Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Transportation & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee approved the autonomous vehicle bill on March 19, 2019 without amending it. The autonomous vehicles bill, HB 311, does not contain any insurance provisions. The bill changes and adds definitions in the autonomous vehicle law. It excludes autonomous vehicles from current law…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A tort reform bill dealing with the dangerous instrumentality doctrine moved out of its first Senate committee on March 18, 2019 with one amendment. The bill pits business groups against the trial bar and is in response to a 2018 Florida Supreme Court decision which expanded the dangerous instrumentality…
By: Greenberg Traurig The Senate Banking & Insurance Committee passed the blockchain work group bill on March 18, 2019. Following are notes on the committee meeting prepared by Greenberg Traurig: SB 1024 Blockchain Technology by Sen Gruters PASSED SummarySB 1024 establishes the Florida Blockchain Working Group comprised of government and industry representatives to study the ways…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 7078 was filed as a committee bill by the Senate Health Policy Committee on March 15, 2019 and was approved by the Committee on March 18, 2019 with one amendment on patient records. The bill is a compilation of many healthcare issues, including a few health insurance related…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate Banking and Insurance approved the frozen formulary bill (SB 1180) by Sen. Mayfield (R) during its meeting on March 18, 2019 with one amendment by the bill sponsor. According to the bill sponsor, the amendment allows a consumer to stay on a drug during the contract…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 18, 2019, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed health insurance mandates for enteral formulas and hearing aids for children. The enteral formula mandate passed (SB 358) applies only to the state group health insurance plan. For the state group health plan, the bill expands the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1422 revises provisions relating to short-term limited duration insurance policies and the regulation of association health plans. The bill passed the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee without being amended. The bill has two committees left. The bill codifies federal regulations that were issued in 2018 to provide consumers…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the property and autoglass AOB bill with a substitute strike all amendment (amendment #748114) during its meeting on March 18, 2019. The vote was 5-1. The amendment adopted made numerous technical changes to the bill. It was sponsored by Sen. Broxson (R), who is…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1520 expands direct primary care The bill changes all statutory references of “direct primary care” to “direct health care” which authorizes direct care to be for medical services, including dental services, that are not only primary care. It maintains current law that direct health care agreements are not…