WASHINGTON — As many as 1.7 million Floridians could get rebates from their health insurance providers this year as a result of the 2010 health care reform law, according to a report issued Thursday.

Among the measures Gov. Rick Scott vetoed on Friday was one that would have created more problems for the state’s cash-strapped catastrophic hurricane insurance fund than it would ever have solved.

MetLife Inc. may have to pay up to $500 million over its handling of death benefits from life insurance policies issued decades ago. The deal, part of a multistate probe headed by Florida insurance investigators, also requires MetLife to improve its system for identifying unclaimed life-insurance policies.

The number of policies backed by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. fell by 2.4 percent over the past two months, but Citizens officials say it is premature to determine whether or not new measures enacted by its board in February aimed at reducing its risk are having their intended effect.

Just weeks ago the Florida Legislature ended its regularly scheduled session, and while some important legislation that benefits the citizens of this great state passed, legislation to address the much-needed reform of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund failed.

Florida officials have taken a welcome and overdue step to downsize Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurer.

TALLAHASSEE — Payments to chiropractors and massage therapists for treating injured motorists soared over the past decade — a 251 percent increase in massage claims alone from 2007 to 2010 — sending premiums for the no-fault auto insurance that paid for the treatment through the roof.

A bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott will reduce the burden on customers of other insurers by more than $300 each if a bad storm rocks Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort, officials said Tuesday.

Florida lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott were quick to congratulate themselves for legislation aimed at curbing fraud and abuse under the state’s auto accident insurance law, which passed on the last day of the legislative session.

TALLAHASSEE — The long list of suspected car insurance scammers now includes food truck vendors. The state Division of Insurance Fraud reported last week that 15 people have been using restaurants-on-wheels in Miami to stage accidents and collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance money.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That famous quote, a favorite of moms everywhere, may never have been so true as when applied to the multi-year effort to pass reforms to our state’s personal injury protection insurance law (PIP). Of course, some may have gone the route of Mark Twain when he [...]