The Home Insurance Guru

By Timothy J. Meenan, NAIFA-Florida Lobbyist

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

Today officially marks day 50 of the regularly scheduled 60-day legislative session. The 50th day marks the last day for regularly scheduled Senate committee hearings by rule; the House does not have the same rule, but has historically followed the same timeline. There has been much discussion regarding when the chambers would begin the budget process, but they have not entered budget conference at this point. The House and Senate seem to remain at odds regarding the budget, which could shape the timeline of the rest of session.

AOB Reform SB 1038 (Hukill); HB 1421 (Grant); SB 1218 (Farmer) The House Commerce committee approved a committee substitute for HB 1421 last week. The CS was heard on second reading this morning on the floor. Representative Jenne attempted to add on a rate rollback amendment, but was unsuccessful. We anticipate the bill will be heard on final passage in the House and be sent to the Senate this week. The CS does the following: A. Makes assignments invalid if they don’t comply with the new requirements. B. Requires assignments to be in writing and executed by an insured and the assignee. C. Allows a rescission of the AOB by the insured for any reason within 7 days of the insured having executed the assignment. D. Requires the assignment to be sent to the insurance company within 3 business days after the date the assignment is executed or work has begun, whichever is earlier. E. Requires assignments to include a written cost estimate for the work to be performed. Requires work done by water remediation companies to be certified in a class approved by the American National Standards Institute. F. Contain a notice to the consumer that the AOB might result in litigation, and explaining the right to rescind in 7 days. G. Assignments cannot contain mortgage or check processing fees, penalties for rescission, or other administrative fees. H. Requires the assignee to prove that the insurer is not prejudiced if the assignee fails to maintain records of all services, cooperate with the insurer in the investigation of the claim, and providing the insurer with all requested records, or failed to deliver the new assignment within 3 business days. I. Assignees must provide additional updates on supplemental repairs as they are required. J. Assignees must perform the work in conformance with accepted industry standards. K. Assignees cannot seek payment for amounts denied from the insurer from the insured. L. Assignees must submit to EUO’s, participate in insurer required appraisal or alternative dispute resolution methods required in the policy. M. Assignments do not interfere with any managed repair requirements in law or the policy. N. Assignees must provide a written notice of intent to initiate litigation 10 days before filing suit, and include a specific pre-suit settlement demand, including a detailed written invoice and estimate including all labor and materials, etc. O. Insurers must respond to the 10-day notice of intent to initiate litigation within 10 days by making a pre-suit settlement offer. P. If the difference between the judgment obtained and the difference between the pre-suit demand, and the pre-suit offer is less than 25%, the insurer is entitled to an award of reasonable attorney fees. If the difference is at least 25 percent, but less than 50 percent, no party gets attorney fees. If the difference is greater than 50 percent, the assignee gets attorney fees. In calculating this requirement, the judgment cannot include interest, attorney fees, or costs, and only includes the damages recovered. Q. If an insurer fails to inspect the property, or provide written or verbal authorization for the repairs within 7 days of the first notice of loss, the insurer waives the right to an award of attorney fees. This section is waived if a claim is the result of an event where the governor declares a state of emergency. R. Starting in January 2020, and each year thereafter, the OIR must do a data call requesting AOB claims. Data includes data about claims adjustment and settlement timeframes, procedures, trends, litigated versus non-litigated loss adjustment expenses, and amount and type of attorney fees incurred or paid. S. Policies may not prohibit the post loss assignment of benefits. Industry input, including Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and the major homeowners’ insurers are that this bill is a good faith attempt to fix the problem, and appears to have the support of the majority of insurers. The plaintiffs’ bar absolutely hates the bill and is attacking it, so that tells you something. The senate bill, which is SB 1218 filed by Senator Farmer, is extremely unfriendly to insurers, does not contain any attorney fee reform language, requires insurers to eliminate the costs of attorney fees on cases they lose from being a part of the base rate, and essentially ends the ability to utilize a managed repair program or to invoke the right to repair on a particular claim. The Senate bill supported by the industry, SB 1038 by Senators Hukill and Passidomo, was not given a hearing in Senate Banking and Insurance, its first committee of reference. We do not believe the Senate will take the house bill, but we are working with the Governor to see if we can get this bill heard on the full senate Floor, where we might have a chance, with the Governors help, to get 21 votes.

Flood Insurance SB 420 (Brandes); HB 813 (Lee) SB 420 and HB 813 mandate that the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Prevention Methodology to revise hurricane loss prevention models every four years. The House and Senate bills differ in two respects. First, the House bill requires a surplus lines insurer to be rated by A.M. Best in order to be eligible to write flood policies without a diligent effort and the Senate bill requires a rating from any rating agency acceptable to the OIR. Second, the House bill allows flood insurance policies to be exported to the surplus lines market without a diligent effort only until July 1, 2025 and the Senate bill allows this for an indefinite period. HB 813 has one remaining committee stop, Commerce, before it can head to the floor. The Senate bill was heard by the Senate Community Affairs Committee and passed with a committee substitute. Senator Brandes filed an amendment the night before the bill was to be heard by the Rules Committee. The amendment would require certain National Flood Insurance Program disclosures be provided to and acknowledged in writing by the applicant within 21 days after the NFIP policy expires, and eliminates the requirement altogether if Congress ends the practice of requiring a consumer be charged the full risk rate if they leave the NFIP, and thereafter attempt to re-enter the NFIP. SB 420 was passed out of the Rules Committee and placed on the calendar for second reading. The House bill is slated to be heard today on second reading by the full House.

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial, & Life & Financial products as well.

Please watch this video and read the story to see how much money Insurance could cost you.!

http://www.abcactionnews.com/money/consumer/taking-action-for-you/assignment-of-benefits-abuse-driving-up-cost-of-home-car-insurance-in-florida

Please be sure to call L & S Insurance at -1-888-244-7400 for quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well. The new Maps are still Preliminary and could be updated again. The new changes will start in September if all goes as planned  and about 76,000 homes will need to start to have a new Flood Policy where one was not needed before. Most people do not understand the risk of Flood, but ask people in N.J. from Hurricane Sandy and they will tell you otherwise. Please be prepared and check your information now. You can call Lee at L & S at x-209 for a class at your office soon to review the maps with your agents. Private Flood c an help, please ask me about it!!

http://maps.co.palm-beach.fl.us/gis/floodzones.aspx

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial.

II. AUTO

Motor Vehicle Insurance/ PIP Repeal Measure

SB 156 (Brandes);1766 (Lee, T); HB 461 (Hager); HB 1063 (Grall)

HB 1063 by Representative Grall has emerged as the main House vehicle for the PIP repeal initiative; none of the other bills in the House have moved.

The bill was reported favorably as a committee substitute out of the Insurance and Banking Subcommittee with a vote of 12 to 2. The bill repeals existing PIP law and requires 25/50 bodily injury coverage and does not require any MedPay coverage and also contains no bad faith limitations.

The Senate plans to hear SB 1766 by Senator Tom Lee on April 3 in the Banking and Insurance Committee. While this bill also repeals the requirement to carry minimum PIP benefits, the bills are not identical, as SB 1766 contains a medical payments component of $5,000. A linked bill includes a public records exemption for medical payment information held by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Unfair Insurance Trade Practices/ Rebate Bill

SB 1032 (Mayfield); HB 1029 (Yarborough)

SB 1032 and HB 1029 amend statute to permit an insurer or its agent to give certain promotional items to insureds, prospective insureds, and others for the purpose of conducting a promotional or advertising program. The bills limit the value of promotional items and prohibit items exceeding $100 in total value from being given. Further, the bills prohibit an insurer or its agent from giving an aggregate total value exceeding $100 in a single calendar year to a single individual. Previously the value was capped at $25 and limited to insurer or agent logo items only.

HB 1029 was passed unanimously by the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee on March 27 and is now in its final committee of reference, House Commerce Committee. The Senate bill is scheduled to be heard on April 3 by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

SB 420 and HB 813 mandate that the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Prevention Methodology to revise hurricane loss prevention models every four years. The House and Senate bills differ in two respects. One, the House bill requires a surplus lines insurer to be rated by A.M. Best in order to be eligible to write flood policies without a diligent effort and the Senate bill requires a rating from any rating agency acceptable to the OIR. Two, the House bill allows flood insurance policies to be exported to the surplus lines market without a diligent effort only until July 1, 2025 and the Senate bill allows this for an indefinite period.

The bills require an agent placing a policyholder with a private flood insurer to get a signed disclosure from the insured 20 days before the expiration of the Federal Flood Insurance policy explaining that if the consumer tries to go back to the Federal Flood Program, they may be subjected to significantly higher rates. We are working to switch this time frame to 20 days after the expiration of the policy.

The Senate bill is scheduled for a hearing on April 3 by Senate Community Affairs, its second of three committee stops. The House bill was approved by Insurance and Banking and moves next to the Commerce Committee.

Workers’ Compensation

SB 1582 (Bradley); HB 7085 (Insurance & Banking Subcommittee)

HB 7085 addresses the recent decisions declaring some components of Florida’s Workers Compensation law unconstitutional. The bill would permit direct payments of attorneys by or on behalf of claimants and increases the total combined temporary wage replacement benefits (TTD/TPD) from 104 weeks to 260 weeks. It also allows a Judge of Compensation Claims (JCC) to award an hourly fee that departs from the statutory percentage based attorney fee schedule under certain situations. Among several other components, HB 7085 also permits insurers to uniformly reduce premiums by no more than 5% if they file an informational-only notice within 30 days. Insurance industry representatives believe that the ability of a judge to award additional attorneys’ fees makes this bill less than ideal, and likely means that litigation will continue to expand causing rates to increase.

SB 1582 seeks to stabilize worker’s compensation rates paid by Florida Businesses. The bill requires insurance carriers to authorize or decline requests for authorization from health care providers within a three-day period and provides that a request is deemed to be authorized if the carrier fails to respond. Like the House bill, the Senate bill increases the temporary partial disability benefits from 104 weeks to 260 weeks, in compliance with the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg. SB 1582 retains the statutory fee schedule for setting claimant attorney’s fees but allows the JCC to consider certain factors and permit deviation from the schedule.

The House bill was scheduled to be heard by the Commerce Committee on March 29, but was removed from the agenda at the last minute; it has not been rescheduled at this point. The Senate bill was filed on March 14 and is scheduled for its first hearing on April 3 by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

A bill backed by the insurance industry to curb the abuse of Florida’s one-way attorney fee statute in assignment of benefit claims has stalled as lawmakers opted to instead advance what the insurance industry and the state’s regulator feel is a less effective measure.

The legislative maneuver sparked criticism by the Wall Street Journal of the Senate chair of the key committee, who in turn has accused the industry of mounting a “smear” campaign against her.

The industry setback came on Monday when the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, chaired by Senate President Pro Tempore Anitere Flores (R-Miami, Monroe), left Senate Bill 1038 off its agenda. This bill, drafted by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation with support from the state-run insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and other industry groups, seeks to keep AOB consumer protections in place, but take away the incentive – the one-way attorney fee – that the industry claims is driving abuse by unregulated water mitigation, remediation and roofing contractors typically working with attorney groups

The insurance industry had tempered its expectations of getting the legislation passed because of lobbying by trial attorneys and unlicensed contractors, who the industry says are inflating water damage claims and filing frivolous lawsuits. Under Florida’s current one-way attorney fee statute, policyholders suing their insurer over a claim dispute can recover their attorney’s fees if the insurer is shown to have underpaid the claim, by any amount.

“If you look at the trends of water claims over the last five years – it’s alarming,” Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier told Insurance Journal in February. “Absent any kind of reforms to address those trends, we could be seeing rate increases of 10 percent a year just to keep up.”

Please enjoy the full article below.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2017/04/05/446884.htm