State Representative Bryan Nelson: We need to give fixing Florida PIP one more shot

Above:  Chairman Rep. Bryan Nelson, R-Apopka, guides an Insurance & Banking Subcommittee meeting. Photo Credit: Mark Foley, Florida House of Representatives

Reprinted from The Florida Current
http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/

By Christine Jordan Sexton, 8/18/2011

 As calls for tackling Florida’s personal injury protection (PIP) program grow louder one influential lawmaker has made clear he doesn’t want to scrap the long standing system that pays $10,000 in health care costs regardless of which driver is at fault.

Rep. Bryan Nelson, R-Apopka, said he believes the program can be altered to address some of the problems that have been bedeviling the system if the Legislature were to adopt fee caps and utilization schedules and agree to limit attorneys’ fees, similar to what the Florida Legislature accomplished with workers’ compensation in 2003.

Nelson is chairman of the House Insurance and Banking Committee, which will likely hear any PIP related bills the Legislature tackles in the 2012 session.

“We need to give it one more shot and try to fix it,” Nelson said of PIP. “If we can’t fix it, then we’ll flush it.”

An insurance agent, Nelson said his goal is to reduce insurance premiums for Florida drivers by $1 billion.

Nelson is the latest politician to chime in on whether the state’s no fault system be eliminated or at a minimum retooled. Gov. Rick Scott said earlier this summer he could support eliminating the no fault insurance program but at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday said he would wait to follow the lead of Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.

McCarty--who has served as insurance commissioner under Govs. Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist and now Scott--said he was going to meet with legislators in the coming weeks to discuss the issue.

McCarty gave a lengthy presentation at the Cabinet meeting showing that PIP benefits paid have increased by more than $500 million since 2008 even though the number of licensed drivers has remained steady and the number of accidents has dropped.

A decision was made in 2003 to allow the program to expire but a coalition made up of hospitals, health insurers companies and some automobile insurance carriers successfully lobbied to modify the program and have it reinstated into law.

When the insurance industry supported organization 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 legislators once again re-examined the program in 2011. The NICB rated Miami, Tampa and Orlando among the top five cities in the nation for questionable claims.

The Office of Insurance Regulation also 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 about twice as many medical treatments than the average and the costs are $4,000 higher than the average costs.

Florida is one of ten states to have no fault automobile insurance program.

This past session PIP was just one of a whole long list of insurance related the Legislature tackled including sinkholes, homeowners and medical malpractice. In the end, the legislation fell by the wayside.


PIP isn’t expected to compete with other insurance issues in 2012 though, Nelson said.

“This is a huge issue and hopefully we’ll address it in a meaningful way, not a superficial way,'' he said.


Filed in: Insurance
Tags: Personal Injury Protection

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.