Governor Rick Scott comes out strongly in support of bill with the emergency room mandate

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According to the new bill, all auto-related accident victims will now be forced to go the emergency rooms, instead of availing treatment from their family doctors. This would be the case even if there are minor injuries. This bill had been cleared on Wednesday by the Florida House subcommittee.

The Florida House Banking and Insurance Subcommittee had approved the bill HB 119. The bill aims at cutting down fraud, which is rampant in PIP coverage in the state. Gov. Rick Scott offered his full support and also stated that he had no issues with the emergency room mandate in the bill.

Gov. Scott added that the PIP fraud was costing them a huge sum of money each year. Columbia Hospital Corp., after its merger with another company, has become one of the largest health care companies in the world. It was Gov. Scott who had helped start the Columbia Hospital Corp.

The bill has been hailed as a good bill by Gov. Scott and he supports the bill completely. Although there are other approaches, getting crash victims treated in the emergency rooms is a good approach, he added. According to the proposed law, crash victims can be taken to the emergency room in any hospital or to a hospital-owned clinic within 72 hours, for the Personal Injury Protection coverage to kick in. However, the critics of this bill have warned that victims may have to spend hours waiting in a queue where there are overcrowded and understaffed emergency rooms. This will also prevent them from seeking medical advice and treatment from health care providers and doctors who are already familiar with the patient’s health condition.

However, Jim Boyd who has sponsored the bill, states that the victims should be treated in the hospitals instead of pain clinics. With regard to the 72-hour limit, he added that crash victims should not simply walk into a treatment facility at some stage in the future. However, he was agreeable on increasing the time limit from 72 hours to two weeks.

Speaking to the subcommittee, he stated that PIP fraud was a burden on every motorist in Florida and it was time to put back the money into the constituent’s pockets. The PIP coverage had been passed in 1972 by lawmakers in order to ensure that those involved in auto-related accidents get the money quickly in order to seek medical treatment. All motorists in Florida have to carry PIP coverage.