Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 328 by Sen. Brandes (R) increases the jurisdictional threshold for county court, along with other changes to the court system. It passed its last Senate committee on April 18, 2019 with two amendments. Only one of the amendments related to the county court jurisdiction threshold. That amendment removed…
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 last committee on April 18, 2019 with a…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate passed its electric scooter bills out of its last committee on April 18, 2019 without amending it. The House bill has also cleared all of its committees. Both bills will be heard on the floor when set by the Rules Committee. One big difference in the bills…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate omnibus insurance bill (SB 714) cleared its last committee on April 18, 2019 when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved it. Two amendments were adopted to the bill. One removed the bill’s provision that deregulated forms and rates for high value homes. The other amendment added a…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 1640, the Senate professional license deregulation package, cleared its last committee of reference on April 18, 2019 with one amendment to add back a member to the Florida Building Commission (Commission). The House bill has cleared all its committee and is waiting for a floor vote. The bills…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate shared savings program bill, SB 524, was amended in its last committee on April 18, 2019 to add formulary management for the state group health insurance program. Some health insurers and HMOs may find the provision requiring formulary management concerning as it could set a precedent for…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Department of Financial Services (DFS) agency package passed its last House and Senate committees this week. The Senate bill (SB 1704) was not amended in committee. But, the House bill (HB 1393) picked up five amendments, some to match it to the Senate bill, but others to…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The condo subrogation prohibition contained in HB 1075, a large condominium association bill, was significantly changed when as strike all amendment (150791) was approved by its last House committee on April 18, 2019. As originally filed, the provision prohibited a condo owner’s insurance policy from having rights of subrogation…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel In an interesting turn of events, the Senate amended their telehealth bill (SB 1526) on April 18, 2019 to add back in payment parity, a provision they removed just two days prior. Other, more minor changes, were made in the amendment adopted on April 18, 2019. Sen. Harrell (R),…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Language in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle agency package (HB 1053) that was of concern to some auto insurers was amended out of the bill during committee on April 18, 2019. The language that was removed related to the Department providing bulk crash data and eliminated…