Some Floridians may have overpaid for medical care

“Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty confirmed the investigation in a letter Thursday to Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw, who had requested it. The letter was obtained by Health News Florida, an independent news service that has been reporting on the alleged overcharges.

McCarty’s letter doesn’t make clear when Florida’s inquiry started, but New York’s attorney general announced findings on overcharges in that state in January. The Senate Commerce Committee held hearings in the spring and released a report in June that said millions of Americans could have been overcharged billions of dollars.

The overcharges, which date back to 1994, occurred in plans that used a payment schedule produced by Ingenix Inc., which until recently was a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. New York’s probe found that 10 major insurers – including United, WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, and Humana – used the product dating back to 1994.”

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Florida community meeting about chinese drywall

 

A group of Aranda homeowners are fed up with what they say is their builder’s failure to address problems with Chinese drywall, and plan to take action.

The group will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27 at the Cape Coral Library to discuss strategy.

About 200 Aranda homeowners have been invited; 70 people have confirmed they will attend, said Richard Kampf, a Cape Coral homeowner whose Aranda home has the defective drywall. The meeting is open to the public.

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Chinese drywall conference: more questions

Meeting held in Orlando drew more than 275 people:

“During a lunch meeting, Lori Streit of Aurora, Ill.-based Unified Engineering Inc., which is conducting lab tests on the drywall for the Florida Department of Health, said early results show that the chemical strontium in U.S.-based wallboard ranges up to 300 parts per million, but Chinese drywall is registering at 2,000 to 3,000 parts per million, one possible clue as to why the board may emit noxious sulfuric odors.

Still, conference attendees and speakers said that not enough is known about the material and what can be done about it.  “I have 45 minutes that I can’t fill because I don’t know that much,” Fort Myers attorney Scott Weinstein said during his speech.

“There are still more questions than answers.” ”

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Chinese drywall cases may get consolidated

“A federal court panel is stepping in to manage the suits. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Solution will hold a hearing May 27 and 28 in Louisville, Ky. The hearing will decide whether cases filed in federal court across the country should be consolidated in one court with one judge.”

In Florida alone 150 lawsuits have been filed involving more than 15,000 plaintiffs.

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Another Chinese drywall class action filed in Florida

The attorneys filing this complaint state, “We have filed a national class action because more than 60,000 homes in 13 states are believed to have defective Chinese drywall.”

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Chinese drywall complaints: builder responds

Eagle Homes issued a press release saying that they took immediate action to investigate the complaints and that their initial findings suggest that this is an “isolated” incident affecting a small number of Eagle Homes in the Fort Myers area.  Or so they hope.

Eagle Homes press release:

Gov creates weight loss scam litigation website

First, kudos to the District Attorney for Southern Florida for posting litigation information about this lawsuit.

Next, would it kill you to at least identify the subject matter of the litigation?  Are all victims immediately going to know what “Lipoban” means?  Could there be a brief paragraph explaining the basics?

Website

Beware: Jacksonville Toyota Dealer Sued

Check under the hood and make sure there's an engine.

Coggin cars is being sued in Florida state court for, “falsifying financing information on customers’ contracts, then wrongfully selling their trade-in car and repossessing the new one.” This according to Courthouse News summary of the complaint found here.