Florida Injury Attorneys Blog
The State of Florida’s personal injury protection laws recently underwent a change effective January 1, 2014, and it is important to understand how these new regulations affect your rights. This coverage is also known as PIP coverage. The new PIP law, effective January 1, 2014, requires victims who are involved in motor vehicle accidents to seek medical treatment within fourteen (14) days in order to receive personal injury protection benefits. If you do not receive initial medical services and care within fourteen (14) days after your motor vehicle accident, you will not be entitled to any PIP benefits. What this means is that the $10,000.00 in coverage that you pay for with your insurance company will not be paid for at all if you do not obtain initial medical treatment or care within fourteen (14) days following a motor vehicle accident.
The new law also created two different amounts that can be reimbursed to an individual seeking PIP benefits depending on whether that person has been diagnosed with an emergency medical condition. If a physician, osteopathic physician, dentist, physician’s assistant, or advanced registered nurse practitioner has determined that the injured person has an emergency medical condition, then that person will be allowed to obtain the full $10,000.00 in PIP benefits. An emergency medical condition, or “EMC” for shorthand, is defined as a medical condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in serious jeopardy to patient health, serious impairment to bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of a body organ or part. An injured person who is not diagnosed with an emergency medical condition (EMC) will be limited to $2,500.00 in PIP benefits even though the injured persons pays for $10,000.00 in benefits through their insurance policy.
If you are injured in a motor vehicle accident, it is of vital importance to obtain medical treatment within fourteen (14) days and also contact a personal injury attorney such as Attorneys Jo Ann Hoffman & Vance B. Moore, P.A., within fourteen (14) days of your motor vehicle accident so that we can help protect your entitlement to PIP benefits.