By Tom Murphy For the second time in six months, the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved a rate decrease that will affect all Florida businesses. Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier’s statement attributes the 1.8% overall decrease to the recent federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The new rates will take effect for all new

As all Florida businesses large and small come to the realization that their workers’ compensation premium has increased almost 15% as of December 1st, 2016, most of them are completely unaware that this increase is only the beginning of additional increases if the Florida legislature does not take action this session to alleviate the effects of

By Tom Murphy Less than two months ago I wrote an article titled “Prepare for Increase in Workers’ Comp Premiums.” It is official: The Florida Office of Insurance Regulations (OIR) has issued its final order approving the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) request to increase rates on a statewide average of 14.5%. This was

The Division of Workers’ Compensation has issued its 2014 Results and Accomplishments Report. The Report contains important system information related to lost-time claims and medical costs as well as outcome and performance measures for each of the Division’s major program areas. To view the Report, click here.

Judge rules “exclusive remedy” provision unconstitutional By Tom Murphy In a recent ruling, Judge Jorge E. Cueto of Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court ruled (in Florida Workers’ Advocates v. State of Florida) that the state’s workers’ compensation “exclusive remedy” provision is unconstitutional. Judge Cueto indicated that the workers’ compensation reforms of 2003 have “decimated” comp

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); Recently, we have received frantic phone calls from several of our clients that were caught off guard by unscheduled, random visits from Compliance Investigators with Florida’s Bureau of Compliance. This is clearly a sign of their determination to enforce the Workers’ Compensation laws and hold employers accountable, and with an increase

Workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud has become a real problem in Florida. Besides being illegal, it affects the bottom lines of all businesses, large or small, and leads to higher insurance premiums for honest businesses. Additionally, it has a negative impact on the state’s rate-making system.  There are three common types of premium fraud –

  The American Medical Association (AMA) has approved a resolution reclassifying obesity as a “Disease state.” This AMA resolution is the equivalent of declaring that almost one third of all Americans suffer from a medical condition that requires treatment.    A recent report conducted by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) attempts to quantify the

The Florida Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law CS/HB 941, which amended Sections 440.02(9) and 440.05, Florida Statutes. Effective July 1, 2013, the law changes to include non-construction limited liability company (LLC) members as employees. LLC members will be included on their Workers’ Compensation insurance policy; however, they may elect to be exempt

Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); By Tom Murphy Now that the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act has become a reality, Florida is starting to see greater activity in physician and medical-practice consolidation. This consolidation is creating a whole new set of risks and exposures for hospitals, large groups, and ACOs (accountable care organizations), as well