Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Illinois Insurance Regulators Want More Oversight on Health Rates
Aug 9 2010 // Illinois regulators will ask lawmakers for the authority to approve or deny health insurance rate increases, saying residents need protection from skyrocketing costs that aren’t justified. Currently there is nothing...
NAS Managed Care Errors & Omissions Adds Cyber Liability
Aug 6 2010 // NAS Insurance Services has enhanced its managed care product with an e-MD cyber liability coverage enhancement. Because of increased regulations on patient privacy, HIPAA and customer notification, managed care...
Judge Blocks FDNY Hiring, Says Test Invalid
Aug 6 2010 // The mostly white Fire Department of New York is temporarily barred from hiring more than 300 rookie firefighters because it used an entry exam that discriminates against blacks and Hispanics, a federal judge ruled. In a...
Calif. Imposes Regulations To Prevent Illegal Insurance Recissions
Aug 6 2010 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has imposed regulations designed to combat illegal rescissions. The rules take effect on August 18. Currently, health insurers may only rescind policies under very specific,...
Federal Judge Lets Virginia Challenge to Obama Healthcare Law Proceed
Aug 2 2010 // A U.S. judge Monday refused to dismiss a challenge by the state of Virginia to President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform law, a setback that will force his administration to mount a lengthy legal...
Industry Balks as Democrats Press for Mine Safety, OSHA Changes
Aug 2 2010 // Prompted by the deadly explosion in April that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, a House of Representatives committee recently approved sweeping mine and workplace safety reforms. The 30-17 vote came over the...
People
Aug 2 2010 // Stephen M. Franz was named senior vice president of Dallas-based managing general agency and wholesale broker Capstone Underwriters LLC. Franz has been with Capstone since 2004. Prior to Capstone, he held positions at all...
Globalization: How Systemic Risks Have Altered the Financial World
Aug 2 2010 // When the present Lloyd’s building was completed in 1986, the architecture was called high tech, but inside you would have found that the offices contained no Internet, no e-mails and no World Wide Web. Since the...
House Set to Debate Oil Liability Bill
Jul 30 2010 // Three months after the catastrophic oil rig explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the House of was poised Friday to debate legislation clamping down on the industry’s...
Congress Set to Tackle Oil Spill Liability, Drilling Safety
Jul 28 2010 // U.S. Senate Democrats are set to unveil a slimmed-down energy bill Tuesday aimed at reforming offshore drilling, but House lawmakers are taking up a tougher bill on Friday that adds another hurdle to get a bill signed into...
Mine Safety Officials Rebut Massey On Ventilation Claims
Jul 26 2010 // Mine safety officials are painting a portrait of ineptitude and confusion by officials at Massey Energy Co. in the months before an explosion at the company’s West Virginia mine killed 29 men. The depiction —...
Wyoming Aims to Decrease Workplace Fatalities
Jul 26 2010 // Many years ago when Mindy Hixon started working in the family trucking business in Carbon County, Wyo., she realized safety wasn’t a top priority. “I knew for a fact what we were doing was illegal, unsafe and...
Best Comments on Impact of Dodd-Frank Act on Rating Agencies
Jul 23 2010 // The recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has specific provisions applicable to rating agencies. A comment on the Act’s potential impact from A.M. Best notes that the...
House Committee Passes Mine Safety Bill As Industry Protests
Jul 23 2010 // A House panel this week approved sweeping mine and workplace safety reforms prompted by the deadly explosion in April that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia. The 30-17 vote came over the objections of the mine...
S&P Comments on Dodd-Frank Act’s Implications for Insurers
Jul 23 2010 // A comment from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services notes that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act “seeks to expand regulation to address many aspects of the financial services...
Wis. Supreme Court Sides with Physicians in Med Mal Trust Fund Fight
Jul 21 2010 // The Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided that the state’s taking of $200 million from the Wisconsin’s Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund (IPFCF) to help balance the general budget was...
President Signs Historic Financial Reform Legislation
Jul 21 2010 // President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system. The “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” drafted in response to the recent financial...
Judge Approves Goldman’s $500 Million Settlement with SEC
Jul 21 2010 // A federal judge has approved a $550 million settlement between Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to civil fraud allegations in a subprime mortgage product. U.S. District Court Judge...
Judge Rejects Insurers’ Bid to Nix Probe into Oxendine Donations
Jul 20 2010 // A Fulton County judge tossed an attempt by two insurance companies that sought to block an ethics investigation into contributions to Republican gubernatorial hopeful John Oxendine. Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams said in her...
Los Angeles Judge Dismisses Sterility Verdict Against Dole
Jul 19 2010 // A judge on Thursday dismissed a $2.3 million judgment against Dole Food Co. in a lawsuit by purported Nicaraguan banana workers, ruling that the company and the court were victims of a massive fraud. Los Angeles Superior...
