The Senate — mired in hours of contentious debate just a day earlier — quickly approved an auto insurance fix on Wednesday and sent it over to the House.
The 39-1 vote came without debate.
Before the vote was taken, the Senate took its version of the bill dealing with personal injury protection and placed in on HB 119.
The move means that the House and Senate remain at odds over how to deal with PIP, the mandatory $10,000 worth of insurance coverage that all Florida motorists must purchase.
The House measure as initially approved allows insurance companies to use examinations under oath to help ferret out fraud while the Senate version did not. The House bill also required patients to seek care within seven days while the Senate bill allows patients 14 days to seek care.
Gov. Rick Scott has pushed lawmakers to enact an auto insurance fix this year, saying that the existing system is rife with fraud and is pushing up auto insurance premiums.
But a push by Scott and House Republicans to place caps on attorney fees involved with PIP lawsuits has been resisted by Senate Republicans. Two times on Tuesday the Senate approved an amendment to its auto insurance bill that keeps intact a law that allows attorneys to have their fees multiplied for taking on complex personal injury protection cases.
Information from The Florida Current
Leave Your Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
