Capitol to Courthouse Florida Insurance Report: Wednesday, December 5

Dec 5, 2012

 

To go directly to the section of your choice, click on a hyperlink below.  Other hyperlinks to meeting information, bills and news are noted in bold type.




Daily Florida Insurance-Related Events

 

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.–Florida Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance.  To view the Committee Packet, click here.

  • Introduction of Committee members and staff by the Committee Chair
  • Overview of the Committee’s jurisdiction by the Committee staff
  • Introduction of Agency Heads and brief discussion of top priorities
    • Commissioner Drew Breakspear, Office of Financial Regulation
    • Commissioner Kevin McCarty, Office of Insurance Regulation
  • Other Related Meeting Documents

(Note:  This event is Webcast live on The Florida Channel)

 

 

Daily Insurance-Related News

 

Florida House panel embraces plan to send Citizens Property Insurance policyholders to other companies

A panel of Florida lawmakers Tuesday embraced plans by state-run Citizens Property Insurance that would give private insurers $350 million in loans to encourage them to insure Florida homeowners and urged executives to find other ways to shrink the company.

 

Getting to know Florida’s Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty

Are you ever curious about the real lives of politicians, celebrities, local newsmakers and athletes? Who are their mentors and who would they really like to meet?

 

Water line insurance mailer warning in Florida

Wink News investigates a warning for homeowners about a company called Homeserve USA.

 

Blog:  Federal government has 90 days to decide if Florida can privatize Medicaid

Back in 2011, the Florida Legislature voted to turn its Medicaid program over to private managed care companies. That required a waiver of federal law, and Florida’s request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been hanging in the balance ever since.

 

Blog:  Florida doctors to see higher Medicaid payment rates

While Florida Republican leaders grapple with carrying out the federal Affordable Care Act, the state’s primary-care physicians are poised to get a raise January 1 if they treat Medicaid patients.

 

Judge spikes prison health care privatization

Governor Rick Scott’s privatization plan suffered a $90 million setback and about 1,900 state employees won at least a temporary reprieve Tuesday as a circuit judge rebuffed a joint legislative budget panel’s decision allowing the state prison system to contract out for inmate health services in north Florida.

 

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner outlines to lawmakers his plans to look into voting problems

Florida’s top elections official told lawmakers Tuesday he’ll have better answers next month to their questions about elections problems.

 

Florida jobs agency director Deutsch resigns

Department of Economic Opportunity executive director Hunting Deutsch submitted his resignation letter to Governor Rick Scott’s office Tuesday morning.

 

Florida Senate President Don Gaetz briefs Senate committee chairs on his plans

Senate President Don Gaetz told committee chieftains to run their own committees Tuesday — after routinely checking with him to weed out “bad bills” and those that have no realistic prospects of passage.

 

Florida agrees to pay for “Taj Mahal” pictures

Florida will pay more than $500,000 for historical pictures originally intended to be hung in the 1st District Court of Appeal building in Tallahassee, dubbed the “Taj Mahal” after media reports in 2010 uncovered opulent features and expenditures.

 

Blog:  Florida’s highway safety agency may go to court over license tags

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles may be on the road to court after failed attempts Tuesday to settle a dispute over who will make and distribute the state’s new license tags.

 

GOP presses for U.S. Senate passage of Federal Emergency Management Agency bill during Hurricane

Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday that Hurricane Sandy made the case for passing their version of a bill containing funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

FEMA Representatives Bracing for Consumer Backlash When National Flood Insurance Program Actuarial Rates Phased In

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are girding for sticker-shock outrage from consumers as they prepare to implement across-the-board rate increases in the flood-insurance program.

 

Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner:  Weapons Necessary for Safety of Anti-Fraud Unit

Defending his agency’s expenditures on weapons and police vehicles for use by its anti-fraud unit, Oklahoma’s top insurance regulator said the purchases help ensure the safety of investigators and are not paid for with taxpayer money.            

 

Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Holds Local Meeting

Folks who set policy for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association met in Corpus Christi on Tuesday. Part of their job is to make recommendations on future insurance rates.

 

Hopeful About California Workers’ Compensation Reform

Looking forward employers seem to have weathered the latest round of workers’ compensation reforms well – although the cliché “the devil is in the details” is apropos enough to be tossed out.

 

Health law has insurers focusing on how to attract new customers

With the law overhauling health care all but certain to move ahead, the nation’s health insurers are scrambling to reinvent themselves.

 

 

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