with a much higher rate of success for our customers. But we believe in continuous improvement and know a website requires constant care and feeding. We’ll keep monitoring your experience for improvements we can make and share what we learn along the way.

If you have feedback or notice something with the new website, please fill out our website feedback form.

What if I can’t find something that was on the old website?

We have updated our navigation and page titles — try using our newly enhanced search to look for content throughout our site. Search results can now filter results for pages or files, and you can use our new audience filter to choose what section of the site you would like to search in.

If you still can’t find what you are looking for, go to our website feedback form and let us know what you’re looking for.

Do you offer your content in different languages?

Yes, you can select one of 10 languages from a drop-down list in the upper right corner of our website that will take you to a translated page in that language explaining how to use our resources.

How will the changes help me with an insurance problem?

Our rebuilt website has a clean, easy to navigate design with larger buttons and less clutter. We’ve put help resources and quick tips near the top of each page and improved our search tool to give you better results and we’ve revised much of our content to make it more meaningful and easier to understand.

We’ve redesigned our consumer content, and it’s now called Insurance Resources. Now we have easy to navigate icons in clearly outlined boxes. We rewrote much of our content and consolidated and grouped it to make it easier to understand and find the topics you need.

Where can I file a complaint on the new website?

The complaint form can be found in a new section at the very top of the website, called Complaints, Appeals & Fraud. There’s also a link in the bottom footer under Resources.

How can I find a Medicare counseling event in my area?

Go to our Insurance Resources section, look for Get help with Medicare and go to Find Medicare counseling and events in your area. We’ve redesigned our calendar to let you filter by topics and type of events.

I can’t find the MySHIBA section?

Look for the MySHIBA volunteer resources link located at the very bottom of every page, under the blue menu banner, in the center of the page.

How do I enter my contact information into STARS?

Go to the MYSHIBA volunteer resources page and you will see the green Online services banner at the top of the page. A link to STARS is there along with a link to order outreach materials.

What changes will I see on the new website?

We’ve made our online services front and center for our producers in a new online services feature on each of navigation pages, so they’re easier to find.

We’ve improved help information with a couple of highlight boxes with easy ways to contact us. We have a new login help page called “Licensee login help” that will explain how to log into the licensing tool and recover passwords.

How can I make sure I know if the regulations or requirements change?

You can look for recent changes in the regulations for producers on the page “Laws and rules affecting licensees and providers.” You can also look for the Sign up for updates box — It has a link to subscribe to get updates.

What if I forgot my login User ID or password?

We have a new login help page called “Licensee login help” that will explain how to log into the licensing tool and recover passwords.

We come to the OIC’s website to stay in compliance and complete very specific tasks. How is the site easier to use?

You can now search for content by the task or topic you are coming to complete or learn about (what you’re here to do) or your organization type (who you are) which will show every page relevant to your organization. Either path you choose, what you’re looking for is only one or two clicks away.

We also built “resource tagging” into our search filters, so you can filter the results on the topic pages by what type of resources you are looking for such as speed to market tools or checklists.

Where can we find the ‘speed to market’ tools?

You can find the speed to market tools under our new “Rate and form filing” page in our Insurers & Regulated Entities section. You can use the “Resource Type” filter to show you every page with a speed to market tool document.

Our new Insurers & Regulated Entities section allows you to explore by topic. Once pick your topic, you can filter the content by Resource Type (What you’re looking for ie., application, checklist, form or instructions, SERFF guidelines, or Speed to market tools) and by Organization type.

Will the fortress.wa.gov/oic/ rate filing search website be impacted by this website update?

The fortress applications will not be impacted by this website update, only the resources on the insurance.wa.gov site. The website redesign only impacts insurance.wa.gov. Fortress, SAW, and SERFF applications will not be impacted.

How do I find what rulemaking the OIC is doing?

Go to our Laws and rules page and you’ll see the Legislation and rulemaking link.

How do I know if a rule is still open for public comment?

Our new rulemaking page has a search and filter feature that lets you search both by the status of the rule and who the audience is for (ie., consumers, insurers and regulated entities, producers and adjusters or providers). If a rule is open for comment, it will show at the bottom of the rule on the rulemaking page, as well as on the rule page itself. There will also be a direct link for you to submit comments to our rulemaking coordinator.