Have you paid too much for a doctor’s bill and spent too much time waiting for a refund?
Are you a pet owner confused by the insurance policy you purchased for your fur baby?
Do you live in a condo and feel uninformed about what the board is doing?
New Florida laws taking effect Jan. 1 will help you get through these and other consumer issues.
Here’s what to know:
Pet insurance and wellness programs
Pet insurance will be designated as “property insurance” and face new regulations. (Try telling your pets they are now your property, and not the other way around.)
According to the new law:
- Pet insurance companies have to clearly explain to its customers how decisions are determined to make payouts on claims.
- The insurance companies need to share any rules about required medical exams for pets.
- A pet insurance agent can’t market a wellness program as pet insurance or make enrolling in a pet wellness program a prerequisite to purchase pet insurance.
- Insurance companies can refuse to cover your pet’s preexisting health problems — but they have to prove those conditions existed before the policy was purchased.
- Waiting periods for some illnesses or conditions may be set by the insurer, but not for accidents.
- A pet insurance applicant or policyholder can look over the policy and cancel within 30 days if they are “not satisfied for any reason.” You’re entitled to a refund during this grace period.
- After purchase of a policy, the insurer can ask for a pet exam, but can’t require one to renew your policy.
Does Florida’s new 2026 law concerning pet insurance have enough teeth to protect the consumer? This cat looks skeptical. Don’t they always? Read on. Howard Cohen [email protected]
Animal cruelty database
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is authorized to put on its website the names of people who have been found guilty or have pleaded guilty or no contest to animal cruelty thanks to this new law.
It’s named Dexter’s Law, for a 2024 case in which a man was charged with animal cruelty after he adopted a “sweet tempered” shelter dog from Pinellas County Animal Shelter named Dexter and brutally decapitated the animal days after adoption. The dog’s mutilated body was found in a plastic bag in Fort De Soto Park near St. Petersberg.
The animal cruelty case led to harsher penalties that went into effect on July 1, 2025. The addition, effective Jan. 1, creates the FDLE’s publicly accessible animal abuser registry to prevent future atrocities by tracking offenders.
Pet adoption services or people giving an animal away for adoption are encouraged to search the list to screen potential adopters.
Refunds of overpayments
See that $409.86 hospital payment a patient owes after insurance handled its end? If the patient mistakenly paid the bill twice or a higher amount than due on a bill by accident, the medical practitioner would have 30 days to provide a refund, according to a new Florida law concerning overpayment goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Howard Cohen [email protected]
Pay the same bill twice for a medical procedure? It’s easy to do. You paid online, but then a paper bill comes in the mail for the same amount, and you pay it again just to be sure — or you simply forgot this one was paid. Or add an extra digit to your co-pay by mistake?
This new law requires healthcare practitioners, facilities, providers and anyone who accepts payment from insurance for services rendered by healthcare practitioners, to refund any overpayment made by the patient no later than 30 days after determining that the patient made an overpayment.
If they fail to do so, it could be grounds for disciplinary action by the applicable board, or Florida’s Department of Health if there is no board. If the facility or provider is licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration and fails to timely refund an overpayment, they could face an administrative penalty of up to $500.
The new law’s requirement to timely refund overpayments doesn’t apply to overpayments made to providers by health insurers and health maintenance organizations.
Condominium associations
The Miami-Dade Marine Patrol Unit navigates as search and rescue personnel search for survivors through the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside, Florida, Sunday, June 27, 2021. The apartment building partially collapsed on Thursday, June 24. David Santiago [email protected]
On July 1, a new condo safety law reform went into effect to give condo owners and associations a bit of breathing room without gutting the core of Florida’s new condo safety regulations after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
MORE: Will Florida’s new condo law help ease an affordability crisis? See the changes
On Jan. 1, the new law mandates a condo association managing 25 or more units has to follow deadlines for public posting of material related to the safety regulations, including minutes of administrative meetings, videos, affidavits and other materials. These public postings must be accessible not only online but via a mobile device.
Breast exams
The new coverage for diagnostic and supplemental breast examinations law taking effect Jan. 1, means that the state’s health insurance plans for its employees makes exams fully covered and won’t require workers to pay extra costs, such as co-pays or deductibles for diagnostic breast exams or supplemental breast exams.
Howard Cohen
Miami Herald
Miami Herald consumer trends reporter Howard Cohen, a 2017 Media Excellence Awards winner, has covered pop music, theater, health and fitness, obituaries, municipal government, breaking news and general assignment. He started his career in the Features department at the Miami Herald in 1991. Cohen is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Communication.
Support my work with a digital subscription
