Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, Aug. 13

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House Delegation Begins Katrina Tour

A Democratic congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday began touring areas still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina nearly two years after the storm hit, looking to tout progress made and determine where more federal help is needed.

 

Insurance firm explains how it lowered rates

A three-year-old insurance company based in Hollywood is one of the few insurers in Florida to come up with a rate cut for its policyholders, meeting the mandate set by lawmakers in January.

 

Prepare for life without no-fault insurance, CFO Sink warns

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s chief financial officer wants car owners to begin preparing for life without no-fault insurance.

 

Florida’s victim claim system is a disgrace

Eight years after Joseph Donahey lost his eyesight and his judicial career to a back surgery by state university doctors, he finally got the chance in December to plead his case for compensation to a state special master. The special master’s report has been written, but Donahey is being told nothing. Even stranger, the two legislators who sponsored bills on his behalf can’t find out what the report says.

 

Debates rages on whether credit scores should be used to figure car insurance

Using credit scores as a factor in determining automobile insurance eligibility and premiums is a standard industry practice. For years, insurers have maintained that a person’s scores, originally intended to measure creditworthiness, are also a predictor of whether — and how often — someone will file an auto insurance claim.

 

Business Topics

State insurance officials on Friday said they rejected rate increase requests from Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Co. and Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Co. because the filings didn’t include legally mandated signatures of top company executives.

 

Drug Benefit Premium to Rise Next Year

WASHINGTON — Many seniors and the disabled will need to shop around next year to avoid an increase in their monthly premiums for the Medicare drug benefit.

 

Childhood mortality declines

Christmas 2003, Sofia Blanco, then 4, got an unusual gift — a few days on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine. It had so many tubes running in and out of it, and her, that it seemed she was being swallowed by an octopus.

 

U.S. life expectancy lags behind 41 countries

Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.  For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.

 

Regulators focus on State Farm

State investigates insurer’s high hurricane rates
 
TALLAHASSEE — State Farm’s business relationships are about to fall into the cross hairs of Florida regulators seeking to learn whether the insurance industry has conspired to keep hurricane rates high.

 

State Farm hearing postponed on dropping 50,000 policies

State officials postponed an upcoming public hearing over State Farm Insurance’s plans to drop about 50,000 homeowners policies to give the insurer more time to submit required documents.

 

Canal fences are a homeowner’s responsibility, not the state’s

ISSUE: South Florida woman wants the state to help homeowners pay for fences near canals.

Next to the palatial home, just beyond the swimming pool and the spacious yard, is a hazard many South Floridians live beside every day: a canal, posing not just a drowning risk for Marlo Scott’s young children but also a threat from the alligator believed to have killed the family dog.

 

Aegon to buy Merrill insurance units for $1.3 bln

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dutch insurer Aegon NV (AEGN.AS) (AEG.N) said on Monday it agreed to buy Merrill Lynch Life Insurance Co. and ML Life Insurance Co. of New York for $1.3 billion in cash to boost its sales of variable annuities and distribution in the United States.

 

$100 million in federal funds to go to rebuilding for Hurricane Wilma victims

 TALLAHASSEE South Florida homeowners still struggling with repairs two years after Hurricane Wilma will soon be able to tap into a $100 million federal fund for help.

 

No-Fault Insurance May Go to Florida Junkyard

Florida is on the verge of eliminating its no-fault auto insurance system. It requires motorists to carry $10,000 in personal injury protection, which pays for medical care, lost wages and other costs associated with car crashes.

 

Republican YouTube Event Moved To Late November

It looks as if the Republican presidential candidates, at least most of them, will be participating in a YouTube debate after all. The forum is now set for Nov. 28, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving.

 

Newsletter publisher cleans up on money laundering

Those were the days.  Every Friday night, Crockett and Tubbs shot their way through plots that bore a curious resemblance to the local nightly news.

 

Money laundering’s greatest hits

This collection, compiled by Charlie Intriago, comes from the pages of moneylaundering.com and Money Laundering Alert or from case anecdotes by Michael McDonald, a retired Special Agent of the Internal Revenue Service and a pioneer in the money laundering control field.

 

Accounting firm ordered to pay millions in compensation

MIAMI (AP) — Accounting firm BDO Seidman must pay $170 million in compensation and provide punitive damages for its negligence in failing to reveal massive fraud in a financial services company backed by a Portuguese bank, a jury decided Monday.

 

Your trip to the store could be to a clinic

Health care becoming part of retail mix

NEW YORK Increasingly, American consumers are shopping for health care the way they buy a hamburger or milk shake at a fast-food chain: By standing in line at a local store under a menu.

 

Weston HMO placed in receivership
 
SunCoast Physicians Health Plan, a small Medicare health maintenance organization in Weston, has been placed in receivership and its 600 members transferred to Humana plans, Medicare announced Monday.

 

Insurance doesn’t make you feel secure

News that some doctors in South Florida will now be charging patients annual “administrative fees” like credit card companies or banks is a sober reminder of how out of control our increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system has become, and in need of genuine, comprehensive reform.

 

Port security remains unresolved in Florida

TALLAHASSEE – After several years, a long list of disagreements and one particularly thorny memo, state and federal officials are no closer to ending a long-running standoff over security at Florida’s seaports.

 

The Color of Health Care: Diagnosing Bias in Doctors

Long before word recently broke that white referees in the National Basketball Association were calling fouls at a higher rate on black athletes than on white athletes, and long before studies found racial disparities in how black and white applicants get called for job interviews, researchers noted differences in the most troubling domain of all — disparities in survival and health among people belonging to different racial groups.

 

Elderly Organize to Meet Problems of Aging

WASHINGTON — On a bluff overlooking the Potomac River, George and Anne Allen, both 82, struggle to remain in their beloved three-story house and neighborhood, despite the frailty, danger and isolation of old age.