The House Insurance Committee today approved a bill that is aimed at curbing staged accidents as well as other fraudulent PIP claims.
As per the coverage that is offered by the PIP cover, the policyholders that are injured in auto accidents can get some amount of coverage irrespective of who the faulty driver is. This was done with the intention to protect the uninsured Floridians, especially those that don’t have health insurance and also to avoid lawsuits and other legal costs that may be associated in such cases with minor injuries.
However, the outcome of this has been just the opposite as people have abused this system and simply exaggerates injuries and inflates their medical bills or worse still stage accidents just to be able to make the claim. This has resulted in a steep hike in auto insurance premiums and the roads have also become relatively unsafe. The representatives of the coalition today, assembled along with CFO, Jeff Atwater and the rest to back the legislation, HB 1411 as well as SB 1930 to bring down fraud. As per the new bill, there are a lot of strict measures that will come into play. In the event of an accident, there has to be a police report that would be filed and it must include the names and addresses of all the passengers who were involved in the crash. This will help in preventing phantom victims from claiming that they were hurt in the accident.
As per the Horner’s bill HB 967, even the attorney’s fees would be limited to $10,000 or $50,000 for class action suits. The insurers would also be given the right to interview hospitals and policyholders under oath. The insurers may also request policyholders to undergo physical or mental examination, if they want to avail the PIP benefits.
Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee, who sponsored the bill, has stated that the coverage that insurers provide must be able to ensure that claims are paid on time, but it must not involve a lot of legal fees. He also stated that the insurance fraud was rampant and that it involved huge sums of money but it only dealt with a handful of PIP lawyers. He went on to state that it was the few bad actors that were creating this problem. Hence, he added that he wanted to work together with all those who were involved in order to ensure that the bill provides a fair deal to offer protection to both the insurers as well as customers.
