A busy crazy week - and it's only been two days

I pretty much figured last week would be pretty slow following cross-over and this week would be a "zoo" so I deferred sending you a report earlier in the week. And yes - this week has been crazy. Now where to start - with the absurd or the good news?

Let's start with the good news! IIAV's proposals on Certificates of Insurance - SB 47 and HB 867 - have received unanimous support by both the House and Senate and will soon be heading to the Governor's office for his signature....hopefully without amendment. I know I've been paranoid throughout this process and while the bills have indeed received unanimous support, we will do everything we can to ensure that the Governor does not amend the bills. Then the work really begins. We have already reached out to the Bureau of Insurance to work with them on helping to educate the agent community on these bills and we'll also have to do something about educating the certificate holder community as well. Any volunteers??? The legislation in and of itself will not solve the problem with certificates - although it will surely help. They will not of course stop companies from asking for everything under the sun and it will be incumbent upon agents primarily to follow the law. We have already seen companies asking for agents to specifically provide notice of cancellation and agencies are going to have to figure out how they are going to respond to these legal but not recommended requests.

Citizens of the Commonwealth can sleep soundly with the passage of the earthquake coverage notice requirements contained in HB 523/SB 369. These administration supported bills certainly came through the legislative sausage machine to be virtually meaningless. If a company doesn't provide earthquake coverage, all they have to state on the policy is that it is "excluded unless purchased by endorsement". If the company writes earthquake coverage then notice needs to be provided for the consumer to "contact their company or agent." It was so interesting to listen to the debate on this bill which was then almost immediately followed by a bill where virtually everyone agreed that consumers don't read their insurance policies.

This week IIAV found ourselves supporting volunteer fire fighters on the one side in opposition to our company partner lobbyists on the other. Responding to a letter from the Attorney General stating that volunteer fire fighters don't have statutory authority to send a bill to homeowners following a fire, HB 1202/SB 140 were introduced solely to allow volunteer fire departments who are "not fully funded by real estate taxes or other property taxes" to bill for their services. These are few and far between. Regardless of the fact that the state's largest homeowners carrier provides such coverage and many others do as well, and that the insurance industry lobbyists supported the bills up to crossover and THEN announced their opposition, they encouraged legislators to defeat HB 1202 in the House Commerce and Labor Committee as it would result in homeowner premium increases throughout the state....and that volunteer fire departments are already receiving adequate resources through the premium tax on homeowner policies for the Fire Program Fund.

Following the surprise announcement that the insurance company lobbyists were going to oppose the measurers, IIAV's Legislative Committee was re-polled and they unanimously voted to support the volunteer fire departments which we did by visiting virtually all members of the House Commerce and Labor Committee and then through testimony. IIAV members would have been proud of Joe Hudgins who spoke plainly and specifically on the minimal impact the measure would have on premiums. SB 140 passed in committee on a 16 to 4 vote. HB 1202 will come up in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting on Monday.

Following another bill - SB 65 would have required nursing homes etc. to publicize not only that they have liability insurance coverage but their limits - gee, I wonder why? This Virginia Trial Lawyers Association sponsored measure was two years in the making and sounded very familiar to the "lazy plaintiff's attorney bill" that we fought so hard against several years ago. The bill passed the Senate and then came to the House Health Welfare and Institutions Committee with the presentation that this was a "compromise bill from all members of the involved community." Committee Chairman Bobby Orrock noted that he was very familiar with compromise bills and "compromise" bills. Following debate and testimony the bill was defeated on a 5 to 17 vote following withering cross examination from two....trial lawyers - Delegates Rob Bell and Joe Morrissey (ok....I know Morrissey lost his law license but he's still a trail lawyer at heart). Interesting turn of events which we greatly supported but we still wondered by insurance companies were not visible in their opposition on this measure specifically.

I could go on....this was the week for interesting testimony which I guess is somewhat natural following crossover. The updated Legislative Table accompanies this report so if you have any questions/thoughts/concerns on any of these bills, just let me know. Please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail at Rbradshaw@iiav.com or through my cell phone at 804-929-4134.