Volume 26

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 661a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2608AVERInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Amount

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 41b

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2601SANTInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Contingency risk multiplier of 1.50 is awarded to medical provider

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 41a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2601GREEInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Amount

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 24a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2601BURKInsurance — Attorney’s fees — Amount — Reasonable hourly rate

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 501a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2606ROJEInsurance — Personal injury protection — Coverage — Emergency services — Deductible — Insurer improperly processed bill of emergency medical provider by applying deductible to bills out of order of receipt — Standing — Assignment of benefits to “Facility and/or the Provider” confers standing on emergency room physicians — Insurer cannot dispute reasonableness of charge after it allows full amount of charge pursuant to statutory fee schedule when applying charge to deductible

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 504a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2606MIRAInsurance — Personal injury protection — Coverage — Emergency services — Deductible — Insurer improperly processed provider’s medical bills by applying PIP deductible to the bills out of order of receipt — Standing — Language of assignment was sufficient to convey standing to plaintiff to pursue payment for treatment rendered to insured — Moreover, issue was waived where insurer’s corporate representative testified that insurer was not disputing plaintiff’s standing — Exhaustion of benefits — Statute and language of policy at issue required insurer to reserve $5000 for protected providers such as plaintiff, and any payments made to non-protected providers from the reserve fund during the thirty-day reserve period are considered gratuitous — Reasonable, related, and necessary treatment — Deposition of insurer’s corporate representative confirmed that insurer was not disputing relatedness and necessity of services provided to insured — Insurer deemed plaintiff’s charges to be reasonable as evidenced by fact that it allowed plaintiff’s bill at 100% of the charged amount pursuant to schedule of maximum charges, and insurer admitted that it determined plaintiff’s charge to be reasonable in its answer to plaintiff’s request for admissions — Summary judgment granted in favor of plaintiff

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 619a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2608JRIVInsurance — Personal injury protection — Standing — Validity of assignment — There is no distinction between a direction to pay and an assignment of benefits for purposes of standing, and language indicating that an insured is assigning “any and all causes of action” is not required — Error to dismiss for lack of standing due to insured’s apparent mistake of assigning benefits to himself on contract with provider — Insured’s mistake, at most, creates an ambiguous assignment and a court may not engage in contractual interpretation at the motion to dismiss stage

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 147a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2602COMMInsurance — Personal injury protection — Standing — Assignment — Validity — Document assigning right to receive payment of PIP benefits also bestows on medical provider right to enforce any claims to those benefits — Insurer’s motion for summary judgment in regards to standing is denied

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 516a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2606VIENInsurance — Personal injury protection — Coverage — Medical expenses — Independent medical examinations — Failure to attend — Where medical provider has filed no evidence to rebut presumption that insured’s failure to attend two IMEs was unreasonable, insurer is no longer liable for subsequent PIP benefits — No merit to argument that insured was not required to submit to chiropractic IME where treatment was provided by medical doctors — Standing — “Irrevocable Medical Lien” is not assignment of benefits — Purported assignment furnished at summary judgment hearing is not considered where document was not timely provided to insurer’s counsel — Where insured unreasonably failed to submit to IMEs, provider’s bills were not overdue, demand letter was premature and invalid, and provider failed to satisfy condition precedent to suit

26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 333a

Online Reference: FLWSUPP 2604PATHNOT FINAL VERSION OF OPINION
Subsequent Changes at 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 521bInsurance — Personal injury protection — Standing — Assignment — Motion for judgment on pleadings based on medical provider’s lack of standing under assignment that is in name of entity that merged into provider after execution of assignment is granted where allegations about merger are not included in complaint and provider failed to move to amend complaint to include such allegations — No merit to argument that difference in name of assignee is latent ambiguity in assignment that would allow court to consider extrinsic evidence to interpret it — Matters outside pleadings cannot be considered in ruling on motion for judgment on pleadings, and there is no ambiguity in identification of parties to assignment