News & Updates

Florida Senate

Medical Malpractice Protection for ER Doctors Advances

Medical Malpractice Protection for ER Doctors Advances

The House Judiciary committee has favorably reported HB 385 by an 11-2 vote.  The proposal would grant sovereign immunity protection to emergency physicians.  Current law provides that claims under sovereign immunity protection are limited to $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. The bill finds that ensuring access to emergency medical services is an important […]

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PIP Bill Clears House Civil Justice Subcommittee

PIP Bill Clears House Civil Justice Subcommittee

The House version of a plan to reform Florida’s personal injury protection laws has cleared the House of Representatives’ Civil Justic Subcommittee by a 10-5 vote.  The next scheduled stop for the bill is the Economic Affairs Committee. The House proposal (HB 119) is a 109-page bill making a number of changes designed to curb […]

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Bad Faith Reform Stalls

Bad Faith Reform Stalls

The effort to reform Florida’s “bad faith” law hit a roadblock in the House of Representative that might signal its demise for this year.  The House Civil Justice Subcommittee narrowly defeated HB 427 by an 8-7 vote.  The bill would extend the provisions of Section 624.155, Florida Statutes, to common law bad faith claims in […]

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Senate Committee Reviews Public Records Exemption for DFS Service Requests

Senate Committee Reviews Public Records Exemption for DFS Service Requests

The Banking & Insurance Committee of the Florida Senate has completed its review of a public records exemption for information submitted to the Department of Financial Services or Office of Insurance Regulation in connection with consumer service requests.  The exemption applies to information submitted by consumers to the DFS’ Division of Consumer Services and to […]

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Banking & Insurance Committee Completes PIP Open Government Review

Banking & Insurance Committee Completes PIP Open Government Review

The Florida Senate’s Banking & Insurance Committee recently released its open government review relating to an exemption from public records law for certain information related to auto insurance policies.  Florida has broad public records laws that make most information in the hands of state government available to interested members of the public.  However, the Florida […]

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Senate Committee Interim Projects Affect Health Insurers

Senate Committee Interim Projects Affect Health Insurers

The Florida Senate will conduct several interim projects in anticipation of the 2012 session that may be of interest to health insurers.  In particular, the following projects relating to Health Regulation may have direct or indirect impacts on the health insurance market: Review 24-hour Admissions Limitations in Ambulatory Surgical Centers Review Consolidating, Eliminating, or Reorganizing […]

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Session Draws to Close; RTYC Reports Coming

Session Draws to Close; RTYC Reports Coming

The 2011 session of the Florida Legislature came to a close late last night (or this morning, as it went until about 3:00 a.m.). Most of the insurance related issues were resolved one way or the other by Thursday, including the chambers’ passing the major property insurance bill. One of the final insurance bills that […]

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Differences in Property Legislation Remain at Session’s Midpoint

Differences in Property Legislation Remain at Session’s Midpoint

As we have now reached the midpoint of the 2011 legislative, some of the key elements of this year’s property insurance legislation still differ in significant ways between the House and Senate versions.  Property legislation tends to go down to the wire each year, and this year looks like it will be no exception. Some […]

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Taxpayer-Funded Property Insurance Corporation?

Taxpayer-Funded Property Insurance Corporation?

Senator J.D. Alexander ran an amendment to this year’s Senate property insurance bill to underscore a point he has been making for quite some time–  if Citizens Property Insurance Corporation does not charge premiums commensurate with its risks, the shortfalls in the form of assessments in essence are a form of tax on all Floridians.  The […]

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Big Day for Property Insurance Proposals

Big Day for Property Insurance Proposals

Major property insurance bills are scheduled to be heard today in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.  Both chambers are considering substantial property insurance reforms aimed at curing some of the so-called “cost drivers” of insurance rates in the Florida property market.  The term cost-drivers has been used to generically refer to several […]

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