Rhode Island Law Requires Insurers to Pay for Documented OEM Repair Procedures

Rhode Island joined a growing list of states addressing insurer payment disputes over OEM repair procedures when Governor Daniel McKee signed Senate Bill 0925 in mid-2023. The legislation took effect immediately and carried direct implications for auto-glass shops that perform ADAS recalibration following windshield replacements.

The law amended Rhode Island's Unfair Claims Practices Act to require insurers to "acknowledge and compensate an auto body repairer for documented procedures identified" in OEM repair documentation. The legislation also created a new chapter allowing damaged vehicles to be appraised by a third party when an insurer and vehicle owner cannot agree on a loss amount.

For auto-glass shops, the OEM-procedure payment requirement intersected directly with calibration billing disputes. Insurers had sometimes challenged calibration invoices by arguing that OEM-specified recalibration was not required, or that the procedure was only necessary under certain conditions that had not been met. Rhode Island's legislation gave shops a statutory basis to require payment for calibrations that were documented as OEM-required.

The practical impact depended heavily on documentation. Shops needed to be able to produce OEM service information showing that recalibration was required for the specific vehicle and replacement procedure — not just a generic assertion that cameras need to be calibrated. Access to an OEM information database or a service like asTech or Repairify's remote OEM platform became more commercially valuable in states with similar requirements.

Rhode Island's law joined a patchwork of state-level legislative activity on OEM procedures that was gradually shifting the legal landscape toward greater insurer accountability for documented repair costs. Collision repairers had been pursuing similar legislation for several years; the auto-glass industry's calibration billing disputes were adding a new dimension to those advocacy efforts.

Shop owners who track state legislative developments through the Auto Glass Safety Council or regional industry associations were best positioned to understand how Rhode Island's model might be applied in their own markets.