34 Fla. L. Weekly D1819a
20 So. 3d 889
Insurance — Personal injury protection — It was improper to strike a peer review report supporting insurer’s denial of insured’s claim on the ground that the report was created more than thirty days after the insured submitted its claim — Section 627.736(4)(b) does not apply to claims for unrelated, unreasonable, or unnecessary treatment, and insurer may challenge such treatment at any time, and is permitted to rely on a report, obtained pursuant to section 627.736(7)(a), even if the report is obtained more than thirty days after the claim was submitted
UNITED AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. MED-PROUD GENERAL PRACTICE, A/A/O Pedro A. Torres, Respondent. 3rd District. Case No. 3D09-1687. L.T. Case No. 08-017. September 2, 2009. A Writ of Certiorari to the Circuit Court, for Miami-Dade County, Sarah I. Zabel, Julio E. Jimenez, and Dava J. Tunis, JJ. Counsel: Thomas L. Hunker, for petitioner. Stuart B. Yanofksy, for respondent.
[Editor’s note: Circuit court order published at 16 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 618a.]
(Before GERSTEN and CORTIÑAS JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.)
(PER CURIAM.) The insurer, United Automobile Insurance Company (“United”), petitions for a writ of certiorari to review a county court’s order, affirmed by the circuit court, striking a peer review report supporting United’s denial of an insured’s claim.
When, on November 8, 2006, the county court struck the report because it was created more than thirty days after the insured submitted its claim, and when, on May 4, 2009, the circuit court affirmed the trial court’s order, the courts were operating without the benefit of this Court’s decision in United Automobile Insurance Co. v. Millennium Diagnostic Imaging Center, Inc., 12 So. 3d 242 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). In Millennium, we answered the very question confronted by the trial court in this case and contrary to the trial court, concluded
that the thirty-day time period set forth in section 627.736(4)(b) does not apply to claims for unrelated, unreasonable, or unnecessary treatment. Therefore, an insurer may challenge such treatment at any time, and is permitted to rely on a report, obtained pursuant to section 627.736(7)(a), even if the report is obtained more than thirty days after the claim was submitted.
Id. at 246.
Accordingly, we grant the petition for a writ of certiorari, quash the order striking the peer review report, and remand to the county court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
