Written by Jack Hebert, FCA Government Relations Director and Paul Lambert, FCA General Counsel
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Three FCA members, together with FCA Assistant General Counsel Kim Driggers, participated earlier this week in a roundtable discussion on the status of PIP/No-fault auto insurance in Florida. The all-day public meeting, organized by the Office of the Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate, was held on Wednesday, Aug. 4th in Tallahassee. Also participating were invited representatives from the insurance industry, the hospitals, both plaintiff and defense attorneys with the trial bar, and state regulators and law enforcement officials. One sitting member of the Florida Legislature, Rep. Bryan Nelson (R-Apopka), joined in by telephone for a portion of the meeting.
It has come to our attention that some of our members have been approached by insurance defense lawyers or their staff with patients falsifying an accident and pretending to need treatment. The intended goal of the insurance company is to get this fake patient into your office to take pictures and to convince you to agree to charge him/her a lesser amount for “cash” reimbursement. When pressed, the person doesn’t have identification and the phone number used is fake.
Please remember that you must charge the same amount for insurance patients that you charge for cash patients. Please do not fall prey to this scam by the insurance company.
Written by Kim Driggers, Esq., FCA Assistant General Counsel
Monday, 04 January 2010
Good news! The Third District Court of Appeal held on December 2, 2009, in United Auto. Ins. Co. v. Professional Medical Group, Inc., a/a/o Gaston M. Botta, --- So.3d ---, 2009 WL 4281277 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009), that a provider’s failure to complete Box 31 or to send a properly completed SD&A form within 35 days, is not grounds for an insurer to deny PIP benefits when that information has been later remedied by the provider.
PIP 