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Insurance
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May 16, 2013
ACA’s Benefits For Hospitals Hinge On HHS Outreach
As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ramps up its efforts to educate the uninsured and enroll them in Medicaid and exchange health plans, experts say the success of the Affordable Care Act — and the ability of providers and insurers to reap the benefits they were promised — depends on just how successful HHS' outreach is.
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May 16, 2013
Bid To Reform Broke Texas Windstorm Insurer Shot Down
A Texas lawmaker on Wednesday said a trial lawyer group has killed legislation designed to revitalize the state’s insolvent windstorm insurance pool, leaving thousands of coastal residents at risk two weeks before the start of hurricane season.
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May 16, 2013
GOP Bills Would Bar IRS From Implementing Health Law
Several Republican lawmakers introduced legislation this week aiming to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from implementing the Affordable Care Act, after the IRS admitted to targeting tea party and other conservative groups for audits.
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May 16, 2013
House GOP Votes For Third Time To Repeal ACA
House Republicans on Thursday voted for the third time to scrap the Affordable Care Act in its entirety, a move that’s dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate and which underscores the relentlessness of conservative opposition more than three years after the law’s passage.
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May 15, 2013
US In Talks With Switzerland, Japan On Bank Wind-Down Plans
U.S. bank regulators have opened discussions with their Swiss and Japanese counterparts on coordinating plans for winding down large financial institutions as part of an effort to figure out how to safely take apart a failing global bank, a top official said Wednesday.
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May 15, 2013
CMS Unveils $1B In ACA Grants For Innovative Care
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Wednesday announced availability of $1 billion in Affordable Care Act grants to test new health care delivery models certain to be watched closely as policymakers study whether innovation can deliver higher quality and lower costs.
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May 14, 2013
Texas Sens. Pass Bill Limiting Insurers' 3rd-Party Recovery
The Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a bill clamping down on health insurers’ practice of aggressively collecting damages from third parties that caused injuries to insured patients by making them share in attorneys' fees, sending the measure to Gov. Rick Perry for approval.
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May 14, 2013
Sen. Wants $440M In IRS ACA Funding Suspended
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday to help hold back nearly $440 million earmarked to fund the Internal Revenue Service's responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act, saying the IRS must first resolve concerns over its recent behavior.
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May 13, 2013
Texas Lawmakers Push Health-Data Modernization Bills
Texas lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to legislation designed to modernize medical data management and are pushing another pair of measures that aim to make the insurance preapproval process for prescription drugs and other health care benefits easier on patients.
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May 13, 2013
Fed Wants 1st Bank-Run Stress Test Results By July
The Federal Reserve on Monday gave the 18 largest U.S. bank holding companies until July to hand over the results of their midyear, bank-administered stress tests in order to remain in compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act.
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May 13, 2013
Judge Abused Authority With Plan B Order, 2nd Circ. Hears
A New York federal judge "plainly overstepped his authority" when he ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to bypass its mandatory rulemaking procedures and make the contraceptive Plan B available over the counter without restrictions, the federal government told the Second Circuit on Monday.
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May 13, 2013
Pataki, Cuomo Tell NY To Leave Ex-AIG Chief Alone
Former New York Govs. Mario Cuomo and George Pataki went to bat for ex-American International Group Inc. CEO Maurice Greenberg on Monday, urging the state’s attorney general to back down from efforts to bar Greenberg from trading securities or heading a company.
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May 13, 2013
HHS OKs Unique Bifurcated ACA Exchange For Utah
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to Utah’s proposed model for its Affordable Care Act-mandated health insurance exchange, allowing the state to run the small business portion while leaving individual insurance under HHS oversight, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert announced Friday.
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May 10, 2013
Obama '110 Percent' Sure Health Exchanges Will Be Ready
Facing rising complaints that Affordable Care Act preparations are lagging, President Barack Obama on Friday sought to assure Americans that the landmark law is on track while also cautioning the public not to be “bamboozled” by health reform's opponents.
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May 10, 2013
Nelson Mullins Adds 2 Insurance Regulation Vets In Tenn.
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has added two experienced insurance regulation attorneys from Burr & Forman LLP and Hubbard, Berry & Harris PLLC to its Nashville, Tenn., office, the 470-attorney firm announced Thursday.
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May 10, 2013
Dem Wants 10 More Years Of Terrorism Reinsurance Program
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., introduced legislation Thursday that would renew a federal terrorism reinsurance program for a decade and switch up how the backstop would be triggered.
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May 9, 2013
NJ Senate Panel Approves Medicaid Expansion
A New Jersey Senate committee on Thursday approved a bill to expand the state’s Medicaid eligibility, as state lawmakers begin formalizing the expansion of the federal health coverage program following Gov. Chris Christie’s reluctant acceptance of funding under the Affordable Care Act.
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May 9, 2013
HHS To Give $150M To Health Centers For ACA Enrollment
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide $150 million for community health centers to help the uninsured enroll in Medicaid and private health plans on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, the department announced Thursday.
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May 9, 2013
NYC’s Bike-Share Program Could Spark Tour De Litigation
The long-awaited Citi Bike program is set to launch a fleet of riders who could subject New York City to liability far beyond the $10 million in annual insurance provided by operator Alta Bicycle Share Inc., some lawyers say, but the city has made key legislative changes that could end up limiting the impact of any potential litigation.
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May 9, 2013
CMS Offers States $87M To Eye Insurer, Hospital Pricing
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday announced $87 million in Affordable Care Act grant funding to help states police insurance premiums and provide consumers and employers with centralized databases to compare health care providers’ pricing.
Expert Analysis
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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The Evolution Of Ohio's Statute On Employer Tort Claims
With the recent change in Ohio law on employer intentional tort claims comes changes to the good faith obligations an insurance carrier owes to its insureds: In cases involving employer intentional tort claims, insurers may no longer select counsel. Rather, insureds have the right to select counsel with whom they have a preferred relationship and whom they trust, says Thomas Wyatt Palmer of Thompson Hine LLP.
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Know Your Risks Before Going Green In Construction
Although there are benefits to “going green” in the construction, development and operation of buildings, there are also risks unique to green building that will test the boundaries of coverage under typical liability insurance policies, say attorneys with Sedgwick LLP.
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Avoiding Bad Faith Liability Just Got More Difficult
For insurers in Florida, the Florida District Court of Appeal decision in Goheagan v. American Vehicle Insurance Co. is troublesome as it suggests that even the best claims-settlement practices may not completely shield an insurer from potential bad faith liability, says Kip Adams of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
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How The Fed's Stress Test Rules Mitigate Systemic Risk
The savings and loan holding company regulatory regime established by the Dodd-Frank Act appears to be having the ultimate effect of reducing the number of SLHCs, especially those that are predominantly insurance enterprises, say attorneys with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
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Past Its Prime: Weedo V. Stone-E-Brick
It is time for the New Jersey Supreme Court to take up again the construction-defect coverage issues first addressed in Weedo v. Stone-E-Brick Inc. and to update them for the post-1986 commercial general liability coverage of subcontractors’ faulty workmanship, says Carl Salisbury of Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton LLP.
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Calif. To Draw The Lines In Disparagement Liability
The California Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. v. Swift Distribution Inc. will resolve a hot debate about the scope of implied disparagement liability under California law, likely determining whether insurers must defend lawsuits involving allegations of intellectual property infringement, unfair competition and false advertising, says Tyler Gerking of Farella Braun & Martel LLP.
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Don't Underestimate The Power Of FIO
The importance of the Federal Insurance office should not be underestimated. In order to understand why, one has to examine how the regulation of the insurance business actually operates and what forces are driving the U.S. regulatory agenda, says Skip Myers of Morris Manning & Martin LLP.
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Insights From An Under-The-Radar CDO Case
A case that seems to have gone relatively unnoticed is ASR Levensverzekering NV v. Swiss Re Financial Products Corporation. Dismissed by the New York Supreme Court, the case provides useful insights into the application of New York fraud and contract law in the context of complex financial transactions, say James Bliss and Kevin Broughel of Paul Hastings LLP.
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E-Discovery In The Cloud: Who Can Get Your Data?
Many lawyers are asking whether placing electronically stored information in the cloud could inadvertently waive the attorney-client privilege and whether the government or a civil litigant could obtain ESI directly from a cloud service provider. In answering these questions, there are a number of aspects of the cloud worth considering, say Timothy Broas and Matthew Saxon of Winston & Strawn LLP.