Latest news with #OfficeofInsuranceRegulation
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida lawmakers continue to press on in state's insurance investigation
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — The insurance investigation continues at the statehouse with another hearing in the books. Lawmakers forge ahead, demanding more answers around who to hold accountable after the bombshell reporting revealed Florida insurers were shifting money while claiming to be broke. Even after a second hearing, the investigation wrapped up, there seems to be unfinished business. In the first hearing of the insurance investigation, lawmakers probed again and again the same question: Why wasn't the report released to the legislature during an insurance crisis? Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner Michael Yaworsky claims the report was imperfect. 'Why we didn't make the particular findings of this report to you is mainly because it was in draft, and we don't make a business of providing information that we believe to be inaccurate or imperfect to the legislature,' said Yaworsky. However, in the second hearing of the investigation last week, the author of the study said it was actually complete. State Rep. Daniel Alvarez (R- Hillsborough County) questioned Jan Moenck, 'It is inaccurate for them to have said you were not finished, so either they weren't telling us the truth or you weren't telling the truth, which one was that?' Moenck, the author of the study, said that in her mind, she thought they had a final draft. 'In our mind, we had our final draft,' said lawmakers say there is clearly a big discrepancy between the two stories, both parties seem to agree that it is up to the client to decide when a report is finished.'What we feel is our responsibility is to provide, in our mind, a final draft to the client, and then they can take that and do with that what they want,' said Moenck. 'Will we be going back to OIR, being that what is being revealed basically says they lied to us, they had a completed report and did not let us know that it was completed,' questioned State Rep. Dianne Hart (D-Tampa). With even more concerns at the forefront, what's next for the investigation? Committee chairman Brad Yeager said there will be at least one more hearing scheduled to further investigate these concerns. Aside from the investigation, House Rep. Philip Wayne Griffitts (R-Panama City Beach) filed HB 881, which aims to follow the money in insurance concerns following the investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As the insurance crisis spiraled, did Florida bury consumer complaints?
TALLAHASSEE — In an extraordinary criticism of one state agency by another, Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation told legislators that a department led by then-Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis may have buried thousands of complaints Floridians made against property insurance companies. Patronis' office referred 5.2% of the property insurance complaints it received over a five-year period to regulators for possible violations of state law, indicating 'potential underreporting,' Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation wrote in newly disclosed memos obtained by the Times/Herald. That low referral rate made it harder for regulators to police the industry, the memos said. Consumers lodged more than 52,000 complaints against property insurers during the period. The memos, given to legislative leaders, were produced as part of a tug-of-war between two agencies and a bid to consolidate insurance oversight under one roof. Florida is the only state that splits insurance regulation between two agencies. The consolidation push began before this year's legislative session and after Patronis announced he was leaving to run for Congress. He won a special election to the Panhandle seat Tuesday after serving seven years as CFO. 'This bifurcation has hindered the state's ability to adequately protect consumers,' one of the memos says. The memos questioned the training of Patronis' employees, said that his office was missing complaints against pharmacy benefit managers and argued that consolidation would allow the state to better police insurers' use of affiliate companies. House and Senate leaders haven't endorsed the idea of consolidating insurance oversight, and it's not in legislation introduced this session. Spokespeople for House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said they were open to the idea, however. On one side is the Office of Insurance Regulation. It handles insurers' rate filings, polices their conduct and determines when companies are insolvent. It's led by the state's insurance commissioner, Mike Yaworsky, who is appointed by the governor and Cabinet. On the other side is the Department of Financial Services. It oversees consumer insurance complaints, regulates insurance agents and takes over insolvent insurers. It's usually led by the elected chief financial officer, but that position is now vacant. The split dates to 2003, and it has rankled insurance commissioners ever since. Yaworsky for one is open to reform. He said he wanted 'a vigorous defense of consumers when they're approaching their state with an insurance problem.' 'I'm hoping that if there is discussion around this, whatever the outcome is, it leads to a really robust framework around ensuring that consumers are protected,' Yaworsky told the Times/Herald. Yaworsky spelled out in the memos the downsides of splitting regulation, saying his office can see what insurers are doing but often doesn't hear about consumer complaints. 'It has hindered the state's ability to evaluate and regulate the entire insurance market,' the memos state. Yaworsky has stepped up enforcement of the industry since DeSantis nominated him for the job in 2023. He's ordered insurers to stop gaming their rate increase requests to avoid public hearings, stopped them from hiring executives of failed companies and asked lawmakers for more enforcement powers. Yaworsky's memos questioned the quality of the complaints his office was being sent by the Department of Financial Services. The department is supposed to send complaints where companies might have violated state law. But of the complaints Yaworsky's office received, nearly half didn't name any violations, the memos said. Such a low rate was a 'likely indicator' that staff in Patronis' office is 'not adequately trained to identify violations,' the memos state. The 'issue is made even more stark,' the memos state, when looking at complaints pharmacists have made about pharmacy benefit managers, health care middlemen that have been blamed for skyrocketing drug prices. In 2024, pharmacists made 142 complaints to Patronis' department about pharmacy benefit managers. The department closed 34 and referred 11 to the Office of Insurance Regulation. It's not clear what happened with the rest. Meanwhile, the memos asserted, the department wasn't capturing complaints made by patients because the department wasn't coding them properly. Consolidating regulation would also give the Office of Insurance Regulation more oversight of insurers' affiliate companies, the office wrote. A 2022 analysis produced by the office and revealed by the Times/Herald last month found that insurance companies claimed to lose money between 2017 and 2019 while their affiliates made billions. The Department of Financial Services did not respond to questions by the Times/Herald about the memos. One reason why so few complaints are being forwarded to the Office of Insurance Regulation could be because Patronis' department doesn't investigate complaints if the homeowner has also sued their insurer. That fact isn't mentioned in the office's memos. Patronis historically took a light touch to the insurance industry. He did not come out in favor of Yaworsky fining an insurance company $1 million for Hurricane Ian violations last year. Patronis also pushed to seal records that would shed light about why insurance companies go out of business. His office was supposed to investigate claims by insurance adjusters who said the companies they worked for manipulated their estimates to lowball homeowners. But Patronis' office never brought charges against the companies and never released the records about his office's investigations. Two Republican state senators vying to replace Patronis said they saw the memos but had different conclusions. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, called the lack of information-sharing 'very concerning.' 'By withholding some of that information, we're not doing what we are probably supposed to be doing,' he said. 'It's a disservice to the people who are making those complaints.' Ingoglia said he didn't know enough to say whether insurance regulation should be consolidated. Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, said he spoke to Patronis about the idea, who 'thought it was a mistake, really, on numerous fronts.' He said splitting regulation resulted in a 'checks and balances' of oversight. He said the Office of Insurance Regulation was making a 'power move' by trying to assume control. He said the office already had access to the state's complaint data. (Yaworsky said the data is 'problematic' and makes it 'difficult' for his office to find violations of law.) If anything, insurance regulation should be solely under the elected chief financial officer so 'that person can be held accountable,' Gruters said.
Miami Herald
04-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Florida insurance regulators question oversight by office run by newly elected U.S. rep
In an extraordinary criticism of one state agency by another, Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation told legislators that a department led by then-Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis may have buried thousands of complaints Floridians made against property insurance companies. Patronis' office referred 5.2% of the property insurance complaints it received over a five-year period to regulators for possible violations of state law, indicating 'potential underreporting,' Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation wrote in newly disclosed memos obtained by the Herald/Times. That low referral rate made it harder for regulators to police the industry, the memos said. Consumers lodged more than 52,000 complaints against property insurers during the period. The memos, given to legislative leaders, were produced as part of a tug-of-war between two agencies and a bid to consolidate insurance oversight under one roof. Florida is the only state that splits insurance regulation between two agencies. The consolidation push began before this year's legislative session and after Patronis announced he was leaving to run for Congress. He won a special election to the Panhandle seat Tuesday after serving seven years as CFO. 'This bifurcation has hindered the state's ability to adequately protect consumers,' one of the memos states. The memos questioned the training of Patronis' employees, said that his office was missing complaints against pharmacy benefit managers and argued that consolidation would allow the state to better police insurers' use of affiliate companies. House and Senate leaders haven't endorsed the idea of consolidating insurance oversight, and it's not in legislation introduced this session. Spokespeople for House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said they were open to the idea, however. On one side is the Office of Insurance Regulation. It handles insurers' rate filings, polices their conduct and determines when companies are insolvent. It's led by the state's insurance commissioner, Mike Yaworsky, who is appointed by the governor and Cabinet. On the other side is the Department of Financial Services. It oversees consumer insurance complaints, regulates insurance agents and takes over insolvent insurers. It's usually led by the elected chief financial officer, but that position is now vacant. The split dates to 2003, and it has rankled insurance commissioners ever since. Yaworsky for one is open to reform. He said he wanted 'a vigorous defense of consumers when they're approaching their state with an insurance problem.' 'I'm hoping that if there is discussion around this, whatever the outcome is, it leads to a really robust framework around ensuring that consumers are protected,' Yaworsky told the Herald/Times. Yaworsky spelled out in the memos the downsides of splitting regulation, saying his office can see what insurers are doing but often doesn't hear about consumer complaints. 'It has hindered the state's ability to evaluate and regulate the entire insurance market,' the memos state. Yaworsky has stepped up enforcement of the industry since DeSantis nominated him for the job in 2023. He's ordered insurers to stop gaming their rate increase requests to avoid public hearings, stopped them from hiring executives of failed companies and asked lawmakers for more enforcement powers. Yaworsky's memos questioned the quality of the complaints his office was being sent by the Department of Financial Services. The department is supposed to send complaints where companies might have violated state law. But of the complaints Yaworsky's office received, nearly half didn't name any violations, the memos said. Such a low rate was a 'likely indicator' that staff in Patronis' office is 'not adequately trained to identify violations,' the memos state. The 'issue is made even more stark,' the memos state, when looking at complaints pharmacists have made about pharmacy benefit managers, health care middlemen that have been blamed for skyrocketing drug prices. In 2024, pharmacists made 142 complaints to Patronis' department about pharmacy benefit managers. The department closed 34 and referred 11 to the Office of Insurance Regulation. It's not clear what happened with the rest. Meanwhile, the memos asserted, the department wasn't capturing complaints made by patients because the department wasn't coding them properly. Consolidating regulation would also give the Office of Insurance Regulation more oversight of insurers' affiliate companies, the office wrote. A 2022 analysis produced by the office and revealed by the Herald/Times last month found that insurance companies claimed to lose money between 2017 and 2019 while their affiliates made billions. The Department of Financial Services did not respond to questions by the Herald/Times about the memos. One reason why so few complaints are being forwarded to the Office of Insurance Regulation could be because Patronis' department doesn't investigate complaints if the homeowner has also sued their insurer. That fact isn't mentioned in the office's memos. Patronis historically took a light touch to the insurance industry. He did not come out in favor of Yaworsky fining an insurance company $1 million for Hurricane Ian violations last year. Patronis also pushed to seal records that would shed light about why insurance companies go out of business. His office was supposed to investigate claims by insurance adjusters who said the companies they worked for manipulated their estimates to lowball homeowners. But Patronis' office never brought charges against the companies and never released the records about his office's investigations. Two Republican state senators vying to replace Patronis said they saw the memos but had different conclusions. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, called the lack of information-sharing 'very concerning.' 'By withholding some of that information, we're not doing what we are probably supposed to be doing,' he said. 'It's a disservice to the people who are making those complaints.' Ingoglia said he didn't know enough to say whether insurance regulation should be consolidated. Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, said he spoke to Patronis about the idea, who 'thought it was a mistake, really, on numerous fronts.' He said splitting regulation resulted in a 'checks and balances' of oversight. He said the Office of Insurance Regulation was making a 'power move' by trying to assume control. He said the office already had access to the state's complaint data. (Yaworsky said the data is 'problematic' and makes it 'difficult' for his office to find violations of law.) If anything, insurance regulation should be solely under the elected chief financial officer so 'that person can be held accountable,' Gruters said.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida regulators didn't follow up on insurance profits study, author says
TALLAHASSEE — Last month, Florida's current and former insurance regulators said the state never finished a 2022 study showing insurers losing millions of dollars while their affiliates were making billions. On Thursday, the author of that study said she believed it was completed and that regulators never told her it wasn't. 'In our mind, we had our final draft,' said Jan Moenck, an analyst with the Connecticut-based company hired by regulators to produce the report. To some lawmakers, the testimony appeared to contradict testimony by Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner Mike Yaworsky and past Commissioner David Altmaier. 'What is being revealed basically said they lied to us,' said Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa. Yaworsky strongly denied that he misled lawmakers. 'The idea that I lied somehow around that is just flatly false,' he said after the hearing. Last month, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, ordered hearings by a House committee after the Times/Herald revealed that the state had commissioned a study examining insurers' use of affiliate companies. Florida-based insurance companies have long used affiliate companies, which charge the insurance company for services, such as handling claims or writing policies, sometimes at inflated prices. The state's study, capturing data between 2017 and 2019, was the deepest dive into the business practice. Moenck found that Florida-based insurers had a net loss of $432 million, while their affiliates had a net income of $1.8 billion. The industry overall spent $680 million on dividends to shareholders during the period. The report was produced in April 2022, at the height of the insurance crisis, but never given to lawmakers. Instead, lawmakers focused on making it harder to sue insurance companies. Altmaier, who commissioned the report, told lawmakers last month that the initial report 'certainly raised some red flags,' and his office intended to follow up. Yaworsky said he didn't learn of the report until October 2024, when the Times/Herald's lawyers demanded his office turn it over. The newspapers first requested it in 2022, before Altmaier left the office. Yaworsky said the report was incomplete because 23% of insurance companies never responded to the office's request for data and because it didn't provide the level of detail of insurers' finances that the state needed. Moenck agreed that it is up to the client to decide when a report is finished. She said more information on finances would be helpful but difficult to obtain. 'I don't know that a person would ever be able to capture that unless you had a forensic accountant looking at each company on an individual basis,' Moenck said. After turning over her report in 2022, she said she asked whether regulators wanted a verbal presentation about her findings or had any other questions. 'We did not receive any requests for additional work or follow-up on the reports,' Moenck said. Committee chairperson Brad Yeager, R-New Port Richey, said the fact that regulators didn't follow up was 'telling.' At least one more hearing, to find forensic accountants who can investigate further, will be scheduled, Yeager said. 'We've asked questions and we've gotten good answers, but I think those good answers have provided more questions and some concern,' he said. Earlier Thursday, his committee advanced a bill that would require insurance companies to turn over more details about their relationships with affiliate companies. 'The report, I think, made everybody step back,' said the bill sponsor, Rep. Griff Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach, referring to the 2022 report brought to light by the Times/Herald. Yaworsky said he welcomed getting more details about insurance companies' practices. He has asked for more oversight of insurers' affiliate companies. 'For years now, we have called for more scrutiny in this space,' Yaworsky said. 'We've gotten some, but at other times, the Legislature has said 'No thank you.''
Miami Herald
03-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
After study on insurer profits, Florida regulators didn't follow up, author says
Last month, Florida's current and former insurance regulators said the state never finished a 2022 study showing insurers losing millions of dollars while their affiliates were making billions. On Thursday, the author of that study said she believed it was completed and that regulators never told her it wasn't. 'In our mind, we had our final draft,' said Jan Moenck, an analyst with the Connecticut-based company hired by regulators to produce the report. To some lawmakers, the testimony appeared to contradict testimony by Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner Mike Yaworsky and past Commissioner David Altmaier. 'What is being revealed basically said they lied to us,' said Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa. Yaworsky strongly denied that he misled lawmakers. 'The idea that I lied somehow around that is just flatly false,' he said after the hearing. Last month, House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, ordered hearings by a House committee after the Herald/Times revealed that the state had commissioned a study examining insurers' use of affiliate companies. Florida-based insurance companies have long used affiliate companies, which charge the insurance company for services, such as handling claims or writing policies, sometimes at inflated prices. The state's study, capturing data between 2017 and 2019, was the deepest dive into the business practice. Moenck found that Florida-based insurers had a net loss of $432 million, while their affiliates had a net income of $1.8 billion. The industry overall spent $680 million on dividends to shareholders during the period. The report was produced in April 2022, at the height of the insurance crisis, but never given to lawmakers. Instead, lawmakers focused on making it harder to sue insurance companies. Altmaier, who commissioned the report, told lawmakers last month that the initial report 'certainly raised some red flags,' and his office intended to follow up. Yaworsky said he didn't learn of the report until October 2024, when the Herald/Times' lawyers demanded his office turn it over. The newspapers first requested it in 2022, before Altmaier left the office. Yaworsky said the report was incomplete because 23% of insurance companies never responded to the office's request for data and because it didn't provide the level of detail of insurers' finances that the state needed. Moenck agreed that it is up to the client to decide when a report is finished. She said more information on finances would be helpful but difficult to obtain. 'I don't know that a person would ever be able to capture that unless you had a forensic accountant looking at each company on an individual basis,' Moenck said. After turning over her report in 2022, she said she asked whether regulators wanted a verbal presentation about her findings or had any other questions. 'We did not receive any requests for additional work or follow-up on the reports,' Moenck said. Committee chairperson Brad Yeager, R-New Port Richey, said the fact that regulators didn't follow up was 'telling.' At least one more hearing, to find forensic accountants who can investigate further, will be scheduled, Yeager said. 'We've asked questions and we've gotten good answers, but I think those good answers have provided more questions and some concern,' he said. Earlier Thursday, his committee advanced a bill that would require insurance companies to turn over more details about their relationships with affiliate companies. 'The report, I think, made everybody step back,' said the bill sponsor, Rep. Griff Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach, referring to the 2022 report brought to light by the Herald/Times. Yaworsky said he welcomed getting more details about insurance companies' practices. He has asked for more oversight of insurers' affiliate companies. 'For years now, we have called for more scrutiny in this space,' Yaworsky said. 'We've gotten some, but at other times, the Legislature has said 'No thank you.''
