News & Updates

Blog

FHCF Bill on Fast Track

FHCF Bill on Fast Track

Senator Garrett Richter’s Cat Fund bill (CS/SB 1460) sailed through the Banking and Insurance Committee.  The bill addresses the accounting problems insurers have encountered with the contract year change made in statutory amendments last year.  The bill will require companies to execute reimbursement agreements in March, but provide that the contract year will still run […]

Continue Reading →

OIR Holds Workshop On Workers’ Comp Excess Profits Rule; Few Details Emerge

OIR Holds Workshop On Workers’ Comp Excess Profits Rule; Few Details Emerge

On February 22, 2010, the Office of Insurance Regulation held a workshop on potential revisions to the workers’ compensation insurance excessive profits rule (69O-189.007, F.A.C.) and its incorporated Excessive Profits Reporting Form (OIR-B1-15).  The Office is engaging in rulemaking as the result of an agreement reached with the petitioner in an ongoing administrative law rule […]

Continue Reading →

Court Approves $6.2 Million Dollar Settlement Between EEOC and Sears

Court Approves $6.2 Million Dollar Settlement Between EEOC and Sears

Earlier this month, the EEOC announced that the agency had secured its largest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) settlement in history. The case against Sears Roebuck & Co was brought in the Northern District of Illinois in 2004 and just this month resulted in a court approved settlement.  In the lawsuit, the EEOC claimed that Sears implemented […]

Continue Reading →

New Budget Includes Proposed Extension on COBRA Subsidy

New Budget Includes Proposed Extension on COBRA Subsidy

Among many other items of interest, President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 includes a continued COBRA subsidy proposal.  If enacted (and made retroactive to its proposed start date of March 1, 2010), the provision would continue a 65% subsidy for qualified workers who are laid off between March 31, 2010 and December 31, 2010.  […]

Continue Reading →

Coventry Trade Secrets And Work Papers Submitted To OIR To Remain Confidential

Coventry Trade Secrets And Work Papers Submitted To OIR To Remain Confidential

Coventry First LLC is a Florida viatical settlement provider.  It provided the OIR with thousands of pages of documents during OIR’s regulatory investigation of Coventry’s business in 2007.  Among the documents produced to the OIR were Coventry trade secrets.  When the documents were produced, the Insurance Code made the documents confidential and exempt from disclosure […]

Continue Reading →

Insurer Report Card Rule Presses Forward; Industry Impacts Remain Uncertain

Insurer Report Card Rule Presses Forward; Industry Impacts Remain Uncertain

By statute, the OIR is to adopt an administrative rule that creates a “report card” for personal residential property insurers.  This is to include a letter-grade scale which grades each insurer on the number and nature of consumer complaints received by the Department of Financial Services against the insurer, the disposition of complaints, the average […]

Continue Reading →

Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Moves Bills On Consumer Credit Protection and Annuity Sales Practices

Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Moves Bills On Consumer Credit Protection and Annuity Sales Practices

At today’s Senate Banking and Insurance Committee meeting, the Committee responded favorably to all the proposed legislation on its agenda.  SB844 amends the Insurance Code to enhance penalties for unethical annuities sales practices and provides additional consumer protections for senior citizens who purchase annuity products.  SB844, introduced by Senator Bennett, was reported favorably by the […]

Continue Reading →

McCarty Taps Jack McDermott for Director of Communications

McCarty Taps Jack McDermott for Director of Communications

On February 1, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced that he was removing the “acting” from Jack McDermott’s title, making him the Director of Communications for the Office of Insurance Regulation.  His duties will include overall media relations, public information, speechwriting and content of all Office reports and publications. Jack has worked at the Office for […]

Continue Reading →

Final Report Discusses Mitigation Discount Process

Final Report Discusses Mitigation Discount Process

The Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology has released its final Windstorm Mitigation Discounts Report discussing problems with the current mitigation discount process and recommending a series of potential solutions.  The 2009 Florida Legislature asked the modeling commission to review the current process by which personal and commercial residential policyholders receive discounts on their […]

Continue Reading →

Agent Penalty Workshop Held

Agent Penalty Workshop Held

On January 28, 2010, a rule development workshop was held regarding proposed changes to chapter 69B-231, F.A.C., related to penalty guidelines for insurance representatives.  This rule chapter sets forth penalties for various provisions of the Insurance Code by insurance representatives such as agents.  The changes are being made in response to legislative additions and deletions […]

Continue Reading →