Capitol to Courthouse Florida Insurance Report: Wednesday, October 9

Oct 9, 2013

 

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

 

9:00 a.m.–Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”) Public Rate Hearing:  State Farm Florida Insurance Company (“State Farm”).  State Farm has requested an average statewide rate increase of 35.1 percent for its rental dwelling program.  This would result in an average premium effect of 25.6 percent.  The difference between the rate change and the premium effect is because the company has also requested the elimination of all flat deductibles and create minimum deductibles of 2 percent for hurricane and 1 percent for all other perils.  To view the hearing notice, click here.  To view the agenda, click here.

2:00 p.m.–Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (“FSLSO”) Budget Committee meeting. Tallahassee, Florida.  Discussion of 2014 FSLSO budget proposal.  To view the meeting notice, click here.

 

 

Daily Florida Insurance-Related News

 

Senator Simmons wants state solution on flood rates if Congress doesn’t act

Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Chairman David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said Florida needs to have its own plan to address rising flood insurance rate costs, The Florida Current’s Gray Rohrer reports.

Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Disapproves American Security Insurance Company’s Force-Placed Insurance Rate Filing, Orders $51 Million Rate Decrease

In a news release issued yesterday, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced its disapproval of a proposed rate filing submitted by American Security Insurance Company on March 1, 2013 and ordered a 10% rate decrease, which will result in an estimated $51 million cost savings for its consumers.

 

Florida to Hear State Farm Rental Dwelling Rate Hike Bid

Florida insurance officials will hold a public hearing tomorrow on State Farm Florida Insurance Co.’s proposed double-digit rate increase for its rental dwelling line of business in the state, Insurance Journal reports.

 

Florida Welcomes Era of Workers’ Compensation Market Stability

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said that although NCCI’s proposal for a one percent increase signals improvement in the market, it nevertheless could cost employers $20 million in additional premiums next year, Insurance Journal’s Michael Adams reports.

 

University of Miami Hospital overbilled Medicare $3.7 million, audit says

The University of Miami Hospital will have to refund $3.7 million to Medicare after a federal audit of the hospital’s billing practices found the hospital overbilled in 2009 and 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Miami Herald’s Daniel Chang reports.

 

Assisted Living Facility reform measure back for another try

Senators on the Children Families and Elder Affairs Committee will try again to pass legislation tightening oversight of assisted living facilities, The Florida Current’s James Call reports.

 

Stand Your Ground revisions approved by Senate panel

In a compromise hailed as rare bipartisan cooperation by two senators, but dismissed as “elegant window dressing” by a powerful House leader, a legislative committee took the first step Tuesday toward clarifying Florida’s much-debated “stand your ground” self-defense law, The Florida Current’s Bill Cotterell reports.

 

Unemployment system closing for 5 days amid transition

Florida’s unemployment compensation system will be down from Wednesday at noon until Oct. 15 as the Department of Economic Opportunity updates its decades-old software, The Florida Current’s Gray Rohrer reports.

 

Internet café gambling case to go to jury today

Jacksonville attorney Kelly Mathis faces more than 100 counts

Today jurors will begin deliberating whether Kelly Mathis, a Jacksonville lawyer, is simply a very smart attorney or a criminal who helped a group of military veterans build a $300 million gambling empire that masqueraded as a chain of Internet cafés, Rene Stutzman reports for the Orlando Sentinel.

 

U.S. Representative Neugebauer Demands Word on Overdue Federal Insurance Office Reports

The chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance wrote a sharply worded letter to Federal Insurance Office Director Michael McRaith, demanding to know why several overdue reports required by the Dodd-Frank Act were still not submitted to Congress, Elizabeth Festa reports for National Underwriter’s PropertyCasualty360.com.

 

Former D.C. Insurance Commissioner says NAIC Must Define Itself and Realize Limits

Former Washington D.C. insurance commissioner Lawrence H. Mirel says the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is at a crossroads because it must clarify first what it is, and then work out a system for collaborating with federal regulators in overseeing large, multi-faceted insurance companies with international operations, Arthur Postal reports for National Underwriter’s PropertyCasualty360.com.

 

 

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