Florida Citizens’ Brass Tired of ‘Clickbait’ News on its Hurricane Claims Denials

Officials with Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. took issue Thursday with a number of national and Florida news reports that have suggested that the insurer has the “worst rate” on paying claims after recent hurricanes.

“That’s just not accurate,” Citizens Board of Governors’ Chairman Scott Thomas said at a Citizens Claims Committee meeting Thursday afternoon.

Board member Jason Butts called the news reports “clickbait” that were misleading to policyholders and the public.

The issue seems to have started with an Oct. 18 online article by the NOTUS news service, which cited Florida Office of Insurance Regulation data on recent hurricane claims. The posting noted that Citizens “didn’t pay a dime in 77% of claims it closed from August’s Hurricane Debby.”

Newsweek, a national news magazine and website, ran a similar article three days later. Since then, Florida-based news outlets have reported the information, and Citizens officials have been busy trying to set the record straight. Weiss Ratings, a Florida-based firm, added to the concerns when it posted recently that Citizens had closed half of its 2023 claims without payment.

Citizens’ chief insurance officer, Jay Adams, spoke at length at the Thursday meeting, agreeing that thousands of claims from hurricanes this year were, in fact, closed without payment to policyholders.

But that’s because thousands of claims, after inspection, turned out to be below policyholders’ hurricane deductible threshold; damage was due to flood or storm surge that is not covered by a property policy; or the claims should have been filed with the homeowners’ new insurance carrier after a takeout of Citizens’ policies, Adams said.

Two independent adjusters have said as much to Insurance Journal after inspecting dozens of homes for Citizens.

Officials have said that Citizens’ current business model – to be the insurer of last resort but one with statutorily limited rates – has made it the largest carrier in the state and often the only one available for some properties.

“We are writing the riskiest policies in the state,” Adams said at the meeting. “We are the ones that are writing the coastal homes. We are the ones writing wind-only coverage.” And most Citizens’ policies have very high deductibles, higher than some other insurers in the state.

Citizens’ coverage limits also are limited by law, and the insurer does not typically cover some areas that other insurers might, such as pool cages, Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said. That can lead to more claims closed without payments. And hurricane deductibles are annual, not per-storm, Adams noted. Some policyholders were encouraged to file claims that were likely to be denied so that the hurricane deductible could be met with claims in subsequent storms.

Adams also noted that Citizens is closely scrutinized by state regulators and has generally received high marks for its claims handling.

Numbers provided by Citizens on Thursday show that for Debby, which flooded parts of the Big Bend area in August, Citizens saw about 3,026 claims and closed 2,617. Of those closed claims, about 74% were closed without payment.

But for the latest storm, Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Oct. 9 with as much wind as flooding, the payment percentages are higher. Citizens has received about 54,300 claims due to Milton. Some 38,313 of those have been closed. About 56% of those closed claims were closed with payment.

For all insurers, 300,955 claims have been filed after Milton and about 181,475 have been closed, as of Nov. 19, OIR data show. Of those closed claims, 47% have been closed without payment. A third were closed without payment because the loss was considered to be below the deductible. Compared to Hurricane Ian in 2022, the unpaid claims rate — so far — appears to be higher in recent storms. Some 18 months after Ian struck, only about 27% were closed without payment. Ian brought Category 5 winds but also caused extensive coastal flooding in southwest Florida and inland flooding in the central part of the state.

A few claims adjusters who had raised red flags about insurers denying claims and altering damage estimates after Hurricane Ian, have said recently that several carriers this year seem to have improved their claims-payment practices and no longer make wholesale changes to inspection reports.

And OIR officials have taken issue with some of the recent reports. This week, OIR subpoenaed emails, texts and other records from Weiss Ratings in Palm Beach Gardens, after Weiss warned of Citizens’ unpaid claims and financial troubles with other insurers, according to Florida news outlets.

On claims disputes, Citizens has seen a remarkable number of settlements in cases that were set to be heard by state administrative law judge, officials said Thursday. Citizens’ Board of Governors in 2022, in an effort to reduce claims litigation, approved a policy endorsement that allows disputes to be heard by judges with a state agency – the Division of Administrative Hearings, known as DOAH.

Since then, 260 claims have been sent to DOAH judges; 196 are pending and 63 have been resolved. But importantly, some 75% of claims disputes due for DOAH have been settled before a hearing is held, said Elaina Paskalakis, vice president of claims litigation for Citizens.

Part of the reason is that DOAH cases reach the hearing level much faster than litigation in courts, she said. Most claims disputes scheduled to be heard by DOAH judges are resolved in an average of 76 days, compared to 624 days for state-court lawsuits.

“This is absolutely a benefit to our insureds, in that they are getting a resolution much more efficiently and much quicker,” Paskalakis said.

Citizens works closely with DOAH to ensure that the insurer does not send too many cases that way, so that the judges are not overwhelmed, she said.