Capitol to Courthouse Florida Insurance Report: Monday, April 1
Apr 1, 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
Florida’s 2013 Regular Legislative Session
- Click here for today’s Senate block calendar
- Click here for today’s House of Representatives block calendar
There are no Florida insurance-related events scheduled for today.
Daily Florida Insurance-Related News
In any contest to pick the state with the most unique and challenging insurance landscape, Florida would almost certainly prevail. From hurricanes to sinkholes, Citizens Property to PIP reform, the Sunshine State is a headline-generating machine.
Blog: Citizens Insurance completes $250 million risk transfer
As part of an ongoing effort to hedge against a massive hurricane disaster, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has completed a $250 million risk transfer in the capital markets.
Climate change brings new warnings
If current population trends continue, more Americans will find themselves in harm’s way due to coastal flooding and other severe weather conditions.
New fire rating means insurance costs should drop for Miramar
Fire insurance costs for residents should drop now that the city’s fire rating got a boost. Miramar’s Fire Rescue Department improved its fire rating score from a five to a three, according to the classification by the national Insurance Services Office.
The Florida Current’s Policy Note: Expert Testimony
New legislation would have Florida match most other states in how it handles scientific evidence in the courtroom.
The Florida Current’s Policy Note: Mandatory Sick Leave
At the urging of the business community, lawmakers are working to pre-empt local initiatives requiring earned sick leave for employees. The bill emerged while Orange and Miami-Dade counties are considering sick-time measures.
The Florida Current’s Policy Note: Diagnosis-Related Groups
A DRG is either a common-sense, data-driven, cost-saving reimbursement plan or a poorly designed scheme that will wreck Florida’s safety-net hospitals. Starting July 1, if the Legislature does not intervene, the state will pay hospitals based on the illness being treated instead of receiving a flat fee for each day a Medicaid patient is at the hospital.
Florida records 14,962 mortgage modifications
A total of 14,962 mortgages were modified in Florida during the fourth quarter of 2012, 25.5 percent more than the 11,922 modified during the fourth quarter of 2011, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported.
Undercover slot machines expert to be key witness in Allied Vets probe
Working undercover as just another aging patron, D. Robert Sertell watched as customers streamed into Internet cafes in strip malls across Florida to buy access to Internet time or long distance phone service.
Blog: Senator Latvala predicts furor if residents’ email addresses are public
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, was all by himself and he couldn’t believe it. In a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting Thursday, Latvala was the lone voice objecting to a bill to allow property appraisers to send homeowners tax notices and other official documents by email instead of through the postal service.
Florida brewers push to legalize 64-ounce beer jugs
David Wescott has two 32-ounce growlers he brings into Proof Brewing Company to fill up and take home. Why two? Because Florida is one of only three states where it’s illegal to fill one 64-ounce beer container, known as a growler.
Florida’s legislative harmony yields few achievements
In the weeks leading to the start of the legislative session, House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz seemed inseparable.
Congress reignites push for multistate insurance agent licensing
If proposed legislation being considered by a Senate subcommittee makes its way through Congress and becomes law as planned, an insurance agent in Pennsylvania could easily sell a policy to a potential client in Florida or California without a lengthy application process to become licensed in another state.
An empire built on ambition and a very hard line
Not just drivers are exploited by Boston’s cab trade. Passengers hurt in accidents often run into denial and evasion by poorly insured firms
Each accident happened in an instant. Elizabeth Rideout was standing on the sidewalk at Logan Airport, fresh from a Florida vacation, when a taxi hurtling out of control jumped the curb and plowed into her and a fellow traveler.
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