OAIN: Fla. Senate's Auto Insurance Reform Bill Less Drastic than House's
Miami, FL, February 07, 2012 --(PR.com)-- A Florida Senate committee gave the initial go-ahead last week to a bill that aims to reform the state’s no-fault system by making changes that include requiring medical facilities to be licensed before getting reimbursed and eliminating coverage for certain treatments, Online Auto Insurance News reports.
Two separate bills are now circulating through the Legislature in the hopes that reforms to personal injury protection (PIP) coverage will help make the auto insurance Florida drivers are required to carry more affordable.
Both the bills contain provisions that would help combat fraud by instituting stricter billing practices, reducing coverage and requiring police to fill out long-form reports after crashes.
But the Senate bill, SB 1860, reduces coverage less severely than does the House bill, HB 119.
If HB 119 is signed into law, PIP coverage would basically be gutted and replaced by emergency care coverage (ECC). Under ECC, policyholders would have to go to an emergency room in order to have the visit covered, and the policy would only pay for treatment of emergency conditions that are diagnosed in the emergency room within 72 hours of a crash.
SB 1860, on the other hand, would maintain a broader range of coverages. Instead of wiping out all coverage except for emergency conditions, it would eliminate coverage for rehabilitative massage and acupuncture and would limit the types of facilities that can be reimbursed through a PIP policy to those that are licensed clinics, hospitals, surgical centers, dentists and chiropractors. Clinics wholly owned by hospitals would also be eligible for reimbursement.
Source: http://www.floridasenate.gov/
The House bill has already gained the approval from two committees and needs the approval from only one more before it can go to the full House for a vote. Both of the committee votes were split.
The Senate bill has gained approval from only the Banking and Insurance Committee so far. Committee members voted unanimously to advance the bill.
To learn more about this and other Sunshine State insurance issues, you can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/florida/ to access informative resource pages and a quote-comparison generator that can help users find the best rates for coverage.
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Two separate bills are now circulating through the Legislature in the hopes that reforms to personal injury protection (PIP) coverage will help make the auto insurance Florida drivers are required to carry more affordable.
Both the bills contain provisions that would help combat fraud by instituting stricter billing practices, reducing coverage and requiring police to fill out long-form reports after crashes.
But the Senate bill, SB 1860, reduces coverage less severely than does the House bill, HB 119.
If HB 119 is signed into law, PIP coverage would basically be gutted and replaced by emergency care coverage (ECC). Under ECC, policyholders would have to go to an emergency room in order to have the visit covered, and the policy would only pay for treatment of emergency conditions that are diagnosed in the emergency room within 72 hours of a crash.
SB 1860, on the other hand, would maintain a broader range of coverages. Instead of wiping out all coverage except for emergency conditions, it would eliminate coverage for rehabilitative massage and acupuncture and would limit the types of facilities that can be reimbursed through a PIP policy to those that are licensed clinics, hospitals, surgical centers, dentists and chiropractors. Clinics wholly owned by hospitals would also be eligible for reimbursement.
Source: http://www.floridasenate.gov/
The House bill has already gained the approval from two committees and needs the approval from only one more before it can go to the full House for a vote. Both of the committee votes were split.
The Senate bill has gained approval from only the Banking and Insurance Committee so far. Committee members voted unanimously to advance the bill.
To learn more about this and other Sunshine State insurance issues, you can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/florida/ to access informative resource pages and a quote-comparison generator that can help users find the best rates for coverage.
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Contact
Online Auto Insurance
Benjamin Zitney
909-784-2475
http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/
Benjamin Zitney
909-784-2475
http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/
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