NICB Congratulates Florida Governor and Legislature

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Mar 13, 2012, 05:36 ET

No-Fault Reform is a Reality

DES PLAINES, Ill., March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Last week, thanks to Governor Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and the Florida legislature, Florida passed a consensus bill that brought much needed reform to their no-fault auto insurance system. Although several attempts have been made over the years, all have come up short until last Friday.

With powerful advocates proposing and opposing reform, what was never contested was the damage wrought by the cottage industry of criminals that the no-fault system enabled and sustained.

At the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), we − and our Florida law enforcement partners − were the first to recognize the significance of this problem as we investigated and assisted in the prosecution, initially of individuals and then entire criminal organizations who migrated to and within Florida to steal their share of the state's no-fault bounty.

In 2002, NICB took the step of establishing our first Medical Fraud Task Force in Broward County to tackle fraud, which was rampant in south Florida. In 2010, we put a second task force in Hillsborough County to meet the demands of increased fraudulent activity in that region.

Our efforts, coupled with outstanding support from successive Florida administrations, state and local officials and NICB member insurance companies, made no-fault reform more than a catch phrase. NICB analysts, using information gleaned from hundreds of thousands of insurance claims and investigations, produced numerous reports alerting citizens across Florida—indeed the nation—to just how pervasive this fraud has been and how it was adding to the cost of insurance that consumers were required to obtain.

In addition to NICB staff, efforts by Florida state and local law enforcement, legislators and regulatory officials, and the news media's reporting on this problem certainly elevated public awareness of no-fault fraud.

Not everyone got everything they wanted in this legislation, but there is no denying that what we did get was more than we have ever received in terms of no-fault reform. This is a not the end of PIP reform; this is just the beginning. With the goal of delivering additional reform as necessary to rid the no-fault system of fraud, Florida is setting a timely example of what can be achieved when parties cooperate to solve real problems.

About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $319 billion in insurance premiums in 2010, or approximately 80 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 94 percent ($152 billion) of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.

SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau