Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill to provide more disclosure to homeowners about the lack of flood coverage in their property insurance policy passed its first House committee on January 10, 2018. A strike all amendment (#818499) and two technical amendments to the strike all (#193917 and #302883) were adopted by the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Health Innovation Subcommittee approved HB 289, the any willing pharmacy/mail order bill, during its meeting on January 10, 2018 with a strike all amendment to limit the scope of the bill to only HIV drugs, a significant limitation. The amended bill is still opposed by health plans…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 10, 2018, the House Insurance and Banking Subcommitee approved HB 533 with one amendment. The bill allows an insurer to condition the sale of insurance on the purchase of motor vehicle services if such services are purchased from a membership organization affiliated with the insurer and…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Insurance and Banking Subcomittee unanimously approved HB HB 483 on January 10, 2018 with one amendment. The bill has one committee stop left. The Senate companion bill, SB 762, has not yet been heard in committee. The bill expands the types of promotional and advertising gifts allowed…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel SB 7012 reenacts and saves from repeal the public records exemption in current law for proprietary business information provided by insurers in the private market to Citizens Property Insurance Corporation for use in the Citizens Clearinghouse. The information is provided by insurers to the Citizens Clearinghouse and used to…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee used all of their allotted committee meeting time during their January 10, 2018 meeting to discuss, debate, and vote on the PIP repeal bill. Thus, they did not consider the autoglass bill (SB 396) or the named driver exclusion bill (SB 518). These…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A House bill repealing Florida’s nonjoinder statute (HB 6075) was filed right before the bill filing deadline on Tuesday, January 9th. The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, a Republican from Ft. Myers. Rep. Fitzenhagen is an attorney for the personal injury firm of Morgan and Morgan and as…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A property insurance bill, SB 1652, filed by Sen. Tom Lee (R- Brandon) on January 5, 2018 requires insurers to inspect hurricane damaged property within 45 days of notice of the claim, restricts an insurer’s ability to deny or limit payment of hurricane related claims, and restricts an insurer’s…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On January 3, 2018, Sen. Steube-R, Sarastoa, filed another anti-insurance and pro-trial bar bill. The bill, SB 1452 repeals Florida’s nonjoinder statute. The nonjoinder statute allows an insurer to be joined as a party defendant in a lawsuit only at the time a judgment is entered or settlement…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel An important bill for all insurance companies was filed by Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-Miami), on December 22, 2017. SB 1354 repeals all “tax preferences” provided in chapter 624, chapters 192-220, and chapters 561-565 on July 1, 2022 unless specifically reviewed and reenacted by the Legislature. The definition of “tax…