Latest news with #FloridaOfficeofInsuranceRegulation
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Insurance costs edge higher for Florida homeowners and condo owners
The upward rise in costs for homeowner insurance in Florida resumed during the first quarter of 2025, with average premium costs edging higher after dipping slightly in late 2024, new data released by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation shows. The average premium paid by owners of single-family homes in Florida increased by 0.3% — climbing from $3,646 to $3,658 — between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel comparison of figures released in the office's quarterly Residential Market Share Report. Condo unit owners saw their costs increase by 0.8%, from $1,714 to $1,729 during the period, the data shows. Homeowner insurance costs fell by 0.7% in fourth quarter of 2024 Home insurance costs in Florida spiked in third quarter. Are more increases on the way? Condo association insurance costs doubled since 2022, new data shows Your insurance costs won't climb so high this year. All bets are off if we get a lot of hurricanes. Since the enactment of reforms in 2022 aimed at sharply reducing litigation costs for insurers, average premiums have increased 30.7% for homeowners and 28.8% for condo unit owners. The first-quarter hikes followed cost decreases of less than 1% for homeowner policies and 1.7% for condo unit policies during the fourth quarter of 2024. That was the only quarter with cost decreases since the release of the reports began in 2022. The office released the latest data without comment and Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky did not respond to an email from the Sun Sentinel. An office spokeswoman said she did not believe that Yaworsky would be able to address the increases prior to this news article's publication. Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute, attributed the increase to 'higher replacement costs due to inflationary impacts of construction materials and labor.' He also pointed out that the 'slight increase is far below most other hurricane-prone coastal states, which are experiencing double-digit premium increases.' The data showing the cost increases for Florida consumers followed the release of an analysis by insurance ratings firm AM Best noting improvements in the state's insurance market. In addition to achieving, in 2024, the market's first collective underwriting profit in eight years, the AM Best report cited the emergence of 13 new private-market insurers, stabilizing premiums and reinsurance costs, and a sharp reduction in policies held by state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's so-called insurer of last resort. The improvements were made possible, AM Best said, by tort reforms enacted in 2022 and 2023 by the Florida Legislature and governor to reduce runaway litigation costs that were driving losses within the industry. During debate in the Legislature over the reforms, insurance insiders predicted that costs for consumers, then rising sharply, would stabilize or even be reduced after litigation that was underway had a few years to work its way through the courts. Prior to the start of the 2025 legislative session, Yaworsky joined Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference touting the number of insurers that submitted requests for lower or unchanged rates. Critics, however, said the reforms have gone too far, adding to insurer profits while leaving policyholders with less leverage over claims disputes. A bill was backed by plaintiffs attorneys that would have reinstated requirements for insurers that lose claims disputes to pay plaintiffs' legal fees. It passed the House but was not advanced in the Senate. Insurance premiums increased for 41 of 61 carriers with 1,000 or more policies, according to the analysis. The Cincinnati Insurance Co. charged the largest premium increase — 45.7% — among the group of Florida-registered insurers. While its policy count decreased from 1,631 to 1,009, its average premium increased from $11,014 to $16,044. Average risk covered by the Fairfield, Ohio-based company is $2.8 million. Truck Insurance Exchange's 2,390 policyholders saw the second-largest increase, 16.1%, as premiums swelled from $2,059 to $2,390. Premium costs for 20 companies increased by less than 2% and customers of 17 companies saw their premiums decrease, on average, between 0.2% and 9.3% Companies with lower premiums included Florida-based Edison, Florida Peninsula, Security First, Monarch National, American Integrity, ASI Preferred, Safe Harbor, Orange and Safeport. Costs for Citizens customers declined by 1.9%, from $3,348 to $3,283. The Sun Sentinel's calculations excluded two companies from the fourth and first quarters and a third company from the first quarter. Fourth-quarter data reported by two of the companies contained obvious glitches that would have skewed results. The third company did not report its data in the fourth quarter but resumed reporting in the first quarter. Including that company's data in the analysis would have made the first-quarter increases appear artificially large. Condo associations saw relief for the third straight quarter as premiums fell by 5.3% following decreases of 2.5% and 3.0%. Condo association premiums had increased by an average 103% between June 2022 and June 2024 amid concerns about tightening inspection and maintenance requirements. Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida slaps property insurance company with $100K fine over Hurricane Ian claims
Video above: 'Broke' insurance companies moved money, report finds TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida insurance regulators fined a property insurance company $100,000 for its mishandling of claims in the wake of Hurricane Ian in 2022. According to a consent order document provided by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Centauri Specialty Insurance Company failed to utilize properly appointed adjusters and provide a disclosure statement when providing payments on claims that were not the full and final payment. Manatee dies while receiving medical care at Florida state park: report Insurance regulators pointed to 168 instances where the company used insurance adjusters who were not properly appointed. Florida law requires them to be licensed and appointed. The office said that Centauri 'did not provide the particular disclosure statement when providing a payment on a claim that was not the full and final payment in 141 instances.' Centauri was fined $100,000, plus $2,000 in administrative costs. As part of the agreement, the company acknowledged it could face administrative penalties if caught violating the terms of the consent order in the future. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GA lawmaker asks for investigation to see if major insurance companies are hiding profits
A Georgia state Senator is asking for the state's Insurance Commissioner to investigate whether major insurance companies are using affiliate companies they own to hide profits. State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes sent a letter to Insurance Commissioner John King asking that his 'office undertake a comprehensive investigation into Georgia's insurance market.' 'Working families cannot continue to afford rising premiums, and we need to find out what the real cause of these rising premiums are, and whether or not it's because insurance companies are running a shell game,' Islam Parkes told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray. The letter comes after the release this month in the state of Florida of an analysis ordered by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation back in 2022. The report examined the relationship between many insurance companies in Florida and affiliate companies they own and use to provide everything from accounting and underwriting to claims investigation. TRENDING STORIES: Gwinnett 16-year-old missing for over 1 year found safe Fani Willis, Fulton DA's office given 30 days to pay $54K for open records act violations Metro Atlanta teen accepted to 58 colleges, earning $1 million in scholarships Republicans and Democrats last week in a Florida House of Representatives hearing expressed concerns about the findings that indicated that insurance companies in Florida may be using those affiliates to hide profits as they raise rates. 'Our purpose today is to find out if insurance companies have been allegedly ripping us off ripping the citizens of Florida off,' said Florida Republican state Rep. Mike Caruso. The Florida report found that while the insurance companies they examined claimed losses of $432 million, their affiliate companies made $1.8 billion in income. 'I think we'd be fools to think similar practices aren't happening in the state of Georgia,' Islam Parkes said. In his response letter, King said his office regulates those agreements between insurance companies and their affiliates and that the 'review of these agreements is performed on a case-by-case basis to determine what is 'fair and reasonable.'' In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, King's office says affiliate agreements in Georgia require prior approval by the Insurance Commissioner before going into effect and require regular review. The statement also said Georgia's market is different than Florida's, with fewer affiliate companies. 'Florida's insurance market presents unique challenges which are not prevalent in Georgia. Specifically, due to the prevalence of intense natural disasters in the state, many if not most of the larger insurers seek to form a state-specific insurer in Florida. In the Georgia property marketplace, most larger insurers operate under the national corporate structure, with premiums paid directly to the national insurer, rather than through that of a subsidiary and then through to the parent insurer,' an Insurance Commissioner spokesperson wrote. Rising insurance costs in Georgia are one of the main reasons Gov. Brian Kemp has cited for pushing for tort reform this legislative session. 'As a small business owner for 40 years now, I've seen it in my own escalating insurance costs. Insurers that are pulling out of the marketplace so that people can't have access to insurance even if they have the ability to pay for it. So, we are simply trying to stabilize the market,' Kemp said. But Islam Parkes counters there should be more data about those insurance companies' fee structures before any laws are changed. 'What are the reasons that auto insurance, homeowners' insurance is going up? We need to make sure that these insurance companies are not taking advantage of Georgians,' Islam Parkes said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Insurance regulators struggle to explain why stunning 2022 report wasn't made public
Roads in Steinhatchee remain covered in debris on Oct. 3, 2024, following Hurricane Helene. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) Florida lawmakers peppered the state's sitting and former insurance commissioners for three hours on Friday to demand answers about why they didn't bring immediate attention to a 2022 report detailing money transfers from Florida insurers to out-of-state affiliates. At the time, Florida property insurers were pleading for legislative reforms because of liabilities from major storms and excessive litigation. Nevertheless, they were paying billions of dollars to affiliated companies, the document found. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) commissioned the report, prepared by Risk and Regulatory Consulting, in 2020 and it was published in March 2022, several months before a special legislative session made it harder to sue insurance companies. House Speaker Daniel Perez called Friday's meeting of the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee following a bombshell Tampa Bay Times story about that report, which found that insurers who were claiming financial ruin after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Michael in 2018 had paid $680 million in dividends to shareholders while simultaneously funneling billions to affiliated companies. The report showed that 53 insurers reported a total of $61 million in net income, while their affiliates, known as MGAs (managing general agents), reported $14 billion in income. Hillsborough County Republican Susan Valdes asked David Altmaier, who was insurance commissioner at the time the report was commissioned, whether he found the disclosure alarming. 'It certainly raised some red flags, which is why it was important for us to determine whether or not this was accurate,' Altmaier said. Lawmakers pressed Altmaier and his successor, Michael Yaworsky, about why the office never made the report public. Their response was that it was in draft form and not ready for general release. 'A draft is a very real thing to us, and it is an indication that it is not a completed product,' Yaworsky told the committee. Under further questioning, Yaworsky mentioned discussions that concluded sometime later in 2022 between the OIR and Rise & Regulatory Consulting 'to perfect the document.' He said he didn't know the details, adding that his office was dealing with between six or seven companies at the time that had gone through insolvency, as well as investigating other insurance companies. 'I think it's possible that they were simply overwhelmed,' he said. Speaking under oath, Altmaier said the office had become aware of transfers with affiliated companies in 2014, but it wasn't until 2021 that they were able to get legislation passed that specifically authorized them to investigate the affiliate payments. 'Even before we got this draft report, the office was very mindful that this allegation was out there. We were very mindful that we needed to increase our authority to answer these types of questions, not just for you but for your constituents and our consumers and all kinds of other stakeholders,' he said. Altmaier wasn't able to answer why, if he thought the report was so important, he didn't follow up when the OIR received it in 2022. 'Hindsight being 20/20, there's probably some opportunities where I could have poked a little bit to make sure that this work was continuing. But, as the commissioner said, we were dealing with a lot,' Altmaier said. Pinellas County GOP Rep. Adam Anderson asked to what extent can excessive affiliate fees affect policyholders' premiums? 'There is a factor in there that is fees that you pay to your affiliates,' Altmaier replied. 'If that's being done correctly, then that's a reasonable fee to have in the rates. One of the reasons why this work was so important to us was, if this is being abused, then it can have detrimental impact on policyowner premiums. The challenge is, we didn't fully answer that question during my tenure,' he said. Yaworsky, who served as chief of staff to Altmaier between 2017 and 2021, was named Insurance Commissioner in early 2023. He said it wasn't until late last year that he was even aware of the report. That prompted several members of the committee to ask why he didn't share the information from the report when appearing before lawmakers since then. They wanted to know whether the affiliate payments were directly responsible for the escalating property insurance rates that have become the single most important issue to Floridians, according to multiple polls taken over the last year. Yaworsky pushed back, disputing that the transfers explain why some carriers have become insolvent or closed their businesses in Florida. 'I think the problem at its crux with companies is pretty easy to demonstrate — that it was … due primarily to litigation, but also natural catastrophes and the cost of reinsurance,' he said. 'The companies went broke because rates simply could not be raised fast enough to accommodate that, and the market did not exist to support that. There's not a lot of evidence that MGA fees or affiliate entity fees were the proximate cause of any insolvency.' Also at the center of the discussion was what is considered a 'fair and reasonable' amount for those companies send to their associated groups. The state of Florida to this day does not have a defined standard in law about what is fair and reasonable. The Tampa Bay Times made a public information request to see the report in 2022, yet did not receive it until late last year. Several committee members questioned what led to that delay. 'There was so much going on in 2022 that this did not take the priority,' Yaworsky said. 'That's a plausible explanation for what happened here.' Some lawmakers reacted with disgust. 'Our purpose here today is to find out if insurance companies have been allegedly ripping the citizens of Florida off. Why rates are so high? We want to find that out. And this report's the state's attempt at determining the answer to that,' said Palm Beach Republican Mike Caruso. 'Yet it's still in draft form. It's only seven pages long. It deals with data from 2017 to 2019. Today's 2025. And I find it, as a legislator, that's outrageous that we're getting something that's so antiquated and so full of flaws.' Caruso and other lawmakers asked whether the office plans an updated report. That remains uncertain at this time, although committee chair Brad Yeager said after the meeting that he believed lawmakers would push to make that happen. The report cost $150,000 and was paid for by a trust fund within the OIR, and not from taxpayer money. In his State of the State address last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proclaimed that the state's homeowners' insurance market is finally seeing some stability, noting 130,000 new private policies over the past year and that Florida had the lowest increase in rates of all 50 states. However, the Tampa Bay Times reported earlier this week that the vast majority of the almost 1 million policyholders with state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will pay higher rates beginning on June 1. Known as the property insurer of last resort, it remains the largest in the state in terms of the number of policies written. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Florida seeks patient prescription data
Florida's insurance regulator is demanding detailed prescription data on millions of patients, raising alarms over patient privacy. In January, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation asked pharmacy benefit managers -- companies that manage prescription drug plans -- to hand over highly personal data about prescriptions filled in the state last year. The data request includes the patients' full names and dates of birth, names of medications filled and doctors they've seen. It's unclear why the state wants these details. In a letter to one benefit manager reviewed by The New York Times, the regulator said Florida needed to check whether pharmacy benefit managers are following a 2023 state law that aimed to lower drug prices. But employers and others say the request could expose highly sensitive health data to misuse. "You don't need such granular patient information for purposes of oversight," Sharona Hoffman, a health law and privacy expert at Case Western Reserve University, told The Times. "You have to worry: Is the government actually trying to get information about reproductive care or transgender care or mental health care?" she added. The data demand comes at a time when Florida has passed strict laws restricting abortion access and transgender care. These laws require that doctors dispense abortion pills in person and limit access to gender-affirming care for minors. Florida's data request could, in theory, be used to check whether doctors are following these laws -- although the state has not said whether that's the reason, The Times reported. The American Benefits Council, which represents 430 large employers and service organizations, said the request "violates the health privacy and security of millions of Floridians," and that the state had failed to clearly outline its authority or reasons for the action. "We have a duty to employees and their data," Katy Johnson, the president of the council, said in an interview. Shiloh Elliott, a spokeswoman for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, said the objections "are clearly from those who do not want to be regulated or have any oversight in their industry." She added that the office "will continue to request data in the best interest to protect consumers." Elliott added that concerns "should be addressed to the actual health care insurance companies that have had countless data breaches exposing millions of Americans' sensitive information." Experts say Florida already has access to prescription data for Medicaid patients, but that data is usually tightly restricted to staff who need it. Joseph Shields, president of Transparency-Rx, a trade group for smaller benefit managers, called Florida's request "pretty expansive and unprecedented." Rosa Novo, benefits director for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which provides health insurance to about 45,000 people, told The Times she supports efforts to reduce drug prices -- but not at the expense of their privacy. "My doctor is the only one who should know that," Novo said. More information The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more on the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
