Legislative Report

February 27, 2015 BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP INSURANCE

BULLETIN XV, NUMBER 5

In This Issue

General Assembly Overview Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Medical Malpractice

Innocent Co-Insureds

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GENERAL ASSEMBLY OVERVIEW The first half of the 2015 Indiana General Assembly long session

concluded this week. The Senate concluded its business on February

24 while the House adjourned on February 25. Legislators will

reconvene on Monday, March 2 to begin the second half of the

session.

368 Senate bills died in the first half of session and 220 Senate bills and

Senate Joint Resolutions passed. On the House side, 495 bills failed to

proceed and 186 bills and House Joint Resolutions made it through

the first half.

The House advanced the state budget bill, HB 1001, by a vote of 69-

29 mostly along party lines. The most discussed portion of the budget

is the school funding formula and how dollars are allocated to

schools across the state. The Senate will consider HB 1001 beginning

in the Senate Appropriations Committee the second half of session.

A number of bills died on the House and Senate floor, including HB

1624, a bill addressing the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday in

Indiana. HB 1624 was not called down for a third reading vote on the

House floor by the author, Rep. Tom Dermody (R-LaPorte). The bill

received opposition from the grocery, drug and convenience store

industry after restrictive provisions were added in the House Public

Policy Committee.

The gaming bill underwent some further changes on the House floor.

The House removed language that would have cut millions of dollars

in funding that goes to communities where casinos are located. HB

1540 still allows for riverboat casinos to move on land, creates new

tax breaks for casino investment, and allows live dealers at the two

racinos based at horse tracks.

We expect committee hearings to resume next week after bills that

survived the first half of session have been assigned to committees in

the second house and the committee chairs have had time to

review all bills assigned to them. As always, we will continue to

monitor all legislation for amendments containing detrimental

language which may have died during the first half of the session.

The following are tentative upcoming deadlines to keep in mind:

- House committee report deadline: April 8

- Senate committee report deadline: April 9

- House and Senate second reading deadline: April 14

http://www.bosepublicaffairs.com/http://www.twitter.com/bosepaghttp://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1001http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1624http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1624http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1540http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/house/1540

- House and Senate third reading deadline: April 15

- Conference committees: April 15-29

The legislature must adjourn, sine die, no later than midnight, April 29.

UNCLAIMED LIFE INSURANCE BENEFITS

SB 425 provides that DMF searches must only be conducted on a

prospective basis, beginning July 1, 2015. Further, it removes the

fuzzy match requirements found in IC 27-2-23-13. The bill was

amended on the Senate floor to clarify that this bill does not prevent

an unclaimed property examination by an attorney general under IC

32-34-1. As amended, the bill passed by the Senate by a vote of 37-

13.

The bill has been assigned to the House Insurance Committee and

Chairman Lehman is the House sponsor. A hearing on SB 425 will

likely occur within the next few weeks.

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE The two bills dealing with medical malpractice (SB 55 and HB 1043)

have both failed for this session. As reported last week, SB 55 was

DEFEATED on the Senate floor by a vote of 22-27. In the House, HB

1043 died after failing to be called for 3rd reading by Wednesdays

deadline.

INNOCENT CO-INSUREDS

SB 125, as introduced, provided, in pertinent part, that an insurer may

not deny, exclude or limit payment of a claim made by an innocent

co-insured. The bill received a hearing last week in the Senate

Insurance & Financial Institutions, during which it was amended to

assign the topic for study during the 2015 interim. As amended, the

bill passed out of committee and the Senate floor unanimously.

For more information

Trent Hahn

tfhahn@bosepublicaffairs.com

Telephone: 317/684-5400

Fax: 317/684-5432

http://iga.in.gov/static-documents/8/4/b/a/84ba2b2f/SB0425.01.INTR.pdfhttp://iga.in.gov/static-documents/a/5/6/c/a56c7895/SB0055.01.INTR.pdfhttp://iga.in.gov/static-documents/6/1/b/2/61b2a64b/HB1043.01.INTR.pdfhttp://iga.in.gov/static-documents/6/1/b/2/61b2a64b/HB1043.01.INTR.pdfhttp://iga.in.gov/static-documents/c/d/5/c/cd5cb224/SB0125.02.COMS.pdf