Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The construction defect statute of repose bill, HB 875/SB 536, is getting closer to the floor. The House bill made it through its last committee on February 7, 2018; the Senate bill has one committee left. The House bill was amended in committee on February 7, 2018 to match…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The health insurance industry, the pharmacy industry and pharmacy benefit managers finally agreed to language for the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) bill after weeks of negotiating. The agreed upon language was added to the Senate bill, SB 1494 via a strike all amendment (#167480) adopted by the Senate…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1106 prohibits life insurers, long-term care insurers, and disability insurers from cancelling, limiting, or denying coverage or establishing different premiums based on the genetic information. The bill also prohibits these insurers from using genetic information or requiring genetic testing for any insurance purpose. The bill, which is…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate construction defect statute of repose bill, SB 536, made it through another committee on February 6, 2018. The bill has one committee left. The applicability provision in the bill was changed in committee. The amended bill applies to any action commenced on or after July 1, 2018…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel An unfriendly AOB bill (SB 1168) passed its second committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 6, 2018 by a vote of 7-3. The vote was also 7-3 in the first committee. The bill has one committee left. The AOB bill was supported in committee by water remediators…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel This year’s Senate insurance omnibus bill, SB 784, passed its first (of three) committee in the Senate on February 6, 2018. A strike all amendment was adopted to essentially match the Senate bill with the House bill. The amended bill covers a myriad of insurance topics: Surplus Lines…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 762, which expands they kinds of allowable gifts insurers or agents can give, was unanimously approved by its second Senate committee on February 6, 2018. The committee adopted one amendment to remove the funeral related gift provisions from the bill due to “unintended consequences.” That provision would…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 6, 2018, committees in the House and Senate both approved agency bills for the Department of Financial Services (DFS). HB 1073 and SB 1292 are now in their last committees, so have a good chance of passing. The House Governmental Operations and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee adopted two…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 1, 2018, the Senate President made the rare move of referring the Senate auto glass bill (SB 396) back to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. The move was likely because the bill was significantly changed in its second committee and the President wanted the substantive committee…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Bills (HB 33, SB 90) changing the current enforcement of the ban on texting while driving from secondary to primary offense are moving this Session. Changing texting while driving to a primary offense will allow a law enforcement officer to stop a vehicle solely for texting while driving. The…