news 
 
 August 11, 2005
 

 AP...Nationwide plans to stop writing new Florida homeowner policies

MIAMI -- Nationwide Insurance Co. of Florida said it will stop writing new homeowners policies, despite getting approval to charge higher rates in the state.

Florida's fourth-largest homeowner insurer is the seventh insurance company to announce it's leaving Florida or not writing new policies in the state since four hurricanes struck last year.

More than 228,000 Florida homeowners have Nationwide policies.

Last month, state regulators approved an average increase of 21 percent on Nationwide's home policies and 25 percent for mobile homes.

"Even with rate increases, you have other pieces of the puzzle that are always changing (in the insurance market)," said Joe Case, a spokesman for the Columbus, Ohio-based company. "That demands a continuing evaluation of our business strategy."

The decision applies to policies covering single-family houses, condominiums, mobile homes and boats. The company will continue to sell auto policies in Florida.

The decision follows similar announcements by other insurers, including Safeco Insurance, which told the state last month that it would not write new polices and starting in 2006 would not renew existing ones. More than 20 other companies have sought rate increases.

Kelly Link: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/APN/508110611

Top     Back

  AP...FPL seeking to pass on to consumers rising cost of oil

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Customers of Florida Power & Light could see bills go up by as much as 16 percent next year because of the rising cost of fuel, particularly natural gas and oil, if the company is allowed to pass its skyrocketing energy costs on to consumers.

FPL, the state's largest electric company, filed a request with regulators late Tuesday seeking to pass on $579 million in higher fuel costs to consumers starting in January.

"Unfortunately, we expect that could amount to a 12 to 16 percent increase in residential bills," FPL spokeswoman Pat Davis said Wednesday. "We're as frustrated as everyone that we're unable to control the price of oil and natural gas."

The request filed with the Public Service Commission is separate from a request approved by the PSC last month that will let FPL pass some hurricane recovery costs on to consumers. That will add $1.68 on the average customer's bill for 30 months starting next month.

It's also separate from an FPL request currently before the PSC to raise its basic underlying rates by more than $400 million, or about $3 to $4 a month. FPL says it needs to raise rates partly to handle expected growth in population and energy demand.

The fuel adjustment charge the company is seeking would be spread out over two years, Davis said. If the company tried to recoup the money in a shorter time frame, the charge would be higher.

Utilities are allowed to ask the PSC let them pass on to consumers unexpected changes in fuel costs, which sometimes fluctuate dramatically from the time when rates are approved. The charges are straight passthroughs and the companies can't make a profit from the new charges. If fuel prices go down, companies are expected to lower bills as well.

That's not likely in the immediate future, though.

"We do not see the price of oil going down," Davis said.

Oil prices have soared in recent weeks, hitting a new high Wednesday of $65 a barrel. Refinery problems, shrinking U.S. inventories and a growing worldwide thirst for energy are widely blamed for much of the runup in costs.

Crude oil futures have risen 14 percent in just three weeks and there's no sign of demand in the United States and China easing.

The Office of the Public Counsel generally serves as the advocate for utility customers before the PSC and could oppose the request. Public Counsel Harold McLean was on vacation Wednesday when FPL announced its filing; assistant public counsels weren't available late Wednesday to comment.

FPL officials say they're trying to blunt the rising cost of gas and oil by shifting energy production - trying to maximize generation at nuclear plants, for example - and by fuel price hedging, or buying fuel at guaranteed rates that aren't subject to price fluctuations.

Top     Back

Miami Herald...Provider deal criticized: Just weeks after the state slammed a company for the care it was providing detained youths, it awarded the same company another contract.
 

Juvenile justice investigators have blasted a Tampa company, with $8.6 million in state business, for providing ''inadequate'' medical care to kids behind bars -- saying company nurses ignored pleas from a child with a broken hand and a youth with chest pains.

Nevertheless, the Department of Juvenile Justice on June 29 agreed to pay the company, Consult Care Inc., an additional $1.6 million to provide and medical and mental healthcare at four halfway houses -- three in Tampa Bay and one in Fort Myers. A specific contract has not yet been signed.

''The most important function of the Department of Juvenile Justice is the health and safety of the kids who come into our system,'' said state Rep. Gustavo Barreiro, a Miami Republican who chaired hearings on medical care for detained youth that helped spark an entire overhaul of the Juvenile Justice Department two years ago.

``To allow a company like this to continue to take care of kids, at any level, is unconscionable.''

Through a receptionist, Consult Care officials declined to discuss the investigations.

The latest case comes two years after DJJ's secretary, W.G. ''Bill'' Bankhead, who is now deceased, was fired, and 25 other agency employees also terminated. The overhaul came following the June 9, 2003, death of Omar Paisley, a 17-year-old Opa-locka youth. Paisley died of a ruptured appendix at the Miami lockup after begging nurses and guards to help him. Two nurses were later indicted in connection with the incident.

Consult Care has no connection to the previous scandal.

FUTURE CONTRACTS

A DJJ spokesman on Wednesday defended the agency's dealings with Consult Care, saying that although the company may have performed poorly on some occasions, the firm shouldn't be barred from all future state contracts.

''If a particular franchise restaurant is not performing well, you don't close down the entire franchise, you close down the one restaurant,'' said agency spokesman Tom Denham in Tallahassee.

And because Consult Care won the June contract through competitive bidding, Denham added, DJJ was legally bound to award the company the work. With new oversight policies in place since 2003, he added, DJJ officials are confident Consult Care will perform to required standards.

Juvenile justice officials completed two investigations into Consult Care: a January 2005 report on a nearly $1.9 million contract for mental health and substance abuse programs at four halfway houses, and a June 2005 report on medical or psychiatric programs at 12 lockups and another 11 youth camps in Central or South Florida.

The first inspector general investigation was sparked by a complaint to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which was substantiated, that two company employees falsified records showing they provided mental healthcare to about 15 children when they were, in fact, away in training, the report says.

Among other things, the report concluded that Consult Care operated mental health and drug treatment programs at three DJJ residential treatment programs without a license; that the state improperly paid Consult Care about $380,000 for services provided at unlicensed facilities; and that the company employed dozens of people who were listed in staff rosters as professional ''therapists'' or ''certified addiction professionals'' though they lacked required licensing or certification from the state.

The June report, which looked into performance at several Consult Care programs, found that a doctor listed by Consult Care to work for all DJJ detention centers in Central Florida, Kenneth Martin, apparently never set foot in a single lockup, and an advanced registered nurse practitioner designated by Martin to serve as a medical authority at the lockups, Joanna Mulder, ''was also not regularly or consistently present at detention facilities.'' Mulder is listed in corporate records as Consult Care's president.

LIST OF MISSTEPS

The June report included a laundry list of missteps involving youth, including an incident in which a child with a broken hand went 10 days without receiving treatment. Though investigators substantiated neglect allegations against three nurses in the case, one of the three was allowed to continue working for Consult Care for another year.

At one lockup in Polk County in Central Florida, a nurse reported a youth was at ''no risk'' of suicide, even though his history documented suicide attempts, and a detention center screening officer reported the child was ''a suicide risk,'' the report said.

''One youth complained of `coughing up blood'' and ''chest pains,'' the report states, adding: ``No treatment was given.''

Kelly Link: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12352969.htm

Top     Back