Jeff Atwater Heart Insurance Companies

Florida CFO Jeff Atwater has formed a PIP Fraud Commission. Here is the kicker: Atwater claims that pip fraud cases increased by 290 percent in Tampa in 2009.

PIP fraud accounts for more than 40 percent of Florida's annual insurance fraud referrals and according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Florida has three of the top five cities nationally for questionable claims associated with staged accidents - Tampa, Miami and Orlando. In 2009, Tampa experienced a 290-percent increase in questionable claims related to staged or caused accidents.

The study was done by the very official sounding National Insurance Crime Bureau. One would think that the NICB is a law enforcement or government agency. The truth is it is an organization was created by the insurance industry. The United Automobile Insurance Company blog published the findings of the NICB report.

Tampa had 487 questionable claims related to staged or caused accidents in 2009, a 290 percent increase over the previous year.

Miami had 258 questionable claims, an 11 percent increase year to year.

Orlando had 240 questionable claims, a 24 percent increase.

South Florida was a hotbed of staged crashes, according to the bureau. While the Miami and Hialeah areas continue to show increased activity, criminal have moved north and Tampa Bay is now the center of this crime trend.

Apparently, there are criminal masterminds that buy cars, insurance and then stage crashes so they can fight insurance companies over the next few years for personal injury payments. What a brilliant plan!

We are also to believe that there are crime rings that stage car accidents and have migrated to Tampa like birds. The actually NICB study PDF can be found googling the words "290 percent pip florida national insurance crime bureau tampa." The report cites no outside sources or police records of accidents. The report also doesn't explain the methodology it used to come to its conclusions. How exactly can there be 487 cases of accident fraud and only in St Petersburg? Are we to believe that St. Petersburg residents are more upstanding citizens.

The insurance industry protects their bottom line by paying off as few claims as possible. I don't believe for a second the NICB report is legitimate. The question is why is Atwater citing this report? The insurance industry gave $218,150 to Atwater's campaign. It seems Atwater knows how to protect his bottom line.

Florida Legislature Going Nowhere On PIP

Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff is going to put forward an amendment that PIP insurance would not come into effect until Feb. 15, 2008. Your Florida legislature working hard at delaying decisions.

Charlie Crist: Decider Man on PIP

Excuse me, but Charlie Crist forcing the Florida legislature to act on PIP insurance is not a profile in courage. Crist should have done this before PIP elapsed.

Florida - The Florida No-Fault Law is no more. As of Midnight, October 1st the law expired and there's no guarantee that doing away with it will save drivers any money. That was part of the argument for getting rid of the law. But WINK News found out, without the no-fault law drivers may have to pay extra for medical expenses, liability coverage, lost wages and may even get sued for causing an accident.

"At midnight you're telling me I'm no longer covered, that's crazy," said Driver Jamie Davis.

Crazy, indeed.

The lack of PIP insurance will increase lawsuits for people looking to cover injury and auto damage costs. Crist never cared about PIP. For him to act like he does is dishonest. He was asked about extending PIP by the St. Petersburg Times editorial staff. His answer left many people shocked.

"But I didn't run for governor thinking about PIP. I really didn't. I ran for governor to protect Florida, to try to help consumers, to help education. This was not foremost in my mind.

This wasn't a priority for the legislature. The St. Petersburg Times reports Crist had to persuade "reluctant legislators to devote time in this week's special session to resurrecting the state's no-fault auto insurance laws." Crist and the legislature are so beholden to the insurance industry. They finally came to the realization that, doing the insurance industry's bidding, by letting PIP expire would be extremely unpopular. The industry will just have to settle for writing the legislation themselves.

Johnnie Byrd was right. The Florida legislature is nothing more than a bunch of sheep. Howard Troxler says as much in his latest column. I'm not about to disagree.

PIP Update

Marco Rubio and Ken Pruitt are "discussing" whether or not to hold a special session on PIP insurance. There is a proposal that should make insurance companies happy.

Details of the deal appear to this: Extend current PIP system until end of the year, while adopting a new system on Jan. 1. It would place limits on certain types of utilization: For example, no reimbursements for clinics unless ordered by a doctor, or if the clinic has been licensed for at least 3 years, or has a medical director. The bill would allocate $2 million for fraud prosecutors.

Details are scant about how citizens will be affected. That isn't Rubio's and Pruitt's most pressing concern. The insurance industry contributed to both men. Priorities come first. These two should reach a PIP deal sometime in the middle of 2008.

PIP & Cat Fund Madness

Governor Charlie Crist admitted he had no interest in using his political clout to extend PIP insurance. PIP elapsed and that has created a crisis with the Catastrophe Fund. Money from liability insurance premiums is used to fund the CAT.

Personal injury protection insurance lines account for 7 percent or $2.5-billion of a total of $37-billion a year in assessable premium dollars in Florida. All auto insurance lines account for 40 percent of the state's assessment base or more than $14-billion of the $37-billion assessable base.

The CAT Fund was created to lower hurricane insurance premiums. Insurance companies responded by increasing premium rates. Now the state is on the hook for $37 billion during a budget crisis. The state is borrowing $5.2 billion and hoping the federal government will bail them out after a hurricane.

I like to hear conservatives explain how more tax cuts will solve the problem. The market didn't take care of itself. The state bent over backwards to take the brunt of financial burden. Insurance companies finally got what they wanted by ending PIP. Why then is everything a mess. I like economic illiterate social conservatives at Peer Review explain this to me.

The worst thing that happens to conservatism is when they get what they want.

Charlie Crist & PIP

Charlie Crist on PIP (Personal Injury Protection) insurance.

"Probably not. I would like it to be extended. I would sign it if it were extended. I think $10,000 worth of coverage is better than none.

"But I didn't run for governor thinking about PIP. I really didn't. I ran for governor to protect Florida, to try to help consumers, to help education. This was not foremost in my mind.

Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt and Marco Rubio called off the Sept. 18 special session. PIP was one of the issues that was to be debated. Now it appears likely to PIP will sunset. A Florida Today op-ed said, "Gov. Charlie Crist says he wants to keep PIP alive, but hasn't taken any responsibility for making it happen." That is being generous.

There maybe another explanation for Crist's lack of action. Trial lawyers and insurance companies heavily contributed to his 2006 campaign. Insurance companies want to get rid of no-fault insurance. This would result in more lawsuits from car accidents. Which would benefit attorneys. All this benefits his base.

Crist is certainly capable of making bad policy decisions to help supporters. He appointed fundraiser Ron Bergeron to the Wildlife Conservation Commission. Bergeron is a developer best known for wrestling a gator and losing.

It is not a stretch to think that Crist wants PIP to sunset.