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Insurance
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April 25, 2013
Greenberg Traurig Grilled On Ties To Political Intel Firms
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., on Thursday asked Greenberg Traurig LLP to disclose its links to controversial groups known as political intelligence firms, after a purported leak this month involving an attorney from the firm’s lobbying arm supposedly caused health insurers' shares to spike by more than $660 million.
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April 25, 2013
Cuomo Moves To Protect Credit Scores Of Sandy Victims
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday thousands of people affected by Superstorm Sandy should not suffer “credit damage” along with home, auto and business losses and directed the state's banking and insurance regulator to force credit rating agencies take the storm into account.
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April 24, 2013
FIO Asks Stakeholders To Weigh In On New Insurance Report
The Federal Insurance Office on Wednesday called for input from insurers, consumer groups and regulators on another report required by Congress, this time a study analyzing the U.S. market for natural catastrophe insurance.
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April 24, 2013
Fla. Cuts $230M Tax Credit For Insurance Companies
The Florida Senate voted Wednesday to eliminate a long-standing tax rebate for insurers worth $230 million annually in order to offset a reduction of state vehicle registration fees, saying the incentive had served its purpose.
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April 24, 2013
GOP Reps. Blast Administration Over ACA Implementation
A group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday blasted a key Obama administration official over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, saying the president had gone back on his key promise of a reduction in health insurance premiums under the law.
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April 23, 2013
Fla. Senate Panel Clears Medicaid Expansion Alternatives
A plan in the Florida Senate that proposes using $55 billion in federal funds from the Affordable Care Act to expand a state-run program as an alternative to Medicaid expansion breezed through the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday on its way a showdown with the House's contrasting position on the issue.
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April 23, 2013
Archdiocese Pulls Back Bid For Contraception Mandate Docs
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has withdrawn its request for Obama administration documents stemming from the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Washington federal court filing Monday.
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April 23, 2013
Sen. Wants Health Insurers' ACA Fees Disclosed To Patients
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced Monday that he had introduced legislation requiring health insurers to disclose to their customers any fees and taxes paid under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, a move he claimed would bring clarity to how the statute affects premiums.
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April 22, 2013
Greenberg Ends Political Intel Biz Amid Insider Trading Probe
Stung by Medicare Advantage insider trading investigations, Greenberg Traurig LLP said Saturday it was halting work for political intelligence firms that sell closely guarded information about pending regulations to investors, adding fuel to a drive for greater oversight of the shadowy industry.
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April 19, 2013
Fla. Medicaid Alternative Bill Advances Amid ACA Skepticism
The divide in the Florida State Legislature over how to extend health care coverage for the state's uninsured remains wide open after the House Appropriations Committee on Friday advanced that chamber's alternative to the Affordable Care Act's federal Medicaid expansion, continuing to reject any federal funding.
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April 19, 2013
Humana Fires Greenberg Traurig Amid Medicare Leak Probe
Humana Inc. has fired Greenberg Traurig LLP after one of the firm’s attorneys was connected to an apparent leak of information about Medicare Advantage rates that sent health insurer stocks soaring and triggered government investigations, the company said Friday.
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April 18, 2013
New York Bank Regulator To Examine Compliance Consultants
New York is set to increase its scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest between banks and the independent consultants and monitoring firms that are supposed to help them come into compliance with regulatory settlements, the state’s top banking and insurance regulator said Thursday.
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April 18, 2013
Fla. Senate Panel Votes To Cut $230M Insurers Tax Credit
The Florida Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill Thursday that would eliminate a tax rebate for insurers worth $230 million annually in order to offset the bill's reduction in state vehicle registration fees, despite industry representatives' claims that the rebate is an important incentive and job creator.
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April 18, 2013
GOP Reps. Blast ACA, Tell Sebelius It's 'Simply Not Working'
House Republicans continued their assault on the Affordable Care Act Thursday, telling Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that insurance rates are soaring, businesses are laying off workers to circumvent upcoming requirements and the program isn't working as advertised.
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April 17, 2013
Fla. Senate Panel Passes Dueling Health Care Expansion Plans
The Florida Legislature's battle over how to expand insurance coverage for low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act and whether to accept federal dollars to do that took an unusual turn Wednesday as a Senate panel passed a pair of bills offer contrasting solutions.
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April 17, 2013
DC Circ. Won't Block ACA Rule On Medicare Referral System
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday denied an emergency injunction bid by two medical groups that sought to stave off an Affordable Care Act requirement that doctors enroll in an online provider system to receive reimbursements for Medicare referrals.
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April 17, 2013
Fla. Senate Panel Clears Bill To Strengthen State FCA
The Florida Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday approved a pair of bills designed to modernize the Florida False Claims Act, in part by providing law enforcement with subpoena power for non-Medicaid fraud cases.
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April 16, 2013
Texas Lawmakers Weigh Bill To Preserve Windstorm Insurer
Texas lawmakers on Tuesday were urged to adopt legislation designed to revitalize the state’s troubled windstorm insurance pool by forcing insurers and policyholders throughout the state to contribute to the insurer of last resort for coastal counties.
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April 16, 2013
Medicaid Expansion Approved By Ark. House
The Arkansas Legislature on Tuesday agreed to Gov. Mike Beebe’s plan to expand Medicaid coverage in the state using private coverage sourced through its pending health insurance exchange, passing an appropriations bill including the proposal after initially rejecting the legislation.
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April 15, 2013
Catholic Group's Suit Over Contraception Rule Nixed for Now
A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed a Catholic anti-abortion organization’s suit challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate as unconstitutional, ruling the government’s stated intent to revise the rule meant there was no jurisdiction for the case.
Expert Analysis
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The Harry Potter Of Insurance: M&A Reps And Warranties
No less than two years ago, mergers and acquisitions reps and warranties insurance was hardly ever used to close deals — like Harry Potter, it was the poor stepchild often left in the closet. But today, it has become an important tool to close deals that may not otherwise get done and win bids in this challenging environment, say attorneys with Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
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Inside The Supreme Court Review Of Oxford Health
Oxford Health Plans LLC v. John Ivan Sutter may not be a case about deference after all, but more fundamentally about what parties can expect in arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act. Arbitrator interpretations have never been impervious. And, as Stolt-Nielsen and Concepcion prove, the U.S. Supreme Court sees class arbitration as a different animal, say attorneys with Homer Bonner Jacobs.
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Bringing Japan Into TPP Talks Is An Important Opportunity
The U.S. recently backed Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Japan’s participation makes the trade agreement potentially much more lucrative for U.S. exporters — but only if the historic formal and informal barriers that have marred bilateral U.S.-Japan trade relations for decades can somehow actually be addressed, says Terence Stewart of the Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart.
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How A Product Liability Case May Impact Your Insurance
The recent $236 million jury verdict in New Hampshire over the use of the gasoline additive MTBE raises the question of whether litigation of product liability losses may adversely impact insurance coverage. More specifically, it reminds companies to be aware that factual evidence that can resolve insurance coverage issues may be available in the public domain, say attorneys with Carroll Burdick & McDonough LLP.
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A How-To Guide For Insurance Coverage Mediators
While the approach to the mediation of an insurance coverage and bad faith case is similar to mediations in other areas of law, insurance policies are, without question, the most difficult and least understood contracts in general use. Insurance coverage mediators should therefore review some important reminders of their duties as counsel, says Bruce Friedman of ADR Services Inc.
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Reports Of Death Of Fla. Economic Loss Rule Are Exaggerated
Depending on how you read it, the Florida Supreme Court’s Tiara Condominium opinion renouncing the contractual privity branch of the economic loss rule either threw open the courthouse doors to plaintiffs seeking to bolster purely contractual disputes with tort claims or simply renounced a relatively recent judge-made doctrine in favor of long-standing common law principles that do the same job under a different label. We believe a close reading better supports the latter conclusion, say attorneys with Hunton & Williams LLP.
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Don't Let Your Additional Insured Coverage Be A Mystery
When a company bargains for additional insured coverage in an entity's liability insurance policy, all too often, no one determines whether the coverage is what was promised until after a claim arises. Companies seeking such coverage should therefore obtain and closely analyze copies of the policies as part of a thorough legal, risk management and insurance program review, says Gregory May of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.
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What’s In A (Tropical Storm's) Name?
The National Weather Service assigns an easily remembered name to tropical storms like Superstorm Sandy, which has risen several issues relating to first-party property insurance policies on “named storms.” One factor, among others, to consider is whether there have been notices regarding application of certain policy provisions tied to the named storm definition, says Taylor Davis of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Calif. Plumbs The Depths Of Water Damage Exclusions
The California Court of Appeal's recent decisions in Cardio Diagnostic Imaging Inc. v. Farmers Insurance Exchange and other cases demonstrate that the state stands ready to enforce water damage exclusions in property insurance policies according to their terms and is unlikely to entertain arguments seeking to render those provisions ambiguous, says Jose Umbert of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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The Road That Led To Standard Fire V. Knowles
In the years since the enactment of Class Action Fairness Act, the circuit courts have been split on whether a class-plaintiff may thwart federal review by merely stipulating to damages less than the jurisdictional threshold. The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles recently settled this split, breathing strength into CAFA’s congressional intent, say attorneys with Day Pitney LLP.