News & Resources

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is set to expire at the end of September. In light of recent budget debates, the fate of the program is uncertain, adding another insurance worry to Floridians’ plates. It was hard for residents here to watch the news coverage of the windstorm that took down stage rigging at a state fair — not from a lack of empathy, but from that sense memory of living through hours of 60- to 70-mile-an-hour winds and flooding that come with a hurricane.

We’re discussing a recent Florida appellate decision in a workers’ compensation case. The employer and insurance company primarily denied the claim because the worker was illegal at the time of his accident.

A Florida appellate court has ruled against an employer and an insurance company, saying that they must pay a workers’ compensation claim. The claim was denied because the employee was undocumented.

A federal judge ended the dispute between an insurance company and Florida’s insurance commissioner this week — for the moment. The judge dismissed the claim without prejudice, which means the insurance company can file again in the future. The case wasn’t about improper claim procedures or undue delay in paying claims. It was about an alleged personal vendetta.

We are continuing our discussion of a relatively unknown insurance product, tuition insurance. Offered through K-12 private schools and colleges in Florida and elsewhere, the insurance pays the policyholder if the insured — say, a child just entering college — cannot complete the term for a health reason.

Miami parents who are getting their kids ready for college right now may not know of a financial planning tool available to them. Actually, it’s available to anyone in a private educational institution, kindergarten through the end of college. It is tuition insurance. But, like all insurance products, before you buy, you need to look closely at the fine print and figure out what is covered — and what is not covered.

We are continuing our discussion of a study that concluded that Florida’s public adjusters are more likely to be disciplined than adjusters who work directly for insurance companies. State insurance regulators oversee adjuster’s activities and respond to consumer complaints regarding the mishandling or delayed payment of a claim.

A recent study of insurance complaints revealed an interesting disparity between insurance company adjusters and public adjusters. It seems the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is much more likely to discipline the public adjuster than the company adjuster.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill renewing and revising the National Flood Insurance Program this week. If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the program would be authorized for five years, starting October 1 of this year. With the property insurance market in Florida in disarray, the prospect of flood coverage should ease some anxiety.

We’re continuing our discussion of health care billing codes, the alphabet soup that appears on medical bills and health insurance explanation of benefits forms. The average consumer may not know or pay attention to these codes, but these numbers and alphanumeric character strings are key to understanding why the insurer has denied or delayed payment of a claim.