House starts rolling on PIP reform

TALLAHASSEE — A House committee advanced major changes to Florida’s no-fault auto insurance law Wednesday with a bill requiring auto policies to cover only emergency care and services rendered within three days of a wreck. At the behest of Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater , the House and Senate are both pushing reforms to Florida personal-injury protection (PIP) auto-insurance law this year, with some lawmakers advocating blowing up the unique system completely. This week, Sen. Joe Negron , the Stuart Republican tasked with handling the issue in the Senate, released an early draft of his version (SB 1680) which streamlines the fee schedule for payments and gives priority to hospital claims, but otherwise doesn’t impose the same severe re-structuring of coverage. The 101-page House bill (HB 119) is designed to cut out fraud over services rendered long after the wrecks — if ever — in Florida’s PIP insurance system, by limiting the coverage requirements

to things like ambulance costs, hospital treatment provided within 72 hours of the wreck, in-patient care for someone admitted to the hospital within 72 hours, or services for an insured with a medical condition diagnosed originally after the wreck. The changes are designed to root out often-fraudulent claims that might be filed by fringe health-care providers weeks or months after accidents. “When an injury is sustained in an automobile accident you need to be treated at the hospital,” said Rep. Jim Boyd , the Bradenton Republican carrying the bill. “This access point and truly getting people treated who are actually hurt in an automobile accident, we think this will do an enormous amount of good to get at the fraud.” But Democrats complained Wednesday that the 72-hour timeframe for treatment was too short, and tried unsuccessfully to amend the window of time to 14 days. Story here.

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House starts rolling on PIP reform

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