Ft. Lauderdale Chiropractor Troy Lomasky Notes Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate to Convene Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Working Group; Members to Include Insurance Companies, Consumers, Medical Industry

The Florida Current reported on August 11, 2011, that Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Robin Westcott will convene a working group to focus on problems with Florida's Personal Injury Protection (PIP/No-Fault) system.  Hyperlinks to last year's Consumer Advocate PIP Roundtable are below the article:

New insurance consumer advocate getting into battle over no-fault auto insurance

Christine Jordan Sexton, 8/11/2011

There are growing sings that the big insurance battle for the 2012 session may not be property insurance but the state's no-fault automobile insurance.

Florida's new insurance consumer advocate Robin Westcott is now jumping into the fray. Westcott on Thursday said she's creating a "working group" on personal injury protection (PIP) insurance.

Westcott said she wants to keep a new working group on personal injury protection relatively small and that it will include lawmakers, consumers and insurers and representatives from the medical industry, perhaps people who testified before the Legislature last year on the issue.

She said she hopes to have committee members announced “in the next week” and that the group would work through November to submit its recommendations to the Legislature, which meets in January.

While she acknowledged that it is a “pressing time frame” to finalize its recommendations by November, Westcott said, “many of the issues are framed for us.”

PIP is a no fault insurance system that provides $10,000 worth of medical coverage for automobile related injuries, regardless of who is at fault.There are growing concerns about fraud in the system, though.The Office of Insurance Regulation released the Report on Review of the 2011 Personal Injury Protection Data Call, which showed that costs in the PIP system are increasing and that PIP payouts have gone from about $1.5 billion in 2008 to approximately $2.5 billion in 2010. The OIR report also showed that Florida PIP claims involve approximately 100 medical treatments at an average total cost of $12,000 compared to the national average of about 50 treatments at an average total cost of $8,000.

The insurance industry-supported group the National Insurance Crime Bureau released a report earlier this year revealing the percentage of questionable PIP claims in Florida rose 34 percent from 2008 to 2010. The group also rated Miami,Tampa and Orlando among the top five cities in the nation for questionable claims.

The Legislature in 2011 considered changes to the PIP program but ultimately did not pass anything substantial. Sen. J.D. Alexander included in a budget conforming bill provisions that would have capped attorneys fees but was forced to remove it after criticism that the issue wasn’t vetted. Ultimately nothing passed.

But all signs are the issue will be revisited. Gov. Rick Scott has said that he is likely to come out with his own ideas about PIP and the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee is reviewing the PIP system in the interim between the 2011 and 2012 session.

Westcott said the time frame is ambitious but manageable. “There was so much debate (during the 2011 session) and so much said. We’re going to see where we are and see where we can go.”



Personal Injury Protection Roundtable
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6


Broward County Chiropractor Dr. Troy Lomasky heads Coast Chiropractic of Wilton Manors, Florida. A graduate of the famed New York Chiropractic College, he specializes in quickly treating pain from a variety of conditions.  Services include:  Consultation, X-ray, spinal adjustments & massage therapy, physiotherapy, spinal decompression for disc problems; spinal and muscular rehabilitation.  New patients & same-day appointments available.   (954) 463-3036 or www.chiropractorwiltonmanors.com.  On-call for emergencies 24 hours.  Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.

THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA: First Priority of Florida's New Insurance Consumer Advocate Will Be Cracking Down on Personal Injury Protection Insurance Fraud

Above:  Florida's New Insurance Consumer Advocate, Robin Westcott, Is Committed to Cracking Down on PIP Fraud

Priority will be personal injury fraud

By MICHAEL PELTIER
The News Service of Florida
http://www.newsserviceflorida.com/

Published:  Saturday, July 23, 2011

TALLAHASSEE -- Cracking down on automobile insurance fraud and strengthening the property insurance market will help consumers in the long run and be at the top of her priority list, the state's newest insurance consumer advocate said Thursday.

Shortly after she was officially named Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate, Robin Westscott said the health of the market is directly linked to consumer satisfaction and protection, a relationship she will weigh as the state's top consumer advocate, a delicate and sometimes adversarial role that has pitted former advocates against the industry and the Legislature.

While property insurance rates are important and continue to make headlines, Westscott says she'll be looking beyond rates to make sure consumers are protected from shoddy companies and criminals trying to exploit the system.

"I don't know that I will be second guessing the actuaries at the Office of Insurance Regulation too often. They are very competent," Westscott said Thursday. "I think the consumer advocate's office needs to be looking at what do we do about these markets because the rates are not going to go down until we have a good, competitive market place for our citizens."

Westcott said an immediate priority will be trying to rein in personal injury protection fraud that industry representatives say is running rampant and costing law abiding automobile insurance policyholders millions in higher premiums because of staged crashes and bogus medical claims.

Lawmakers were unsuccessful in passing meaningful PIP legislation this past session, a lack of progress that is testament to the complexities of the issues including questions of court access, clinic accountability and attorney fees.

"There are things we can do to protect consumers and make sure that we are fraud resistant," Westscott said. "It's very critical because we don't want to see our auto market devolve into what our property market is."

Appointed by State Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Westscott has been Department of Financial Services' executive director of Medicaid and Public Assistance Fraud Strike Force.

"Robin will be an ardent, outspoken and persistent advocate for Florida's insurance consumers," Atwater said in a statement. "She is committed to holding insurance companies accountable and to ensuring consumers get exactly what they pay for and are protected from fraud and abuse. She has seen firsthand the tactics used to game the system and simply won't stand for it."

Her lengthy resume includes four years as the director of property and casualty oversight at the Office of Insurance Regulation, where she also served as an acting deputy commissioner.

Among her more recent duties was spearheading an OIR look at sinkhole claims, which have exploded in recent years.

Her background also includes a long stint as an attorney with the Division of Rehabilitation and Liquidation, where she dealt with insolvency and other matters.

"She has an incredibly broad background with very high, very hands-on regulation of the insurance industry," said Sam Miller, executive vice president of Florida Insurance Council, an industry group.

Westscott said she believes that consumers benefit most when the private market offers viable options, a situation that does not always exist, especially in terms of Florida's property insurance market. Though she will defer to OIR on most rate decisions, she said the timing of rate hikes is also critical as homeowners adjust to the rising costs of insuring their homes.

Toward that end, she supports efforts to drawn down the number of policyholders in Citizens Property Insurance Corp. which is the largest property insurer in the state with 1.4 million policies in place. Long term, Citizens ranks can only be reduced if national companies return to the Florida market. And that can only happen if large insurers return to the basic tenet of insurance, reducing the cost of individual losses by spreading out the risk.

Admittedly a long process, Westscott said recent calamities in other parts of the country may make the idea of risk sharing more palatable

"It's not a valid argument to say that Florida stands alone in bearing all the risk for insurance peril," Westscott said. "We need to be standing united and the companies need to come back and spread the risk. I'm a really purist in that sense."


Broward County Chiropractor Dr. Troy Lomasky heads Coast Chiropractic of Wilton Manors, Florida. A graduate of the famed New York Chiropractic College, he specializes in quickly treating pain from a variety of conditions.  Services include:  Consultation, X-ray, spinal adjustments & massage therapy, physiotherapy, spinal decompression for disc problems; spinal and muscular rehabilitation.  New patients & same-day appointments available.   (954) 463-3036 or www.chiropractorwiltonmanors.com.  On-call for emergencies 24 hours.  Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.