Florida Governor Signs Bill Regarding Life Insurance Policy Changes

GlobeNewswire

ORLANDO, Fla., June 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation yesterday that contains a key consumer disclosure requirement to protect Florida consumers who are considering making changes to a life insurance policy.

The Florida state legislature passed HB 1077, a wide-ranging bill designed to combat insurer fraud in the state of Florida, on May 5, 2017, at the close of Florida’s 2017 legislative session. When the House-approved bill was taken up in the Florida Senate, Sen. Jeff Brandes introduced important amendments supported by the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) that require insurers to advise consumers to consult with a professional before making changes to their policy.

The bill was signed by Governor Rick Scott on June 26, 2017, and provisions pertinent to the life settlement industry became effective immediately.

“Consumers have scored a victory in Florida as they will now be in a position to be informed of a range of options available to them if they own a life insurance policy they no longer need or can afford,” said Darwin M. Bayston, CFA, president and chief executive officer of LISA. “This is an important step forward nationwide because Florida has the highest percentage of seniors among its population of any state. Seniors are especially vulnerable to lapsing or surrendering a life insurance policy they otherwise may have been able to sell for five to seven times more than the cash surrender value of that policy offered by their insurance company.”

Specifically, the amended bill requires that “a life insurer shall provide an individual life insurance policyholder with a statement informing him or her that if he or she is considering making changes in the status of his or her policy, he or she should consult with a licensed insurance or financial advisor.” This disclosure requirement must also advise the policyholder  “that he or she may contact the department for more information and include a website address or offer location or manner by which the policyholder may contact the department.”

“While life insurers oppose the concept of consumer disclosure, Florida’s legislators agreed about the importance of consumers’ needs for financial advice about options available to them for life policies they no longer need or can afford,” said Brady Cobb, whose firm Cobb Eddy directed the effort of negotiating and passing the legislation.

According to Bayston, there are a number of alternatives to lapsing the policy and surrendering it back to the insurance company that should be considered by financial advisors, including:

- Maintain the policy through loans, using the policy or its cash surrender value as collateral.
- Seek an accelerated death benefit.
- Convert the policy to a long-term care health insurance policy.
- Assign the policy to someone else as a gift or to a non-profit organization as a charitable contribution.
- Sell the policy through a life settlement.

“There is a growing chorus of voices calling for more pro-active and transparent disclosures about consumers’ alternatives to surrendering a policy they no longer need or can afford,” said Bayston. “LISA will continue its efforts to advance legislation and regulation that protects consumers’ rights to know about these alternatives, as well as to promote consumer awareness of the life settlement option in particular.”

LISA plans to work with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and the Department of Financial Services to develop additional resources for consumer policyholders who are considering making changes to their policy, as well as helpful resources for professional insurance or financial advisors.

HB 1077 came out of the Florida House of Representatives’ Commerce Committee, Government Operations & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee and Insurance & Banking Subcommittee. It was co-sponsored by Reps. Holly Raschein, Ben Diamond and Cyndi Stevenson.

About the Life Insurance Settlement Association
The Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) is the nation’s oldest and largest organization representing participants in the life settlement Industry, with a current membership of more than 90 companies doing business in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The mission of LISA is to promote the development, integrity and reputation of the life settlement industry, to advance the highest standards of practice and professional development for the industry, and to educate consumers and advisors about a life settlement as an alternative to lapse or surrender of a life insurance policy. For more information, visit www.lisa.org.

https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/florida-governor-signs-bill-regarding-life-insurance-policy-changes

Why ransomware attacks keep happening

by Selena Larson   @selenalarsonJune 27, 2017: 11:44 PM ET

Cyberattack WannaCry possibly linked to North Korea code

A new global ransomware attack has targeted businesses around the world, demonstrating how easy it is for hackers to extort money by taking advantage of outdated technology.

It's the second major cyberattack in less than two months, coming hot on the heels of the WannaCry worm that hit computers across more than 150 countries in May.

Researchers are still investigating the attack that erupted Tuesday, locking users out of their computer systems and demanding $300 in Bitcoin in ransom.

These recent large-scale infections may make ransomware seem like a new problem, but it's not. It's

been around since at least 1989 and has become an increasingly lucrative business for criminals.

Attackers are now more sophisticated. They can create malware faster, use anonymous digital currencies like Bitcoin to demand ransom and employ powerful hacking tools that are publicly available online.

"Criminal organizations have always found innovative ways to extort money," Lesley Carhart, digital forensics expert, told CNNTech. "This is a lucrative way. It plays on people's emotional and financial reliance on their computers and digital storage for everything."

By late Tuesday, roughly $8,500 had been deposited in Bitcoin accounts linked to the attack.

The amount of money such attacks generate keeps going up. According to recent research from Symantec, the average ransomware attack made $1,077 last year, a 266% increase from the year before.

And victims keep paying up -- despite warnings not to from law enforcement and cybersecurity experts, who say there's no guarantee people will get everything back.

Security firm Kaspersky Lab said Tuesday's ransomware attack used exploits previously leaked in a batch of hacking tools believed to belong to the U.S. National Security Agency.

These tools take advantage security holes in some Windows operating systems.  Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) released a patch for these flaws in March, but many companies are still at risk because they didn't patch their systems. The WannaCry attack in May also used one of the same exploits.

Companies don't patch for a variety of reasons: their machines don't support the patch, it's too expensive to do it, it might disrupt their services or they simply forget about an outdated computer on their network.

Large-scale ransomware attacks will continue to happen because businesses still have holes in their systems and because government-grade hacking tools are widely available, said Jon DiMaggio, a threat intelligence researcher at Symantec.

"We now have these elite weapons that can be used by pretty much anyone," DiMaggio said.

Previously ransomware criminals would specifically target their victims. WannaCry was the first time researchers saw a large-scale ransomware that could worm its way through networks. Tuesday's attack spread in a similar way.

But such widespread attacks may not be the smartest way for hackers to make money.

About $130,000 in ransom payments from the WannaCry attack is still sitting in Bitcoin accounts being monitored by cybersecurity researchers. Experts say it will be difficult for the attackers to do anything with the money without it being traced by governments and cyber sleuths.

According to Michael Kaiser, executive director of National Cyber Security Alliance, there are ways to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks: Update software as soon as patches become available, use strong security like two-factor authentication for logging into accounts and regularly backup your system.

CNNMoney (San Francisco)First published June 27, 2017: 11:44 PM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/27/technology/ransomware-why-keep-happening/index.html?section=money_technology&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_technology+%28CNNMoney%3A+Technology%29&ito=792&itq=7afb4fb9-e1ce-482c-97e7-3f80b2d33b9c&itx%5Bidio%5D=8812325

ACA Repeal Teeters After Senate Shelves Vote

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican Party's long-promised repeal of "Obamacare" stands in limbo after Senate GOP leaders, short of support, abruptly shelved a vote on legislation to fulfill the promise.

The surprise development leaves the legislation's fate uncertain while raising new doubts about whether President Donald Trump will ever make good on his many promises to erase his predecessor's signature legislative achievement.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced the delay Tuesday after it became clear the votes weren't there to advance the legislation past key procedural hurdles. Trump immediately invited Senate Republicans to the White House, but the message he delivered to them before reporters were ushered out of the room was not entirely hopeful.

"This will be great if we get it done, and if we don't get it done it's just going to be something that we're not going to like, and that's OK and I understand that very well," he told the senators, who surrounded him at tables arranged in a giant square in the East Room. Most wore grim expressions.

In the private meeting that followed, said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the president spoke of "the costs of failure, what it would mean to not get it done — the view that we would wind up in a situation where the markets will collapse and Republicans will be blamed for it and then potentially have to fight off an effort to expand to single payer at some point."

The bill has many critics and few outspoken fans on Capitol Hill, and prospects for changing that are uncertain. McConnell promised to revisit the legislation after Congress' July 4 recess.

"It's a big complicated subject, we've got a lot discussions going on, and we're still optimistic we're going to get there," the Kentucky lawmaker said.

But adjustments to placate conservatives, who want the legislation to be more stringent, only push away moderates who think its current limits — on Medicaid for example — are too strong.

In the folksy analysis of John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate GOP vote-counter: "Every time you get one bullfrog in the wheelbarrow, another one jumps out."

McConnell can lose only two senators from his 52-member caucus and still pass the bill, with Vice President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote. Democrats are opposed, as are most medical groups and the AARP, though the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the bill.

A number of GOP governors oppose the legislation, especially in states that have expanded the Medicaid program for the poor under former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Opposition from Nevada's popular Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval helped push GOP Sen. Dean Heller, who is vulnerable in next year's midterms, to denounce the legislation last Friday; Ohio's Republican Gov. John Kasich held an event at the National Press Club Tuesday to criticize it.

The House went through its own struggles with its version of the bill, pulling it from the floor short of votes before reviving it and narrowly passing it in May. So it's quite possible that the Senate Republicans can rise from this week's setback.

But McConnell is finding it difficult to satisfy demands from his diverse caucus. Conservatives like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah argue that the legislation doesn't go far enough in repealing Obamacare. But moderates like Heller and Susan Collins of Maine criticize the bill as overly punitive in throwing people off insurance roles and limiting benefits paid by Medicaid, which has become the nation's biggest health care program, covering nursing home care for seniors as well as care for many poor Americans.

GOP defections increased after the Congressional Budget Office said Monday the measure would leave 22 million more people uninsured by 2026 than Obama's 2010 statute. McConnell told senators he wanted them to agree to a final version of the bill before the end of this week so they could seek a new analysis by the budget office. He said that would give lawmakers time to finish when they return to the Capitol for a three-week stretch in July before Congress' summer break.

The 22 million extra uninsured Americans are just 1 million fewer than the number the budget office estimated would become uninsured under the House version. Trump has called the House bill "mean" and prodded senators to produce a package with more "heart."

The Senate plan would end the tax penalty the law imposes on people who don't buy insurance, in effect erasing Obama's so-called individual mandate, and on larger businesses that don't offer coverage to workers.

It would cut Medicaid, which provides health insurance to over 70 million poor and disabled people, by $772 billion through 2026 by capping its overall spending and phasing out Obama's expansion of the program.

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Ken Thomas, Andrew Taylor, Michael Biesecker and Julie Bykowicz contributed to this report.

https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/gop-obamacare-repeal-teeters-after-senate-shelves-vote

807,956 ...

... members are enrolled in Centene Corporation's Superior Health Plan, the largest Medicaid HMO in Texas. This represents 24.43% of the state's Medicaid market.

Quote of the Day

"The economic model for drug pricing is all wrong....[But] we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. The prices of these new drugs are unsustainable."


— Eric Schultz, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc., told a session at the recent AHIP Institute & Expo 2017 

Talks Over Boosting Illinois Medicaid Payments Fail

By REUTERS JUNE 26, 2017, 10:21 P.M. E.D.T.

CHICAGO — A U.S. judge should order Illinois to pay Medicaid providers about $1 billion a month to ensure medical care continues for the three million recipients of the health program after talks with the state reached an impasse, according to a court filing on Monday.

The move would cause a huge problem for the cash-strapped state, which has accumulated a $15 billion bill backlog due to a budget stalemate between its Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature. It could force Illinois to stop making full payments on other state-mandated or court-ordered spending such as pensions and payroll.

The filing in U.S. District Court by attorneys representing Medicaid recipients asked Judge Joan Lefkow to order the state to pay $500 million a month for four months to start reducing a $3.1 billion pile of unpaid bills owed to managed care organizations that turn pay doctors and others.

As long as Illinois remains without an enacted budget, the proposed order calls for the state to spend an additional $586 million a month to cover Medicaid-related bills incurred after June 30, 2017.

The proposed order noted that federal reimbursements for Medicaid would reduce Illinois' outlay to $543 million a month.

The two sides are scheduled to appear on Wednesday before Lefkow, who previously ruled Illinois' minimal payments to managed care organizations did not comply with federal consent decrees that resulted from two cases filed against the state in 1992. The judge had ordered negotiations aimed at getting Illinois to "substantial" compliance with the decrees, noting the state has managed to make its monthly bond and pension payments on time and in full.

Monthly payments related to the Medicaid and other consent decrees have totaled only about $160 million.

In the wake of Lefkow's order, Illinois general obligation bond prices plummeted and yields soared in U.S. municipal market trading, although the bonds subsequently clawed back some losses. The state comptroller last week pledged to not delay or diminish debt service payments.

There was no immediate reaction to the court filing from the Illinois Attorney General's office.

Rauner ordered lawmakers back into a special session, which began June 21 and is scheduled to end on Friday, to pass a budget before fiscal 2018 begins on Saturday.

Entering a third-straight fiscal year without a spending plan could sink Illinois' credit ratings to "junk," a first for any U.S. state.

(Reporting By Karen Pierog)

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/06/26/us/26reuters-illinois-budget-medicaid.html?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20First%20Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=53602965&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8GYbBV3WYX-VGXMx8NbqEq9DqcHaFEdSSuj0QumYaStH_ZqfV31Y4L1EsHWwtfKJ9XYAksNbUcpTHeS_4cmGDSQVxfmA&_hsmi=53602965

Medicaid Mission Creep Threatens GOP's 'Obamacare' Repeal

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JUNE 27, 2017, 3:15 A.M. E.D.T.

WASHINGTON — Somewhere along the way, the Republican crusade to repeal "Obamacare" also turned into an effort to limit the future growth of Medicaid. That bit of mission creep is complicating prospects for the GOP, and could lead to deadlock.

The federal-state program for low-income people has long been stigmatized as substandard. But over time it has grown and changed to become a mainstay for hospitals, nursing homes, insurers, and now drug treatment centers confronting the opioid epidemic. With about 70 million enrolled, Medicaid covers more people than Medicare, from newborns to nursing home residents.

Republicans including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada, and Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, and Doug Ducey of Arizona have all expressed misgivings about the Senate's GOP health care bill.

"Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans," tweeted Collins, announcing she would vote against the bill. In her state, Medicaid covers about 1 in 5 people.

The National Association of Medicaid Directors, a nonpartisan group that represents state administrators of the program, is calling the legislation unworkable, a "transfer of risk, responsibility, and cost to the states of historic proportions."

A Congressional Budget Office estimate released Monday said the Senate bill's biggest impacts on spending would come from Medicaid. Federal contributions would be reduced by $772 billion over a decade. In 2026, 15 million fewer people would be covered through Medicaid.

But Republican leaders are unlikely to retreat, for political and practical reasons. Although the House and Senate bills differ on timing and some key details, they would basically achieve the same goals:

—Phasing out the extra financing that former President Barack Obama's health care law provides to states that expand Medicaid. Thirty-one states have taken advantage of a generous federal matching formula, expanding their programs to mainly benefit low-income adults. About 11 million people have gained coverage. Under the GOP bill, states could continue to serve this group, but would have to accept a lower match from Washington.

—Putting a limit on future federal financing for the entire program, through a per-beneficiary cap that would be adjusted for inflation. That would effectively end Medicaid's status as an open-ended entitlement, under which the federal government matches a share of what each state spends. The formula for annual adjustments has sparked a particularly sharp reaction, with critics saying that the Senate decision to use a broad measure of annual inflation simply won't keep up with faster increases in health care costs.

On the Medicaid expansion, there's wide agreement among Republicans that Obama's federal matching rate of no less than 90 percent amounts to wasteful spending. The regular Medicaid matching rate averages about 60 percent.

More broadly, many Republicans are strong believers in limiting the future growth of federal health care programs. House Speaker Paul Ryan has long advocated a voucher-like option for Medicare that would also restrain spending. But President Donald Trump had promised not to cut the health program for seniors. That left Medicaid, with total annual spending of more than $550 billion.

"The present system is unsustainable; we don't have enough money to continue what's being done," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the budget committee chairman. Medicaid "was set up for poor women, for children and disabled people. Obamacare used it as a dumping ground for able-bodied people."

Bottom of Form

States would gain much greater flexibility over how to spend their Medicaid dollars under the Republican approach.

But liberals see another agenda. On the practical side, the Medicaid cuts in the GOP bills facilitate rolling back hundreds of billions in tax increases on upper-income people and corporations that helped finance coverage for Obama's legislation.

"Cutting Medicaid leaves more room to repeal some of these taxes," said Paul Van de Water, a policy expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income people.

As the outcry grows, the White House and some Republican leaders are pushing back hard, arguing that it isn't fair to call their legislation a Medicaid cut. They say spending on the program would keep growing, just not as fast.

"In fact, this is slowing the growth of Medicaid and allowing governors more flexibility," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway asserted on Fox.

"I'm not going to allow people and detractors and Trump haters to call me a liar because they don't want to do the homework and look at what is actually happening to Medicaid," Conway added.

The claim involves some budgetary sleight of hand that both parties have resorted to.

If a bill changes the rules to reduce what government was otherwise expected to spend, that meets the definition of a cut.

In fact, Republicans called it a cut when Democrats reduced Medicare payments to providers to help finance Obama's health overhaul. Democrats responded they were reducing wasteful spending to extend Medicare's solvency.

But the argument worked in favor of Republicans, helping them win the House in the 2010 midterm elections.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/06/27/us/politics/ap-us-health-overhaul-medicaid-mission-creep.html?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20First%20Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=53602965&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9EY-jFbQN2JgFJcsow4icK84uQoQmMd1hEqrAJ5G3-85m9KSbQmxv7JNIMJcexE7scr_Ht5qFsrSIliGOasbrL3kkerw&_hsmi=53602965