One Florida County Takes a Stand Against Fraudulent Medical Clinics
Most drivers that live in the state of Florida know that their state has an issue with medical clinics that aid clinics in auto insurance fraud claims. The state is trying to fix the problem but they are dragging their feet so many local counties have decided to take the reins and address the problem themselves.
One such Florida County is Hillsborough County. They have decided that they will use a new ordinance to help get rid of medical clinics that commit auto insurance fraud. This is a bold but necessary move by the county.
The Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners took a vote and now it is an ordinance that a medical clinic that treats a lot of automobile accident victims must get a county license. This will help the county be able to oversee what is going on at the medical clinic so that they can help to weed out the true medical clinics from those that are only engaging in auto insurance fraud.
The county needed to take action quickly because they are losing money. The county has lost more than fifteen million dollars due to fraudulent auto insurance claims, which equates to about $350 per person in the county in higher insurance premiums each year.
In the last three years the number of fake automobile accidents has increased by approximately 166 percent in the county. The county now has 158 medical clinics that treat automobile accident victims so it needed to find a way to prevent the problem from escalating. This type of insurance fraud is very lucrative for both the medical clinics and the criminals involved. They just fake an automobile accident by intentionally hitting another driver and then filing an insurance claim.
The person then goes to a medical clinic and says that they were treated there. The medical clinic provides forged documents for services that they did not give the patient and they both split the proceeds. It happens every single day in Florida, which is why Hillsborough County will probably not be the last county in the state to take such action.
If a medical clinic does not obey the ordinance then they could face up to two months in jail and a $500 fine. Many people are skeptical if medical clinics that are committing fraud will shut down to avoid detection. Insurance fraud is quite lucrative for them so they might just decide to pay a fine and try their luck at continuing with their scheme.
Hopefully the ordinance can begin to stop not only medical clinics from committing insurance fraud but people from staging accidents. Many auto insurance agents have had to close their businesses because of the ripple effects of the fraud. If people cannot afford their monthly insurance premiums then they will no longer be visiting insurance agents to write them insurance policies. People who know of medical clinics that commit fraud should contact their insurance commissioner so that an investigation can be started as soon as possible.
Source:
Claims Journal
