Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 1, 2019, Sen. Perry (R) filed SB 1636 dealing with workers’ compensation. Although the bill is not as comprehensive as workers’ comp reform bills filed in past Sessions, it deals with the attorney fee issue which is a large cost driver in workers’ compensation. The bill does…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 76 makes distracted driving as a primary traffic offense, meaning law enforcement can pull a vehicle over if the driver is seen committing the offense. Driving while distracted is defined to include a number of physical activities which cause driver distractions in addition to the handheld use of…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On February 20, 2019, the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee passed a committee substitute for HB 537, a bill dealing with how the Florida Workers’ Compensation Joint Underwriting Association (FWCJUA) handles unclaimed dividends and premium refunds. Under the bill, the FWCJUA can retain unclaimed dividends or premium refunds…
By: Greenberg Traurig The House Civil Justice Subcommittee met on February 20, 2019 to hear the presentations and discussion on tort reform, medical malpractice reform, and insurer bad faith reform by: Cary Silverman, American Tort Reform Association, Shook, Hardy, & Bacon, Washington, D.C. Bob White, The Doctors Company, Jacksonville, FL David Corum, Insurance Research Council,…
By: Greenberg Traurig The Senate Committee on Health Policy met on February 19, 2019 to hear the presentation on Certificate of Need by Molly McKinstry, Deputy Secretary of AHCA and to hear two bills. The following bills were considered: SB 302, Nonemergency Medical Transportation Services, by Sen. Brandes SB 434, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, by Sen.…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill that primarily cleans up FWCIGA assessment provisions and makes a minor change to FIGA cleared its first committee on February 20, 2019 with three amendments. HB 429 has two committees left. The Senate bill, SB 496, has not yet been heard in committee. Regarding FWCIGA, the amended…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During its meeting on February 20, 2019, the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee passed HB 387, a bill dealing with surplus lines. One amendment (PDF) was adopted to the bill. As amended, the bill: Continues to allow a per-policy fee charged by a surplus lines agent, but removes the…