Posted On: October 3, 2007, 12:14 pm CDT

Posted By: TPG

JG, interesting spin you have on the PIP situation in Florida. One thing that is commonly left out in pro-PIP individuals, like yourself, is the fact that Florida is one of only 12 states that require no-fault insurance. The other states are: Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah. There are also 3 states with "choice" no-fault: New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. I wonder how the other 35 states have lower auto insurance premiums and lower health insurance premiums. Furthermore, Liz is correct about flooding the court system with lawsuits. It is also interesting that you did not mention many medical providers go to billing seminars put on by plaintiffs lawyers who tell them that if an insurer is not cutting their bills then they are not charging enough. Then, these lawyers sue for the amount that the insurer reduced, collect that amount plus attorney fees sometimes in excess of $1,000.00 per hour. In conjunction with that, other plaintiff lawyers then submit to a jury the total amount billed as an economic basis to justify a larger verdict. You, being a provider, know that most bills submitted to a health insurer (not PIP) pay at a reduced contracted rate and the bills submitted in PIP or for a letter of protection are artificially inflated. Finally, defense lawyers that work on these cases are not nearly as well paid as the plaintiffs doing the same work. While the plaintiff lawyer may obtain more than $1,000.00 per hour (and usually at least $350 per hour), the defense lawyer will almost always be paid between $90 and $125 per hour. Defense lawyers are not getting rich off of this scheme, only medical professionals like yourself or plaintiff collection lawyers.