Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Saying his goal was to produce stability and reduce rates, Chair Burgess presented the comprehensive workers’ compensation reform bill, HB 7085, to the House Commerce Committee. The bill is a committee bill from the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee. The Commerce Committee spent over two hours on the bill,…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House bill to shield workers’ comp claimant identifying information from claimant’s attorneys to prevent solicitation is moving quickly through its House committees. It passed its last committee on April 6, 2017 with one amendment. It will be heard on the floor at the discretion of the Rules Committee. …
By: Sam Miller, FIC ConsultantSB 404 Legislative Ratification — by SimmonsSimmons 546448 PDF The full Senate may soon may take up a bill ratifying the 2016 manuals on workers’ compensation reimbursement levels for hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. It will not, apparently, consider a bill repealing the legislative ratification requirement. The Senate Rules Committee April…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel After spending only 20 minutes on workers’ comp, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed the comp reform bill on April 3, 2017 with a vote of 7-1. Sen. Gainer, a Republican car dealer from the Panhandle, was the only “no” vote. The short period of time spent on…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill intended to shield injured worker information from claimant’s attorneys to prevent attorney solicitation passed its first Senate committee on April 3, 2017. The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee approved a delete everything amendment before passing SB 1008. The delete everything amendment kept the original intent of the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House bill to shield workers’ comp claimant identifying information from claimant’s attorneys to prevent solicitation is moving quickly through its House committees. It passed its second committee on March 28, 2017 and has one committee left. FIC anticipates this bill, along with the substantive comp reform bill, will…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee passed its committee bill (PCB IBS 17-01) dealing with workers’ compensation reform on March 14, 2017 after over two hours of committee testimony, discussion, and debate and the narrow defeat of a very contentious strike all amendment. What became abundantly clear during the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel A bill expanding workers’ compensation coverage for firefighters was workshopped in its first House committee on March 13, 2017. During a workshop, the committee takes testimony and discusses a bill, but no vote is taken on the bill. The Committee Chair did not indicate if/when the bill would be…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel All member sponsored bills have been filed for the 2017 Session. Following is a summary of bills filed as of March 12, 2017 that FIC is following related to workers’ compensation. The summary was prepared by FIC General Counsel Katrina Callaway based on her review of the bills. …
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel NCCI released its pricing of the House proposed workers’ compensation committee bills on March 10, 2017. The bills priced by NCCI were the draft bills workshopped in committee on March 7, 2017. The final versions of the bills, which are attached, were released by the committee on March 10,…