February 18, 2022

Insurance Week: Another Home Insurer Pullout in FL, ‘Tinder Swindler’ Bill in NY & More

Major Home Insurer Pulls Out of FL United Property and Casualty Insurance Co. - one of the top 10 homeowners insurers in Florida, with over 180,000 policyholders - has stopped writing new policies in the state this year, joining the other home and property insurers that have recently pulled out of the Florida market. “Following the unprecedented 2020 storm season, the significant increase in reinsurance cost...

February 18, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: More Controversy Over Alzheimer’s Drug, Nonprofit Hospital Medicaid Reimbursements & More

Controversy Over Alzheimer’s Drug Deepens The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision last June to grant accelerated approval for Aduhelm , Biogen’s new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, sparked considerable controversy. Many -- including the FDA’s own advisory panel, which recommended against approval nearly unanimously - contended there was little evidence the drug, which targets...

February 18, 2022

Could Algorithm Audits Curb AI Bias?

Like it or not, artificial intelligence and the computer algorithms it uses are determining the outcome of more and more of your life’s most significant events. Like whether you get a job . Or a home loan . Or get into college . Or get a vaccine , or perhaps have your health care completely taken away . Or even go to jail , and for how long. “If you had a human bureaucratic process 15 years ago, it probably...

February 04, 2022

Insurance Week: FHLB Push for Parity on Insurer Collateral, FL Roof Bill & More

FHLB Pushing for Parity with Banks on Insurer Collateral: Officials from the Federal Home Loan Bank have been urging state lawmakers to approve measures putting Home Loan Banks on equal footing with banks when it comes to collateral pledged by insurance companies. Such laws would allow the FHLB to stop requiring member insurers to pay a premium on loans, saving the insurers considerable sums. Twenty-one states have...

February 04, 2022

Tech Week: Autonomous Vehicle Development, Antitrust Review of $68.7B Microsoft Acquisition & More

Autonomous Vehicle Companies Not Waiting Around for Federal Lawmakers: Legislation that would establish a federal framework for autonomous vehicles has stalled in Congress. But autonomous vehicle companies like Tesla, Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise, eager to start making money from the billions of dollars they’ve invested in developing their technologies, are deploying vehicles, including...

February 04, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Moody’s Healthcare Predictions, Universal Healthcare Bill Failure in CA & More

Moody’s Predictions for Healthcare in 2022: Moody’s Investors Service is expecting several trends in healthcare this year, according to a recent report from the credit rating agency. One of Moody’s predictions is that health insurers’ revenues and profitability will likely suffer this year. If Congress ends the public health emergency, which suspended eligibility requirements for Medicaid,...

February 04, 2022

Governor's Spotlight: Clean Hydrogen, Medical Cannabis, Tax Cuts & More

NM Lawmakers Kill Gov’s Clean Hydrogen Bill : The New Mexico House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted to table Gov. Michell Lujan Grisham’s (D) proposal to make the state a hub of hydrogen production by offering tax incentives to develop the infrastructure to separate the energy source from natural gas. Under HB 4 , companies in several industries would have received tax credits...

February 03, 2022

States Turn to Anti-Meth Strategies to Battle Converter Theft

A car’s catalytic converter is probably pretty low on the list of things most people think about when managing their hectic schedules. But these days the otherwise anonymous car part is all over the news. “ Catalytic converter thieves continue to strike despite cold, snow, Pa. police warn ,” read a recent headline in The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “ Police struggle to deter rising...

January 27, 2022

Regulating Big Tech: Data Privacy Legislation Accelerates in Statehouses

STATE NET ® THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES The political mood has shifted in recent years as legislative bodies worldwide have begun taking action to more aggressively regulate major technology companies. And while much attention has been paid to the noisy hearings conducted by U.S. Senate and House committees regarding increased federal oversight, the real action in the U.S. has been taking place in state capitals....

January 24, 2022

Will TLDR Get a New Meaning?

Let’s be real – nobody actually reads the terms and conditions they agree to when visiting a website. And for good reason. For all of us who are not corporate lawyers – and probably even for many who are – the jargon those terms are couched in is practically indecipherable. Which is exactly how the tech companies like it. Because then consumers don’t think about how much of their personal...

January 21, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Teacher Pay Hikes, Taxes on Retiree Income, Insurance Bad Faith & More

NM Gov Pushes Teacher Pay Hikes Calling her state’s budget surplus “an unimaginable amount of money,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) rolled out an $8.4 billion budget proposal that marks a 13 percent increase over last year’s proposal. Grisham’s budget features numerous benefits to all levels of education, including a 7 percent pay hike for K-12 teachers, almost $200 million...

January 21, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: State CON Law Changes, Pop-Up COVID-19 Testing Sites & More

States Retooling Certificate of Need Laws: Thirty-five states currently have certificate of need, or CON, laws, requiring certain healthcare facilities to obtain approval from the state before expanding their service capacity. But with critics of such laws contending they actually stifle competition, protect incumbent providers and possibly discourage service expansion into rural or other underserved areas, many states...

January 21, 2022

Tech Week In Review: State Taxation of Streaming Services, AT&T and Verizon’s Rocky 5G Rollout & More

Cities, State Tax Collectors Target Streaming Services: Local and state governments have been requiring cable TV companies to pay sales taxes and other taxes and fees – such as franchise fees for the easements that let them run cable in public rights-of-way – for decades. But Americans are increasingly pulling the plug on cable. Between 2015 and 2021, cable and satellite TV viewership declined from 76 percent...

January 21, 2022

States Start New Year With Déjà vu Legislative Agendas

Some of the biggest issues of 2021 – police accountability, the infrastructure bill, climate change and, of course, the pandemic – are expected to top policy agendas once again as state legislatures head into session in 2022. Here’s a look at some of the issues you can expect to see in state capitals across the country as lawmakers get back to business in what figures to be another year marked by tension...

January 14, 2022

Insurance Week: FL Supreme Court Ruling on Punitive Damage Claims, State Crackdown on Catalytic Converter Theft & More

FL High Court Decision Could Discourage Punitive Damage Claims: The Florida Supreme Court has approved an appellate procedure rule change that, beginning April 1, will allow interlocutory appeals on whether lawsuits can include punitive damage claims. Currently, litigants must wait until the conclusion of a trial to appeal such claims. Some attorneys said the potential delays in litigation resulting from the new rule...

January 14, 2022

Labor Week: Ruling on ‘Take-Home’ COVID-19 Cases in CA, New Amazon Unionization vote in AL & More

CA Appeals Court Ruling Could Spur More ‘Take-Home’ COVID-19 Cases: On Dec. 21 the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District gave the go-ahead for a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that poor COVID-19 safety protocols at See’s Candies Inc. resulted in the death of an employee’s husband. It was the first ruling by an appeals court allowing such a “take-home” COVID-19 lawsuit...

January 14, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Hospitals Allowing COVID-19-Positive Staff to Stay on Job, Health-Heavy 2022 Ballot in CA & More

Hospitals Allowing Staff Infected with COVID-19 to Keep Working: Health authorities in California announced last week that nurses and other hospital staff who test positive for COVID-19 but are asymptomatic can stay on the job. The state’s Department of Public Health stipulated that infected workers have to wear N95 masks and should be assigned to patients who have already tested positive for COVID-19. Some hospitals...

January 13, 2022

Will More States Set Board Diversity Mandates?

When then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 826 in 2018, it made California the only state to require corporate boards to have a minimum number of women directors. Almost four years later, California is still mostly going it alone – only Washington has adopted a similar mandate, which went into effect on January 1 – although lawmakers in at least a dozen states have continued to push for greater board diversity...

December 17, 2021

Healthcare Roundup: CA Rethinking Nursing Home Funding, High Court Okays NY Healthcare Worker Vaccine Mandate & More

Nursing Home COVID Death Toll Prompting Funding Change in CA: With nearly 9,400 California nursing home residents having died of COVID-19 - roughly 13 percent of the total number of Californians claimed by the virus - the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is working on a proposal that would tie state nursing home funding more closely to performance. Facilities that meet the state’s new quality standards...

December 17, 2021

Governors Spotlight: Gun Laws, Anti-Spoofing, COVID-19 Relief & More

Newsom Urges TX-Style Law on Guns : Saying he is “outraged” at the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a Texas law that bans almost all abortion and allows private citizens to sue to enforce it, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called on Golden State lawmakers and state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) to devise a similar statute on illegal guns. In a statement , Newsom said he wants a measure that...

December 16, 2021

Hope and Uncertainty Will Reign in 2022

It’s been a year of hope and uncertainty in the states — and the prospect is for more of the same in 2022. Hope has been spurred by the economic rebound: sales tax revenues swelled as Americans bought taxable items at pre-pandemic levels while also boosting personal savings rates and inflation. Hope also came from Congress, which after a series of false starts provided state, local, territorial and tribal...

December 10, 2021

Labor Week: Sweeping Vaccine Mandate in NYC and Push to Protect Fast-Food Workers in CA

NYC Planning Sweeping COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced plans last week to require on-site workers at all private businesses in the city to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in an effort to stem the spread of the new Omicron variant this winter. The sweeping mandate, likely to face legal challenges, would apply to about 184,000 businesses and go into effect on Dec. 27, days before...

December 10, 2021

Tech Week In Review: Facebook Takes Another Step Toward Metaverse, Favorable Court Ruling for Apple & More

Facebook Widens Access to VR App: Facebook announced last week that it was opening up its virtual-reality world app, Horizon Worlds, to anyone in the United States and Canada who is 18 years old or older. Previously, users had to be invited to access the app. The move is an important step for the company, which recently changed its name to Meta, in keeping with its ambition of building the metaverse, a 3D digital world...

December 10, 2021

Healthcare Roundup: Pay Parity for Physician Phone Calls, Physician Assistant Name Change & More

Debate over Pay Parity for Physician ‘Virtual Check-in’ Phone Calls: A four-digit medical billing code added during the pandemic has allowed doctors to be reimbursed for 11- to 20-minute telephone calls with patients, $27 for those covered by Medicaid and a little more for those with private insurance. The new code was merely an expansion of the “virtual check-in” code created in 2019, before...

December 09, 2021

Privacy, Algorithms, and Content Moderation Will Dominate Big Tech in 2022

There is almost no part of our lives these days that is not impacted by technology. Virtually every step we take, every song we listen to, everything we do online, every show we watch on TV and on and on and on has become a data point to be bought and sold and, in many cases, manipulated for political gain. So it should not be surprising that state and federal lawmakers have grown increasingly anxious to regulate the...