This year's legislative session has come for an end. Based on the Tampa Bay Times, lawmakers passed 195 bills from the 1,861 bills filed. Some bills were successful as well as for most of the others- there is always next year. Several highlights.
Winners:
Property Insurance Reform-Property insurance reform, often called assignment of advantages (AOB). It will primarily limit attorney’s fees in disputes over assignment of advantages between insurance providers and contractors and authorizes policies that are not susceptible to assignment of benefits.
“After an extended battle against insurance abuse, there is a victory,” says Ellsworth Buck, Vice President of Insurance, Florida's leading independent auto insurance agency.
The following would be the bills provisions according to Insurance Journal.
- Define “assignment agreement” and establishing requirements for the execution, validity, and effect of such an agreement
- Prohibit certain fees and altering policy provisions related to managed repairs within an assignment agreement
- Transfer certain pre-lawsuit duties underneath the insurance contract towards the assignee and shift the responsibility to the assignee to prove that any failure to handle such duties hasn't limited the insurer's ability to perform under the contract
- Require each insurer to report specified data on claims paid within the prior year under assignment agreements by January 30, 2022, and each year thereafter
- Allow an insurer to make available a policy prohibiting assignment, entirely or perhaps in part, under certain conditions
- Revise the state's one-way attorney fee statute to incorporate an attorney fee structure in determining the fee amount awarded in suits by an assignee against an insurer
- Require service providers to provide some insurance company and also the consumer prior written notice with a minimum of 10 working days before filing suit on the claim.
Texting- Texting while driving will be described as a primary offense, meaning law enforcement can stop a motorist for just that offense. It's also illegal to use or hold your cell phone while driving via a school zone or construction zone.
Ride Share-Ride share services such as Uber and Lyft can provide non-emergency trips towards the hospital for Medicaid patients.
Losers:
Personal Injury Protection (PIP)- A repeal to eliminate Florida's no-fault auto insurance system, where drivers have to carry personal injury protection coverage to assist pay medical bills after accidents. “Each year an attempt is made to eradicate the old no-fault system and proceed to a bodily-injury coverage requirement, but it cannot get enough support from lawmakers, says Ellsworth Buck, Vice President of Insurance, Florida's largest independent auto insurance agency.
Genetic Testing – Restricts insurance companies by using dna testing information in selling policies or setting rates.
Sunscreen- Prohibits local governments from banning the sale of certain sunscreens.
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