Governor Scott Signs New Auto Insurance Bill

Car Accidents create difficult times for accident victims. As a Miami Personal Injury lawyer, I know that an injured party has to worry about their physical and mental injuries, damage to their car, and payment of their medical bills. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous doctors and lawyers illegally solicit an accident victims, and misrepresent insurance benefits. In fact, you may have heard these commercials on the radio or watched them on television. Specifically, the commercials that say you may be entitled to $10,000.00. Unfortunately, the one getting those $10,000.00 is the fraudulent clinic owner. The benefits at issue are PIP(Personal Injury Protection) otherwise known as No-Fault. In an effort to stop this abuse Insurance company’s and Governor Scott pushed for No-Fault reform. The bill was signed into law yesterday. The law will hurt legitimate auto accident victims and will increase insurance company profits.

THe bill was intended to combat fraud and reduce insurance premiums. When was the last time an insurance company reduced premiums? What you will get is a reduction in services without a corresponding cut in insurance premiums.

Under the new law, Florida drivers will still have to carry personal-injury-protection insurance. However, there will now be limits on treatment in the event of an accident. An injured party must seek treatment within 14-days , and only if the injured party has an emergency medical conditions will he get the full $10,000.00 of insurance benefits. What a concept. You pay for $10,000.00 of insurance, but really only get $2,500.00. Imagine going to the hospital and getting a $10,000.00 bill, but the insurance company says that it was not an “emergency medical condition”, ( defined as something that seriously jeopardizes a patient’s health, impairs bodily functions or causes dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. Broken bones or internal bleeding obviously fall under emergency medical conditions, but something such as herniated discs might be debatable) and pays only $2,500.00. Exactly how is this good for anyone other than insurance companies. Thank you Governor Scott

As a Miami Personal Injury lawyer, my office spends countess hours dealing with hospital and medical bills. The new system will only further delay payment of legitimate medical bills, and will affect accident victims credit.