Insurance companies in Florida seek insurance reforms to PIP insurance

By
Published:

The increase in the insurance premiums for the Personal Injury Protection plan called for immediate action by the law makers in the state of Florida to come up with measures to curtail these increasing costs. In an effort to lower the premiums for the PIP insurance plan the law makers came up with a quick fix that may not last long. They came up with reforms that limited the payments for treatments which were not critical and also banned payments to cover the cost of massage therapists. The payments to chiropractors, which were as high as $10000 in the past have now been reduced to just $2500. Though these reforms have just been approved and implemented, consumer groups and auto insurance companies are already keeping an eye out for those who are looking to scam the new system.

Florida Consumer Action Network’s executive director, Bill Newton, said that irrespective of the reforms, there are fraudsters who are not going to sit back and accept that they cannot scam the system anymore. There are people who are constantly working at finding alternative ways and means to get around the laws. The changes that have been implemented will become a part of the current auto insurance laws starting July 2012.

Major Simon Blank who has been working for the fraud unit of the Department of Financial Services said that the latest cases related to auto insurance frauds started with accidents being staged. After this, they decided to deepen their scam by involving clinics that could treat patients who had the PIP plan and had the potential to earn over a million each year.

Blank, who heads the investigations and operation of the fraud unit, said that the clinics that had been a part of these operations for long are not going to cave in easily. Therefore, the department and unit and working round the clock to keep an eye out for the new trends being adopted by the fraudsters.