Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Bills protecting vulnerable investors from financial exploitation moved in the House and Senate this week. Similar bills were filed in prior Sessions, but never passed. The Senate moved SB 1672 out of its first committee without amendment. The House bill, HB 813, moved out of its second committee and…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 799 and HB 801 revamp Florida’s trade secret protection laws. On January 30, 2020, they passed the Commerce Committee. The bills have one committee left. HB 801 repeals most of the public records exemptions for trade secret protection in current law. The repeals include the exemptions that protect…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Bills specifying the evidence juries hear for the value of past, present, or future medical expenses used to set damages in personal injury lawsuits were approved by their first committees of reference in the House and Senate this week. The House bill was significantly amended to bring it…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Judiciary Committee adopted a committee bill (PCB JDC 20-03) on contingency risk multipliers during its meeting on January 30, 2020. The original committee bill proposed was an outright ban on the use of contingency risk multipliers in all cases. However, the committee adopted a strike all amendment…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 30, 2020, the House Judiciary Committee approved a committee bill (PCB JDC 20-05) to make appeals of most county court cases go directly to the District Court of Appeal, rather than the circuit court. The bill is consistent with recommendations recently made by the Judicial Management Council’s…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1189, the House bill banning the use of genetic testing ban by life and long-term care insurers passed the House on January 29, 2020 with a vote of 117-1. Rep. Hill (R) from Pensacola was the lone “no” vote. Procedurally, the House took up the bill on special…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 28, 2020, House and Senate committees approved the DFS Consumer Protection bills, HB 1137 and SB 1492. A strike all amendment (678807) was approved for the House bill. The amendment alleviates some of the concerns about the bill raised by property insurers, however, some problems still…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House moved their bill prohibiting balance billing by air ambulances out of its second committee on January 29, 2020. Under current law, air ambulances are still allowed to balance bill consumers. In contrast, balance billing by out-of-network health care providers for emergency or nonemergency services was abolished in…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1556 and HB 1179 prohibit specified entities from denying, refusing to allocate, or lowering an individual’s priority for organ transplant medical services solely on the basis of an individual’s intellectual or developmental disability. The insurance part of the bills prohibits insurers, nonprofit health care service plans, and health…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The OIR backed credit for reinsurance bill that incorporates substantive provisions from the 2017 Covered Agreement between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) passed committees in the House and Senate on January 28, 2020. Neither bill was amended and neither had opposition. The bills enact the 2019…