The legislation is being prepared in order to change the situation in the state which is riddled with fraud.
A new bill is being drafted by David Simmons (R-Altamonte Springs), the Senate Banking and Insurance Chairman in Florida, in order to help to repeal the no-fault auto insurance system in the state, which is swimming in fraud and that is costing residents a fortune to cover their vehicles.
A landmark effort for this purpose from 2012 remains tied up in the courts, allowing fraud to continue.
Simmons explained that he is sending the measure forward at the request of a number of officials from the auto insurance industry who feel that reforms made to the Personal Injury Protection (PIP) system in the state – which is now a decade old – will not be able to become effective considering that they are now trapped in red tape.
Simmons says that several auto insurance companies have approached him for this purpose.
He explained that “I’ve had several of our major insurance companies come to me and say that they are ready to move on,” and added that “They’re saying that the system is broke, we acknowledge it’s broken, it’s difficult to fix the unfixable.”
Governor Rick Scott signed a law in 2012 that would require people who have been involved in vehicle accidents to have to begin to seek out their treatment within a period of two weeks, and provides up to $10,000 in benefits for individuals who need treatment for emergency medical conditions, whereas non-emergency conditions are treated by up to $2,500.
That said, on March 20 of this year, Terry Lewis, a Leon County Circuit Judge, ruled that the new law was illegally preventing victims of crashes from being able to use PIP claims in order to pay for treatments by massage therapists and acupuncturists and placed a limitation on chiropractic services. He also determined that the lowered limit on non-emergency care coverage from the law also had fault.
The law was supported by both the Governor and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater. They deemed it a last-ditch effort to rescue the PIP auto insurance system that requires every driver to be covered by $10,000 in medical protection. They stated that fraud in this system is costing motorists a total of $1 billion every year, causing premiums to skyrocket.