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By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After spending an hour amending the workers’ comp bill and taking public testimony on it, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee postponed a vote on their workers’ comp bill. This is the second time a vote has been postponed – both times because the sponsor did not have enough…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House voted its workers’ comp reform bill out of its first committee on March 26, 2019 when the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee unanimously passed the bill. The Senate bill was set for its first committee hearing this week, but it was postponed, allegedly because the sponsor…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A rule proposed by the Division of Workers’ Compensation (Division) to implement last year’s legislation authorizing first responders to receive workers’ compensation benefits for PTSD without a physical injury will be ratified under bills moving through committee. Both HB 983, the House PTSD rule ratification bill, and…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill to clean up the Florida Workers’ Compensation Insurance Guaranty Association (FWCIGA) assessment scheme and make a minor change to Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) cleared its last House committee on March 21, 2019 with one amendment to match the FIGA provision to that in the Senate companion…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill to clean up the Florida Workers’ Compensation Insurance Guaranty Association (FWCIGA) assessment mechanism and to make a minor change to the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) cleared its second Senate committee on March 19, 2019. It was not amended. SB 496 is now in its last…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A rule proposed by the Division of Workers’ Compensation (Division) to implement last year’s legislation authorizing first responders to receive workers’ compensation benefits for PTSD without a physical injury will be ratified if HB 983 becomes law. The rule specifies the types of third party injuries that qualify as…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill that primarily cleans up FWCIGA assessment provisions and makes a minor change to FIGA cleared its second committee on March 12, 2019 with no amendments. HB 429 has one committee left. The Senate bill, SSB 496, has passed one committee and has two committees left. It…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On March 11, 2019, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed SB 264 which deals with how the Florida Workers’ Compensation Joint Underwriting Association (FWCJUA) handles unclaimed dividends and premium refunds. One amendment was adopted to the bill. The amendment puts more parameters around the process the FWCJUA…
By: Greenberg Traurig The Senate Committee on Community Affairs met on March 5, 2019 to consider SB 426, Firefighters, by Senator Flores. The committee packet can be found here. SB 426, Firefighters, by Sen. Flores – PASSED Summary No summary of the bill given as Sen. Flores discussed the strike-all amendment first. Strike All Amendment…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House workers’ compensation bill surfaced on March 5, 2019. HB 1399 is sponsored by Rep. Byrd (R). After a quick review of the bill, it appears to address the following issues: More specificity for Petitions for Benefits (PFB) Good faith effort by claimant to resolve dispute before…