Florida is among a handful of states which adopted personal injury protection (PIP) to make sure anyone injured in an automobile accident would quickly get compensation for their injuries. Florida Governor Rick Scott has lobbied hard for the legislation to reform Florida’s mandatory motor vehicle no fault law and crack down on abuses he believes are prevalent in personal injury protection cases. The original legislation passed in Florida provided that a driver’s insurance company pay up to $10,000.00 to cover medical bills and lost wages after an accident, no matter who is at fault. Some of the abuses claimed by the Governor and legislators that supported the law include Florida ranking first nationally in staged accidents and PIP costs having risen by 1.4 billion since 2008, mostly due to run away fraud. The new legislation requires an accident victim to obtain treatment within 14 days in an ambulance or hospital, or from a physician, osteopathic physician, chiropractic physician or dentist. The $10,000.00 PIP medical benefit is only available IF a physician, osteopathic physician, dentist, or supervised physician’s assistant or advanced registered nurse practioner determines that the insured has “emergency medical condition.” If there is no such determination the PIP benefit is limited to $2,500.00. Interestingly, the Florida Senate saw a 25% rate reduction on PIP, but compromised for a 10% reduction that’s not guaranteed. It doesn’t appear likely that many policy holders will see much, if any, reduction in their PIP premium. ]]>