Harrisburg, PA – Today, the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously confirmed Michael Humphreys to serve as Insurance Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID). Governor Josh Shapiro nominated Humphreys, who previously served as Acting Insurance Commissioner under Governor Tom Wolf.
"I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the Commonwealth as Insurance Commissioner under Governor Shapiro's dedicated leadership," said Commissioner Humphreys. "Governor Shapiro is leading the charge on holding insurers accountable and ensuring that insurance is affordable and effective for all, and I look forward to carrying out his vision of an industry that works for every Pennsylvanian."
When nominated by Governor Shapiro in January, Humphreys was tasked with strengthening enforcement and compliance of mental health parity laws in Pennsylvania and making mental health parity a true reality in the Commonwealth. Commissioner Humphreys and the Department team took immediate action to examine and identify insurance companies for areas of non-compliance and improve resources for consumers and providers to understand potential parity violations.
To that end, the Department took steps to increase and strengthen its review processes of mental health and substance use disorder coverage in 2024 health plans, ensuring that more Pennsylvanians will have their benefits reviewed for parity compliance before the policies are available for purchase. PID also launched a new round of market conduct examinations targeting insurer compliance with parity laws. These exams are part of the re-examination process on the heels of a series of previous market conduct exams that resulted in more than 60,000 Pennsylvanian consumers receiving a cumulative $5.89 million in restitution.
Commissioner Humphreys is also working to carry out Governor Shapiro's priority of improved response times for professional licensing and pushing the department to work efficiently and effectively for Pennsylvania's licensed insurance producers. In 2023, the Department has already reduced the processing time by half for most producer licensing applications, while continuing to pursue greater efficiencies.
Under Commissioner Humphreys' leadership, the bipartisan Act 2 of 2023, the Pennsylvania Insurance Data Security Act, was recently signed into law, furthering Governor Shapiro's vision of robust financial services oversight and strengthened consumer protections. The new law focuses on improving business processes and insurance regulatory tools to best safeguard Pennsylvanians' personal information. The implementation of Act 2 will not only help both the insurance industry and consumers deal with breaches, but also prevent them - by ensuring that insurers have appropriate measures in place to protect consumers' sensitive financial information.
Commissioner Humphreys brings more than 15 years of insurance experience to this role. As commissioner, Humphreys will continue his dedication to serving and advocating for the protection of Pennsylvania's insurance consumers. Prior to his nomination, Humphreys served as Chief of Staff for the Insurance Department for more than three years, and previously, as Assistant Commissioner for Insurance at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.
Find Commissioner Humphreys' portrait and biography on the Pennsylvania Insurance Department website.
Pennsylvania is the fifth-largest insurance market in the United States, in terms of premium volume, and the 14th-largest insurance market in the world. Visit PID's website for more information about the agency, or follow PID on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on what's happening in the department.