Megan M. Grant Law Blog

Pursuant to provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA"), which requires insurers and health plans to provide information about the appeals process to consumers, as well as make consumers aware of their state's health insurance consumer assistance or ombudsman programs in denial notices, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner advised that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated the Washington State... Read More

The law and governmental consulting firm of Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky and Abate announced on May 11, 2012 that it has named founding partner Mike Colodny as Managing Partner. 

Mr. Colodny, who founded the Firm in the mid-1970s with Joel Fass and Howard Talenfeld, successfully developed it into its current prominence in the areas of commercial litigation, insurance regulatory law and governmental consulting.  He... Read More

The State of Washington Department of Insurance ("WDI") has proposed new regulations relating to property and casualty insurance rate cap rules, transition rating rules, rate stability formulas and other rating methods.

These proposed Rules may:

Specify situations in which they, the formulas and other rating methods would or would not result in rates that are unfairly discriminatory; Clarify the meaning of RCW 48.19.040, as applicable, to formulas... Read More

An audio file and interested party comments from the June 20, 2011 Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ("OIR") public Rule hearing on Form OIR-B1-1802, also known as the "Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form," are now available.  

The purpose of the hearing was to consider proposed updates to the Form that would reflect 2010 statutory changes and other related issues. 

To access the audio file and interested... Read More

Florida wind-only policies are not believed to be subject to the Florida Fire Marshal assessment, but wind-only policies for commercial properties may be subject to a Fire Marshal surcharge. 

Fire Marshal Assessment

Section 624.515, Florida Statutes, provides in subsection (1) that “policies of fire insurance” are subject to a regulatory assessment on behalf of the State Fire Marshal on premiums collected by insurers on policies of fire insurance issued by it... Read More

Directors and officers face increasing liability created by corporate laws that continue to expand their duties and shareholder rights.  This move to increase accountability of officers and directors was largely initiated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was signed into law in 2002 to overhaul corporate governance requirements, federal disclosure laws and oversight of public accounting firms.  Sarbanes-Oxley requires CEOs and CFOs to certify the accuracy of periodic reports containing... Read More