Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 9, 2017, the First District Court of Appeal (DCA) upheld the 14.5% workers’ compensation rate increase approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) in October. The opinion can be found here. The case arose when a trial court invalidated OIR’s rate increase finding public records and…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Trial lawyers in the Senate beat back a last-minute compromise attempt on legal fees from Sen. Rob Bradley and a possible agreement (HB 7085, CS/SB 1582) to reduce workers’ comp rates in the final hours of the 2017 regular session. Comp rates have gone up 14.5 percent since the various…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Legislation protecting sensitive workers’ compensation insurance claims information from attorneys for solicitation purposes passed the House 120-0 May 3 and will be going to Governor Rick Scott. The House agreed to accept a somewhat different Senate version because the differences were more style than substance, said Rep. Ben Albritton. The…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel On May 2, 2017, the Florida Senate voted unanimously to return the House workers’ compensation public records bill, HB 1107, back to the House. On May 1, 2017, the Senate amended the House bill replacing the House bill with the Senate version of it. FIC reported on May 1,…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant HB 1107127786 – by PerryS 1008 (c2) The Florida Senate May 1 dug in its heels for the Senate iteration of a public records exemption package (HB 1107) intended to protect workers’ compensation claimant information from attorneys for solicitation purposes. The Senate had a chance to take up the House-passed…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Language expanding workers’ compensation coverage for firefighters diagnosed with cancer has been put on the state employee benefits bill that deals with state employee retirement, health insurance, and pay raises HB 7030. This bill has been worked out between President Negron and Speaker Corcoran and contains priorities of each,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate bill to protect claimant information from being obtained by attorneys for solicitation purposes passed its last committee on April 25, 2017. The bill, SB 1008 was amended by the Rules Committee. The amendment primarily made technical and stylistic changes to the bill. Generally, the bill prevents…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Language expanding workers’ compensation coverage for firefighters diagnosed with cancer has been put on multiple bills in the Senate. The bills do not all have identical language. Language dealing with firefighters diagnosed with cancer is not currently on any House bills that are moving. The provisions in each…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House bill to shield workers’ comp claimant identifying information from claimant’s attorneys to prevent solicitation unanimously passed the House on April 20, 2017. The bill now goes to the Senate for approval. The Senate companion bill, SB 1008, is similar and has one committee left. Thus, passage…
By: Sam Miller, FIC Consultant Senate workers comp package sponsor Rob Bradley predicted to the Senate Rules Committee April 19 that Senate and House negotiators will bridge differences on attorneys fees and hospital reimbursements and produce a solid agreement with significant reductions in workers’ comp costs. He spoke as the Rules Committee approved the Bradley…