A bill (HB 119) designed to reduce the fraud in the state’s personal injury protection insurance was passed Friday in the Florida House of Representatives.
PIP fraud results in higher costs to customers through increased premiums. In some places, that translates into hundreds of extra dollars per year. Lawmakers passed PIP coverage in 1972 to ensure that anyone hurt in an automobile wreck could get medical treatment. The legislation mandated that a driver’s insurance company pay up to $10,000 to cover medical bills and lost wages after an accident regardless of fault. All Florida drivers are required to carry no fault insurance.
Over the years, nevertheless, fraudsters turned Florida into the top state for staged accidents, especially in the Tampa and Miami-Dade metropolitan areas.
The House version caps attorney fees in payment disputes and requires those hurt in a wreck to go to a hospital emergency room or hospital-owned walk-in clinic within seven days for personal-injury coverage to kick in.
The Senate bill puts no time limit on treatment and also eliminates massage therapy and acupuncture, now covered under PIP, after an accident.