Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel With assurance from Rep. Byrd (R), the bill sponsor, that he will amend the comp reform bill at the next committee stop to add some attorney fee reform measures, the House Government Operations & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee passed the bill during its meeting on April 9, 2019. It is…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate omnibus insurance bill (SB 714) was sent back to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee after picking up a bunch of amendments in its second committee, Judiciary. The Banking and Insurance Committee heard the bill for the second time on April 8, 2019. Three more amendments were…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A tort reform bill dealing with the dangerous instrumentality doctrine moved out of its second Senate committee on April 8, 2019 with one amendment to fix an internal inconsistency in the bill. The bill has one committee left. In order to get the bill out of committee, Sen. Stargel…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate frozen formulary bill (SB 1180) by Sen. Mayfield (R) passed its second committee on April 8, 2019 with a strike all amendment. Under the amended bill, a health insurer or HMO must give a 60 day notice of any change in the drug formulary on the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After postponing the vote on the Senate genetic testing bill (SB 258) last week in order to negotiate a compromise with the life industry, Sen. Bean (R), proposed a strike all amendment (#693742) to the bill during the Senate Health Policy Committee hearing on April 8, 2019. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1640, the Senate professional license deregulation package, cleared its second committee of reference on April 8, 2019 with a strike all amendment and an amendment to the strike all. The Senate bill has one committee left. The House bill has cleared all its committee. The professional license…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 7078 is a health care omnibus bill. It is a compilation of many healthcare issues, including a few health insurance related issues and began as a committee bill by the Senate Health Policy Committee. It was approved by its second committee on April 4, 2019 with four…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House and Senate both moved their autonomous vehicle (AV) bills in committee last week. Language setting insurance requirements for on-demand autonomous vehicle networks, which are similar to TNCs, was added to both the House and Senate bills. Up to this point, the bills did not have any insurance…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 673 equalizes the payment for long term care insolvencies between the life and health insurance industries. It was amended in its last committee on April 4, 2019 to add an assessment exemption for certain nonprofit HMOs. Rep. Fischer (R), the bill sponsor, stated though he initially opposed a…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 759 and HB 761 revamp Florida’s trade secret protection laws. They passed their last committee on April 4, 2019. One amendment was adopted to HB 759. The bills will now be heard on the House floor when set by the Rules Committee. The Senate companion bills (SB 1414…