Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Insurance Taking an Expected Turn
The state of PIP in Florida is now taking an expected turn. The insurance companies are looking to raise rates. That’s right, raise rates. This is in the face of the insurance lobby’s big push to change the law to cut out fraud. The trade-off would be lower rates. At least that’s how they presented it to the public so the law change that hurts the insured’s rights would be more palatable. The change was to limit the abuse of PIP by providers by having a medical doctor declare the insured’s medical condition an emergency before certain benefits would kick in. The theory being that not many medical conditions could be declared an emergency. This would limit the carrier’s pay outs thereby allowing for lower policy premiums. Once again the people of our state have been defrauded by the insurance industry.
In any event, the new PIP law is so complex and convoluted that no one really knows how it will work or what it will cover. This will spawn more litigation than ever. This was what the insurance industry was trying to avoid. However, by backing a bad and poorly drafted law they have, in effect, caused an outcome that they had so sorely tried to avoid. Now realizing their mistake, they have to find a way to fund this new wave of predictable litigation. How will they do that? By raising premiums, that’s how.
This is January 1, 2013. I encourage anyone who has been in an accident to make sure they understand that your insurance coverage has changed. Be careful racking up large bills for medical treatment. There is a strong chance your insurance company will limit your no emergency care to $2500. Talk to the LaBovick Law firm if you have any questions.