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:

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced the arrest today of Santos Y. Cardona, owner of YYCS Enterprises, Inc., for workers' compensation fraud. Over the course of a year, Cardona allegedly evaded paying nearly $200,000 in workers’ compensation insurance premiums. The company allegedly conducted more than $1 million in payroll but originally reported $59,000 in payroll on their workers' compensation insurance policy. CFO Jimmy Patronis said, “Workers’ compensation fraud is a serious crime that puts injured workers at risk and drives up insurance rates statewide for honest, hard-working businesses. My office is committed to cracking down on fraud. I applaud the great work of our dedicated insurance fraud detectives. I encourage businesses and individuals to report suspected insurance fraud to my website at FraudFreeFlorida.com.” An investigation by CFO Patronis’ Bureau of Insurance Fraud discovered Cardona allegedly concealed payroll information to avoid paying higher workers’ compensation premiums. Based on financial records from a check cashing store in Fort Myers, it was revealed that Cardona cashed over $1 million in payroll checks. Cardona later reported payroll of only $59,000 which is less than what he originally estimated to avoid paying $199,515 in workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Santos Y. Cardona was booked into Lee County Jail on February 5 on charges of Workers’ Compensation Fraud and Scheme to Defraud. If convicted, Cardona faces up to 25 years in prison. Individuals charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The group behind a 14.5 percent workers’ compensation premium can’t get around Florida’s Sunshine Law by arguing that a single individual worked on the matter, and not a full-fledged internal committee, an appellate brief argues. The law holds that meetings by such committees at rating organizations like the National Council on Compensation Insurance, or NCCI, must be open to the public — and their internal supporting documents, too, the brief says. Click here to read more: ​

An investigation conducted by a host of agencies produced four arrests on Thursday. According to a release from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, the BSCO Economics Crime Unit along with the Board of County Commissioners Planning & Development, the Florida Workers' Compensation Fraud Division and the Florida Department of Business, conducted a two-day investigation targeting unlicensed contractors in Brevard County on Wednesday and Thursday. Read more here:

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty rejects NCCI's 1.9% rate reduction filing for January 1, 2016 and orders them to refile by November 9 with a 5.1% rate reduction filing. Click here to read more: