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Citizens' rates still going up despite OIR ruling

Rates will continue to rise for home and business owners in Florida covered by policies from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., but not as quickly as the company had hoped.

The Office of Insurance Regulation signed off late Monday night on a statewide average of 6.2 percent for standard coverage and a hike of 32.9 percent for sinkhole policies, although Citizens' customers in some parts of the state could pay far more for sinkhole protection. It's far from what Citizens initially sought.

The new rates on homeowners' and dwelling fire policies take effect on Jan. 1 for new and renewal multi-peril business, and Feb. 1 for new and renewal wind-only business.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Tuesday that a Citizens' policy owner of a $180,000 home in the hard-hit region encompassing Pasco and Hernando counties in west-central Florida will be looking at a premium increase of approximately $440. That's a far cry from the company's initial request to OIR that would have resulted in the cost of sinkhole coverage skyrocketing by thousands of dollars.

But McCarty said Tuesday that the state's largest property insurer with some 1.4 million policies didn't have the actuarial data to support that request.

"What they did in their original filings we considered had a lot of anomalies," McCarty said. "They tried to achieve that by changing the curve and that's simply not acceptable."

Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he had not seen McCarty's final order on Citizens' rates, but that it's important Citizens remains financially viable.

"We've got to make sure rates are as fair as we can for consumers, but they want to have a product they can rely on, a company they can rely on," Scott said. "God forbid if we have a hurricane that it can pay the claims."

McCarty, however, was sympathetic with Citizens plight.

Citizens received about $32 million in premiums for sinkhole coverage in 2010 compared to losses and loss-related expenses estimated to total $245 million.

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One county in Florida has motionless not to wait for on state lawmakers’ guarantee to residence the insurance rascal and put together the state’s vehicle no-fault law. It has has transfered its own bidding to fissure down on fake medical clinics.

The Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners, by a unanimous vote, transfered a array of regulations that will need medical clinics to get hold of a county permit if they essentially provide people entangled in vehicle accidents and consequence the most of their income by auto personal damage protection insurance claims.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner mentioned the new bidding is indispensable if the county has any hope of interlude the rascal that he mentioned is costing county residents up to $350 any in aloft premiums.

“In Hillsborough County, you are profitable $15.5 million in aloft premiums due to fraud,” mentioned Beckner, citing a National Insurance Crime Bureau report. “This is impacting everyone’s rates and is having a poignant effect on our local economy.”

Hillsborough County, that includes Tampa, has turn belligerent 0 in the discuss over PIP (personal damage protection) fraud. The NICB ranks Florida number a in staged accidents with the number of such accidents in Hillsborough County stepping up by 166 percent between 2008 and 2009.

The county moreover has seen a proliferation of medical and suffering clinics that essentially provide PIP patients. In Hillsborough County alone there are an estimated 158 such clinics, compared to 74 in Pinellas County, 22 in Pasco County, 20 in Manatee County and 17 in Polk County.

Beckner who headed the first move to order the ordinance, mentioned the regulations are narrowly drawn and are formed on the experience of law coercion officials that scrutinize clinics and PIP fraud.

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