Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1640, the Senate professional license deregulation package, was approved by its first committee of reference on April 2, 2019 with a strike all amendment. The Senate bill has two committees left. The House bill is in its last committee. The professional license deregulation bill appears…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate both moved their vulnerable investor protection bill in committee for the second week in a row. SB 1466, passed its second committee on April 1, 2019 with a strike all amendment that kept the substance of the bill, but made some minor changes. The Senate…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On April 2, 2019, the Senate passed their bill to expand the current state group health insurance mandate for enteral formulas out of its second committee. The bill was not amended and has one committee left. The House and Senate are taking different approaches this year on…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate omnibus insurance bill (SB 714) cleared its second committee on April 1, 2019 when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it. A strike all amendment (791632) was adopted by the committee to add numerous issues to the Senate bill to more closely match it with the House…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After spending an hour amending the workers’ comp bill and taking public testimony on it, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee postponed a vote on their workers’ comp bill. This is the second time a vote has been postponed – both times because the sponsor did not have enough…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Saying he wanted more time to negotiate a compromise with the stakeholders, the Senator sponsoring the genetic testing bill asked that the bill (SB 258) be postponed during its committee hearing on April 1, 2019. The bill will likely be heard next Monday when the committee next meets. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1052, one of the two Senate PIP repeal bills, passed its second committee on April 1, 2019 by a vote of 5-3. The other Senate PIP repeal bill has not yet been heard in committee, so is likely dead for this Session. The House PIP repeal bill has…
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…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 418, the Senate essential health benefits bill, is now in its last committee after passing the Senate Health Policy Committee on April 1, 2019. It was not amended by the Committee. The essential health benefits part of the bill provides more health insurance options for Floridians by permitting…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate will mandate health insurance coverage for children’s hearing aids under a bill approved on April 1, 2019 by the Senate Health Policy Committee. The bill has one committee left. Currently, there is no mandated health insurance coverage for hearing aids for children. SB 572 would change that…