Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 404 which exempts workers’ compensation reimbursement allowances and manuals adopted by rule by DFS from legislative rule ratification unanimously passed its second committee on March 6, 2017. The bill was not amended and has one committee left. Under current law, the reimbursement allowances and reimbursement manuals approved by…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 3, 2017, Sen. Flores, Chair of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee and Senate President Pro Tempore, filed an unfriendly insurance bill, SB 1746. Although most of the provisions in the bill apply only to property insurance, there are a few provisions that apply to other lines…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee will discuss a committee bill on workers’ compensation reform during their meeting on March 7th. An outline of the bill is attached. FIC does not yet have a copy of the exact language for the bill. When a draft bill is released, we…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Sen. Bradley filed an unfriendly workers’ compensation reform bill on March 3, 2017. The bill, SB 1582, addresses attorney fees and temporary indemnity benefits, both infirmities in the current law found in recent court decisions, but goes much further than these issues to address drastic comprehensive comp reform. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The OIR will hold rule development workshops on March 8th and 9th on proposed changes to about 100 rules. The changes are designed to update the rules to reflect the electronic filing process. The changes proposed will likely affect all insurers and all lines of insurance. It appears…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 24, 2017, Sen. Farmer, a trial attorney, filed an AOB bill. This bill, SB 1218, is not the work product of OIR and Citizens and is not the bill supported by the industry. Thus, there are now two competing AOB bills filed in the Senate. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Life insurers would be assessed by the Florida Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association (FLAHIGA) for long term care insolvencies, including the Penn Treaty insolvency, under a Senate bill filed on February 24, 2017. The bill, SB 1242 by Sen. Brandes, is a priority of the Office of Insurance…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 24, 2017, Sen. Flores filed SB 378 which repeals the insurance premium tax credit and replaces it with a two percent reduction in the communications service tax (CST). The CST is a state tax on cell phone service, cable TV, and satellite TV. Additional information about the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel House Bill 469 by Rep. Harrison allows prejudgment interest on economic and noneconomic damages, attorney fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff in any action. The bill passed its first House committee on February 23, 2017 with a vote of 11-4. A strike all amendment (133613) that substantially…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Health Innovation Subcommittee passed the health insurance right to shop bill, HB 449, on February 22, 2017 with a strike all amendment (686687). The bill has two committees left. The original bill requires health insurers to implement a shared savings incentive program by January 1, 2018 to…