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The House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee opened hearings on a 28-page draft bill on workers’s compensation reform Tuesday, as Chairman Danny Burgess urged members and interest groups to “conduct ourselves in good faith — that we not plant our flags on one side or the other and be absolutely inflexible.” Burgess said the draft represents a “fair, comprehensive approach to fixing this problem.” He also conceded: “It’s by no means perfect.” Click here to read more: ​

A Miami woman was arrested in Lake Worth last Thursday after investigators say she defrauded an insurance company out of millions of dollars. ​ Carmen Montalvo-Rivera, 40, was arrested and charged with fraud on the evening of Oct. 27. She was released early Friday morning after posting $47,500 bond. Click here to read more:

A former Miami-Dade County fire inspector was charged Friday with lying to the state when he said he did not make money while collecting workers' compensation benefits. Anthony Dorta, 46, was charged with filing a false and fraudulent insurance claim, a third-degree felony. An investigation by the Miami-Dade inspector general, the Florida department of financial services and the Miami-Dade state attorney's office found that Dorta worked as a handyman while he was supposedly unable to work for the county due to an on-the-job injury to his left knee. Click here to read more:

Florida insurance regulators have ordered another Broward County insurer, Guarantee Insurance Co., to stop writing new business after discovering financial weaknesses. The Fort Lauderdale-based workers compensation provider has been placed under administrative supervision by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, according to an Aug. 18 consent order released by the state office. Click here to read more:

Florida insurance regulators have placed workers’ compensation carrier Guarantee Insurance Co. in receivership due to inadequate reserves. According to documents from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), the company was materially under-reserved at year end 2016 and consented to being placed in receivership on Nov. 13, 2017. Click here to read more:

Florida insurance regulators took over Fort Lauderdale-based Guarantee Insurance Co. Monday, two weeks after determining that the company was insolvent. A spokesman for the Office of Florida's Chief Financial Officer told the Business Journal that the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) was officially appointed as a receiver of Guarantee Insurance Co. late Monday. Click here to read more:

Minimum-wage workers will get a pay raise, businesses will get a break on insurance bills and a few new laws took effect Tuesday as 2019 begins in Florida. Minimum-wage workers will start earning $8.46 an hour Tuesday, up from $8.25 an hour in 2018 — and more than a dollar above the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Florida’s minimum wage ticks up each year because of a 2004 constitutional amendment that ties the rate to inflation Click here to read more:

A new bill being considered by Florida lawmakers would stop insurance companies from dodging worker’s compensation claims by helping deport illegal immigrants injured on the job. Legislators and immigration advocates have been pushing for reform since ProPublica and NPR published an expose on the practice last summer. Both outlets documented some 130 cases in which immigrants who’d suffered ‘legitimate workplace injuries’ were flagged to law enforcement by their employers’ insurance agencies. Click to read more:

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced the arrest of Kemny Niebla, owner and operator of Andoba Trucking Company and Sea Trucking in Hialeah, after allegedly selling fraudulent insurance coverage with certificates of insurance totaling nearly $60,000 to three local commercial truckers. CFO Jimmy Patronis said, “Pocketing insurance premiums for your own financial gain is despicable. It puts the victim in the dangerous position of going without proper insurance coverage, and puts unsuspecting drivers in a financially risky position. If you choose to commit fraud to make a quick buck, my office will find you and make sure you pay the price.” Click here to read more:

A Florida roofing company owner was arrested last month after allegedly attempting to defraud multiple homeowners out of more than $49,000 and working without workers’ compensation insurance, according to a statement from Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. Terry Wayne LaCoste, owner of Terry W. LaCoste Weathertight Systems, Inc. and David E. Gilliland, Inc., was arrested after the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Fraud received a tip from the Pinellas County Consumer Protection, Clearwater Police Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office regarding complaints against LaCoste. Click here to read more:

Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater announced the arrests of six in Central Florida tied to an elaborate Workers' Compensation insurance fraud scheme last week. According to a release from the office of the CFO, an investigation led by the Department of Financial Services' Division of Insurance Fraud uncovered a large-scale premium fraud scheme in which the six individuals created multiple shell corporations in order to systematically conceal payroll amounts for the purpose of obtaining low-cost Workers' Comp policies. The investigators say that beginning in September 2012, the following were opened and operated as shell companies: Click here to read more:

The Legislature should consider restricting how much insurance companies can spend on attorney fees when fighting workers’ compensation claims, state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis told The News Service of Florida on Thursday. The House last week passed a bill that would limit plaintiffs’ attorney fees to $150 an hour and reduce amounts paid to hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers for treating injured patients. Click to read more: