Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Talk of the bay

By TIMES STAFF AND WIRES
Published November 2, 2006

Insurer finding publicity is a two-way street

Not long ago, state regulators were lauding Gulfstream Property and Casualty Insurance as one of the brave companies taking high-risk policies out of Citizens Property Insurance. The publicity pendulum has clearly shifted. The Sarasota-based insurance company is being dogged by media reports that its president, Phillip L. DeRosa, had lost his agent’s license in New York, filed for personal bankruptcy and was sued by his former partners after they allegedly lost $5-million in a failed effort to launch a Florida insurance company.  State regulators want to learn more about DeRosa.

Did the heat get to United Healthcare?

Is United Healthcare feeling the pressure of bad press? Two weeks after telling its Medicare HMO members that they’d no longer have access to H. L. Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa after Dec. 1, United resumed talks with the hospital. But before United’s HMO members start celebrating, the sides must agree on reimbursement rates. That didn’t happen in October, when United insisted upon reducing payments for cancer patients. About 55,000 people belong to United’s Medicare HMO in the Tampa Bay area.  

 Study points out more than problem

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, would-be thieves have a how-to guide on stealing from retailers, though that might not be the intention of a study by the University of Florida. Retail crime rose to $37-billion last year, up 19 percent from 2003, UF noted in a new study. And the culprits are taking a high-tech approach to thievery. Some are cribbing the numbers off activated gift cards. Some even place counterfeit bar codes, carrying cheaper prices, on items. The government has taken notice. In January, Congress gave the FBI $5-million for a retail crime task force.

[Last modified November 2, 2006, 10:01:17]