Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
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…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel This year’s insurance omnibus bill, HB 465, passed its last committee in the House on February 1, 2018. The bill will now be heard on the House floor when set by the Rules Committee. Two amendments were adopted to the bill. One amendment removed the provision in the bill…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1011 provides more disclosure to homeowners about the lack of flood coverage in their property insurance policy. The bill unanimously passed its last House committee on February 1, 2018 with one amendment. The amendment adopted addresses concerns raised by insurers to the flood disclosure requirement contained in…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A more limited retroactive denial of claims bill, HB 217, started moving in the House on January 30, 2018 when it passed its first subcommittee, the House Health Innovation Subcommittee, with a strike all amendment (#707915). The bill has two committee stops left. The vote on the bill…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 31, 2018, the full House heard HB 533 on the floor, rolled it to third reading, and passed the bill by a vote of 110-0. There were no floor amendments. The bill allows an insurer to condition the sale of insurance on the purchase of motor…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel HB 1369 addresses several issues related to claims and lawsuits against nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The insurance part of the bill requires a nursing home to maintain professional liability only in an amount no less than $2 million per claim with a minimum aggregate of not less…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel This week, each chamber moved its step therapy/prior authorization bill putting it closer to passage if a compromise on the bill language can be made. The House bill (HB 199), which is preferred by health plans, passed its second committee on January 30, 2018 and has one committee…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A Senate bill making significant changes to the mediation process that are not beneficial to the insurance industry was postponed a third time in its first committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill sponsor, Sen. Steube, who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, postponed the bill for the…