The Florida Chamber of Commerce has submitted a list of priorities to the Florida Legislature as it gears up for its upcoming session. The list includes proposals to reduce the state’s workers’ compensation costs by stopping fraud and abuse.
“Our main focus is to keep Florida competitive in every way,” the chamber’s executive vice president, David Hart, told
The Florida Times-Union.
Hart said that the chamber is urging legislators to reform the state workers’ compensation system, which has been wracked with abuse and manipulation. He shared that the average Floridian employer is facing an incredible 14.5% increase in its workers’ compensation insurance rates, noting that this could lead to an increase in commodity prices, decrease in employee benefits, and even staff layoffs or hiring freezes.
Hart decried the situation, which hurts both businesses and employees, but benefits some opportunistic law firms, which “are (opening up) workers’ compensation offices because they see a pot of money.”
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The US Chamber of Commerce has declared Florida has the seventh-worst legal climate for business in the country, so Hart says the state legislature should tackle it once its session resumes in March.
Another issue the Florida chamber wants lawmakers to tackle is reducing property insurance fraud, which drives up costs for many businesses across the state.
According to Hart, several construction firms in Florida go through neighborhoods after bad weather, convincing owners that their properties need work — and then offering to do the jobs for cheap if the residents agree to relinquish the “assignment of benefits” rights in their property insurance policies.
This allows the construction firms to bill insurers at inflated rates, and later hiding behind excessive litigation to force insurers to pay up.
“We need to tighten up legal (loopholes) that are causing this dramatic increase in fraudulent, false cases,” Hart said.
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