Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The scooter bill, HB 453, is going to the Governor after being approved by the full Senate on May 1, 2019 with a vote of 32-1. The House approved the bill on April 25, 2019 with a vote of 115-0. The bill allows local governments to adopt local ordinances…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 24, 2019, the Florida House unanimously passed their autonomous vehicle (AV) bill (HB 311) with a vote of 110-0. On May 1, 2019, the Senate passed the House bill with a vote of 37-0. The bill now heads to Governor DeSantis for signature. The bill has insurance…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 17, 2019, the House approved HB 617, a glitch bill making a clarifying change to last year’s bill requiring flood disclosure on homeowner’s policies. The Senate approved the bill on May 1, 2019 with a vote of 33-0. The bill now heads to the Governor for signature…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 7 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…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1247 expands the application of Florida’s one way attorney fee statute to suits brought by “contractors” against surety insurers under payment or performance bonds for losses due to breach of a building or construction contract. The one-way attorney fee provision is contained in a larger bill dealing with…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 673, the bill to equalize payment for long term care insolvencies by the Florida Life & Health Guaranty Association (FLAHIGA), passed the House on April 24, 2019 with a vote of 114-0 and was sent to the Senate for approval. On May 1, 2019, the Senate took the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Department of Financial Services (DFS) agency package (HB 1393) passed the House last week and was sent to the Senate for approval. The Senate made changes to the House bill sent to them when it was heard on the Senate floor on April 29, 2019. The Senate removed…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel When the Senate took up the House shared savings bill, HB 1113, on the Senate floor on April 30, 2019, it significantly amended the House bill. The amendment essentially removed the House language and replaced it with the Senate shared savings bill with a few additions. The Senate will…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 453, the scooter bill, should go to the Governor on May 1, 2019 when the Senate votes on it for final passage. Procedurally, the House replaced their scooter bill with the Senate one when the House bill was on the floor on April 25, 2019 and passed…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 862, a tort reform bill dealing with the dangerous instrumentality doctrine, was sent to Governor DeSantis on April 30, 2019 when the House approved it by a vote of 83-32. The House vote was not a party line vote, although all of the “no” votes were cast by…