Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, December 29
Dec 29, 2008
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Florida to Receive $8.5 Million in Medicaid Settlement with Pharmaceutical Company
Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that Florida will receive a total of $8.5 million as part of a $375 million global Medicaid settlement with Cephalon, Inc., an international biopharmaceutical company.
Attorney General McCollum, Secretary Benson Release Annual Medicaid Fraud Report
Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson today released the state’s annual Medicaid fraud report, highlighting the importance of increased vigilance against Medicaid fraud.
- To view a copy of the report, click here.
6 new laws start Jan. 1 in Florida
Hospital patients will have improved consumer protection, check-cashing businesses will see tighter regulation and state employees will get a bit more job security in the new year. Florida has only six new laws taking effect on New Year’s Day. Most of the 2008 legislative session’s output went into effect upon signature by the governor, with the start of the new fiscal year on July 1 or the federal budget year Oct. 1, or on a specified date that coincided with other laws or regulations.
Franklin County receives hefty insurance refund
At the Dec. 16 meeting of the Franklin County Commission, Craig McMillan of the Pat Thomas Agency presented the board with a check for almost $74,000.
Back pay: Miami wants FEMA to cut check for 2005 hurricane damage
What Miami wants this holiday season – among many things – is a refund check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Chinese drywall causes concern in Lee
Sulfur odor prompts material testing in some Lee homes
Chinese drywall installed in houses in Lee County and elsewhere could be causing noxious odors, air conditioning failures and health problems.
State insurer could force policy switch
The property insurance situation in Florida remains sticky.
Brown & Brown to stay on buying binge in 2009
Daytona Beach insurance brokerage firm Brown & Brown Inc. seemingly exists in an alternative universe where a series a rapid-fire acquisitions have brought nearly 40 independent agencies into its corporate tent this year.
New low-cost medical insurance option, Cover Florida, starts in January
New Cover Florida plans offer low-cost, bare-bones options, but read the fine print
Kathy Graham sees it as a way to get “just in case” medical coverage for family or friends who are healthy but uninsured. Retiree John Stern sees it as a way to get by for five years until he can get Medicare.
“I Dream of Jeannie” Star Markets Florida Low-Cost Health Care in Cocoa Beach
If you’re wondering why the former star of ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ is marketing Medicare insurance products for Health First Health Plans, look no farther than Cocoa Beach. That’s where Barbara Eden and the rest of the cast of the 1960s sitcom supposedly resided during the series’ five-year run, even though virtually all of the filming took place in California.
Gov. Crist: Chiles fund will be repaid fast
Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday he tried to make budget cuts as painless as possible in his proposal to plug a $2.3 billion hole in the state’s spending plan.
Florida 2008: The year in review
State weathered storms, gas lines and budget woes
The book on Florida in 2008 was highlighted by elections on either end – a January vote to cut taxes and a November trip to the polls that turned the state blue – with a recurring theme throughout:
South Florida economic outlook just as bleak for 2009
If the economy seemed bad this year, 2009 may shape up even worse.
There was one major direction that the business news took in 2008. Down.
Almost one in 10 Floridians on food stamps
Unemployed and strapped for cash, Floridians are asking for state assistance to feed their families in record numbers.
In the last two years, the number of Floridians on food stamps has increased more than 40 percent to 1.7 million. That increase is the highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And it’s the second-largest jump in the state’s history, surpassed only during the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, said an analyst at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.
Feeling lucky? New year ushers in Powerball
With the state’s addition of Powerball starting next week, Floridians will finally be able to gamble on long odds for a shot at really big bucks.
Odds of dying in a freak fireworks accident: 1 in 954,786. Of being attacked by a shark: one in eight million.
The Florida House gets 35 new members. All seven new senators served in the House. Here’s a roundup.
Thanks to term limits, there are plenty of fresh faces in Tallahassee this year. The seven new state senators are all veterans of the Florida House of Representatives, but Florida voters elected 35 new lawmakers to the lower chamber.
Florida’s loss of clout in D.C. could prove costly
Central Florida should lose some of its clout in the next Congress — at least on paper.
Three veteran U.S. House members from the region are being replaced by rookies, a potentially painful loss in a system that runs largely on seniority. Among the departed: U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic, whose retirement likely leaves no one from the region on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
Kosmas gets ready for Washington
Preparing for her new job representing Florida’s 24th District in Congress, Suzanne Kosmas walked briskly along the hallways of the nation’s Capitol building during an orientation.
Jeb Bush poised for Florida Senate run
As Caroline Kennedy pursues her bright-lights, big-city bid for the U.S. Senate, another child of dynasty is quietly testing the waters for his own Senate run.
EDITORIAL: Lawmakers Must Trim Pricey Pensions
A program that began quietly a decade ago is attracting close attention now that increasing numbers of veteran workers in state and local governments qualify to get both retirement pay and a big salary.
EDITORIAL: A bad bet by McCollum
Bill McCollum is hedging his bets in case Jeb Bush decides not to run for the Senate seat Mel Martinez will be giving up in 2010. Ensuring that his name will be in the news, Florida’s attorney general, who long has had designs on the Senate, has asked the feds “to initiate a criminal prosecution to put an end to the calculated illegal expansion of Class III gaming” by the Seminole Tribe.
Mine obstacle in U.S. Sugar deal
Gov. Charlie Crist’s $1.34 billion bid to repair the Everglades by buying nearly all of U.S. Sugar Corp.’s farmland comes with a small demand that could lead to big headaches: Forget plans for a 7,000-acre rock mine on the property.
States are selling off roads, parks, airports and lotteries to raise funds
Ballooning budget deficits have prompted more U.S. states to sell off roads, parks, airports and lotteries to raise money.
Minnesota is deep in the hole financially, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize.
COMMENTARY: Take politics out of Florida’s judiciary
By the early 1970s, patronage politics had severely undermined confidence in Florida’s judiciary. After he became governor in 1971, Reubin Askew issued an executive order to limit political influence on judicial selections and establish merit as the basis on which Florida filled vacancies at every level of the court system.
Two insurance industry trade groups are voicing deep concern over the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to subpoena data dealing with the use of credit scoring to set homeowners insurance rates.
AIG Buys $16 Billion of Collateralized Debt Obligations It Insured for Default
American International Group says it purchased $16 billion of complex financial instruments in an effort to reduce its exposure to insurance guarantees written against the instruments.
Brooke Franchise Demise Impacts 800+ Agencies
The filing of personal bankruptcy by franchise founder Robert Orr was another nail in the coffin for more than 800 insurance agencies left out in the cold after the demise of Brooke Capital Corp.
N.Y. Agents Outline 2009 Legislative Plans
Producer compensation and allowing agents to request cancellation of policies when a client’s check bounces are issues New York agent associations plan to address with the Legislature in 2009, according to their agendas
Texas Medical Board falling behind as workload grows
Medical malpractice reform enacted five years ago succeeded in cutting the number of lawsuits against doctors and increasing the number of physicians working in Texas.
Federal government making crop insurance available to beekeepers for first time
The buzz in the honeybee industry these days is about crop insurance now available to beekeepers for the first time.
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