December 16, 2022

Major Insurance Reforms in FL & Insurance Protections for Hate Crime Victims in NY

FL Approves Major Property Insurance Reforms Florida lawmakers passed sweeping legislation aimed at ending the state’s years-long property insurance crisis. If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the bill ( SB 2 c ), which sailed through both chambers during the state’s second special session on insurance, will return state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to the status of insurer of last resort by...

December 02, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Bitcoin Mining, TikTok Ban, DEI & More

NY Gov Partially Limits Bitcoin Mining, Signs NIL Bill New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has signed legislation imposing the nation’s first temporary ban on new fossil fuel-powered cryptocurrency mining projects. The moratorium under AB 7389 applies to fossil-fuel power plants seeking new permits to convert to proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining, a process used in the transaction of digital currencies like Bitcoin...

December 02, 2022

Tech Week: SF Authorizes Deadly Police Robots, Twitter Stops Policing Covid Misinformation & More

SF Authorizes Police Use of Lethal Robots On an 8-3 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors authorized police to deploy robots with lethal force in very rare cases involving violent suspects such as mass shooters. A minority of the board opposed the policy out of concern that it could let police kill too easily. The board adopted an amendment requiring a high-ranking SFPD leader to authorize the actual use...

December 02, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: LA’s Insecure Insurance Market, FL’s Upcoming Insurance Special Session & More

Many LA Homeowners Insured by Small, Untested Carriers Before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005, most homeowners insured their properties with industry giants, like Allstate, Farmers, State Farm or USAA. But now many homeowners in the state are covered by small insurance companies that don’t even have agents or the local expertise necessary to write policies, outsourcing their operations to third parties...

December 02, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Legal Snag for KS Telemedicine Abortion Ban, Potential $3.7T Economic Cost of Long Covid & More

Judge Blocks KS Law Banning Telemedicine Abortions A judge in Topeka, Kansas issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a 2011 Kansas law banning telemedicine abortions on a women’s clinic in Wichita, pending a ruling in the associated case. Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson’s order comes six months after the Kansas Court of Appeals reversed her prior denial of a preliminary...

December 02, 2022

Will Twitter’s Travails Curb Its Political Influence?

Once again, Twitter played a meaningful role in the 2022 Midterm Elections, as it has in several previous elections. Democrat John Fetterman used Twitter to relentlessly mock his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz in their Pennsylvania Senate race while he was recovering from a stroke. (Remember the uproar over “crudité” ?) Herschel Walker’s son attacked his father on Twitter over a report...

November 18, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Medical Cannabis, Mass Shooting Preparations & More

MA Gov Signs $3.76B Development Plan Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed off on a $3.76 billion development plan that allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to affordable housing and helping hospitals and businesses harmed by the pandemic. The proposal – a compromise from an earlier $4 billion plan that Bay State lawmakers rejected over the summer – also commits $200 million to increasing wages...

November 18, 2022

Tech Week: Crypto Regulation Indecision, National Security Threat from Tik Tok & More

No Clear Direction on Crypto Regulation after FTX Crash The collapse this month of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume , has intensified calls for regulation of the industry. But exactly how to proceed with that task remains unclear. Some say federal legislation is called for. “The FTX bankruptcy is both devastating and alarming, but at the same time, not surprising...

November 18, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Ubiquity of Natural Disasters & New Insurance Producer Requirements in CA

Most U.S. Counties Suffered Natural Disaster in Past Decade Between 2011 and 2021, 90 percent of counties in the United States suffered a hurricane, flood, wildfire, drought or other natural event severe enough to have been declared a federal disaster, according to a report from Rebuild by Design, a nonprofit created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development shortly after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to research...

November 18, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Downside of Medical Bill Financing, State of Emergency for Respiratory Illnesses in OR & More

Medical Bill Financing Adding to Patient Debt Hospitals and other healthcare providers have traditionally offered patients interest-free payment plans to help them manage their medical bills. But providers have increasingly been relying on payment plans provided by financing companies, which promise to collect more of the money owed to the providers in exchange for a cut. The downside for patients is that the financing...

November 18, 2022

Voters Weigh in on Abortion, Other Health-Related Issues

Along with deciding which party will control Congress and many state legislative chambers next year, voters across the country also weighed in this month on over 100 ballot measures. A number of those measures dealt with abortion and other health-related issues that helped shape the general course of the election. Voters Ponder Record Number of Abortion Measures As one of the most divisive issues in American politics...

November 04, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Homelessness, Step Therapy, Abortion Rights & More

CA Gov Blocks $1B in State Funds to Cities Not Doing Enough to End Homelessness Saying “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) blocked $1 billion in state funding to cities and counties he says are not doing enough to address homelessness in their communities. Newsom said he will withhold the funds until he has met with local leaders...

November 04, 2022

Tech Week: Tech Industry Job Losses, Secure Programming Language Taking Off & More

Tech Company Job Freezes, Cuts Continue Amazon publicly disclosed last week that it was pausing corporate hiring due to economic uncertainty. The news came on the same day that ride-hailing company Lyft said it was laying off 13 percent, or about 650, of its workers, and payment processing platform Stripe said it was cutting 14 percent, or roughly 1,100, of its employees. The announcements come after months of hiring...

November 04, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Geico Class Action Suit, Another Study Faulting FEMA Flood Maps & More

Judge Green-Lights Geico Class Action Suit A federal judge gave the go-ahead for a lawsuit accusing Geico Corp. of overcharging over 2 million California policyholders for car insurance early in the coronavirus pandemic may proceed as a class action. Geico decided to provide $2.5 billion in credits, including 15 percent off renewals to policyholders, beginning in April 2020, in acknowledgement that they were driving...

November 04, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Healthcare Cost Reduction Program in CO, $13.8B Opioid Settlement & More

CO Seeks to Reduce Healthcare Costs through Consumer Incentives Colorado has launched an initiative enabling employers in the state to band together to negotiate lower prices for health care. The program also allows employees that choose lower-cost and higher-quality providers to receive a portion of the savings, ranging from around $50 for a mammogram to thousands of dollars for a surgical procedure. A dozen employers...

November 04, 2022

Employee or Independent Contractor? It’s Complicated

The U.S. Department of Labor last month returned to a question vexing government officials and business leaders coast to coast: What makes a worker an employee versus an independent contractor? On October 13, the federal agency published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to provide guidance on classifying workers , introducing a framework that’s consistent with judicial precedent on the issue. “We have seen...

October 21, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Emergency Powers, Special Election for Cannabis, Anti-Domestic Violence Bills & More

MI Gov Vetoes Suite of GOP Bills to Limit Emergency Powers Saying the measures do not “grapple with the real threats that sometimes necessitate swift action,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) vetoed eight GOP-sponsored bills intended to limit the governor’s emergency powers. The vetoed measures were part of 30 bills the GOP-controlled legislature endorsed to give lawmakers ultimate authority over...

October 21, 2022

Labor Week: New Pay Transparency Requirements in NY, Another Failed Amazon Unionization Effort and More

Pay Transparency Requirements Coming to NY Starting Nov. 1, employers in New York City will have to comply with a new pay transparency law requiring the disclosure of salary ranges in job advertisements. Employers statewide may soon have to comply with pay transparency requirements as well. In June the state’s Legislature passed a bill ( SB 9427 ) that would require employers with at least four workers to include...

October 21, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Proposed Climate Risk Reporting Rule for P/C Insurers, FL’s Hurricane-Resistant Building Codes & More

Feds Proposing Climate Risk Reporting Requirement for P/C Insurers The U.S. Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is proposing a new rule requiring property and casualty insurers to submit homeowners insurance underwriting data to assess climate risk. The idea wasn’t very well received from industry trade groups. “You don’t need a massive data collection to know that climate related losses...

October 21, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Challenges of Shifting COVID Coverage to Private Sector, CVS, Walgreens Prescription Refusals & More

Experts Say Shifting COVID-19 Coverage to Private Sector Poses Challenges Transitioning coverage of COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations to commercial insurers poses significant challenges, according to experts gathered for a Kaiser Family Foundation webinar on the commercialization of COVID coverage last week. For one thing, vaccines, tests and treatments won’t shift to the private sector on the same...

October 21, 2022

State Lawmakers Target Travel Nurse Agencies

During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, travel nurses made national headlines for earning double or triple what nurses employed by health systems were making. Now some states are considering legislation to regulate travel nurse and other healthcare staffing agencies, including how much they can charge for their personnel. Travel Nurses Draw Unfavorable Attention In early September 2021, when the nation was averaging...

October 03, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Animal Protection Measures, Teachers Assessments, Unemployment Fraud & More

CA Gov Signs Suite of Animal Protection Measures Among the hundreds of bills California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed in the closing days of September ( See SNCJ Spotlight in this issue ) were a half dozen measures aimed at protecting animals, including a bill that bans toxicity testing on dogs and cats for pesticides, chemical substances and other products. That bill ( SB 879 ) exempts tests related to products intended...

October 03, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Big Fines for 16 Wall Street Banks, Costliness of Hurricane Ian & More

SEC, CFTC Fines for Wall Street Firms’ Record-Keeping Failures Reach $2B Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 16 financial firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, a combined $1.8 billion for failing to prevent their staff from using personal devices and applications for business communications. From...

October 03, 2022

Labor Week: Paid Leave, Wage, Farm Labor Unionization & More

CA Gov Signs Paid Leave, Wage, Farm Labor Unionization Measures California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed measures last week that give Golden State workers greater access to paid and disability leave benefits. Newsom signed SB 951 , which extends increased wage replacement rates for state disability insurance and paid family leave that were set to sunset at the end of the year. The law will phase in the benefits over...

October 03, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Travel Nurse Pay Cap Legislation in MI, Scrutiny of Nonprofit Hospitals’ Charitable Giving in MT & More

MI Among Several States Targeting Travel Nurse Pay Rates Michigan is one of at least 15 states considering legislation to cap pay rates for travel nurses. Michigan’s bill ( HB 6364 ), which would prohibit travel nurse agencies from charging hospitals over 25 percent more than what the agencies pay their nurses, has the support of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. “The MHA supports HB 6364 because...