BestWeek: Another PIP Reform Fight Looms in Florida

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OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fighting no-fault automobile insurance fraud in Florida has been like fighting a wildfire. Put out one fire, another flares up elsewhere. Since a 2000 grand jury report on fraud and abuse in the system, the legislature has enacted anti-fraud provisions in 2002, 2003 and 2007, but those efforts have failed to curb personal injury protection costs. Now another effort to reform the system is underway, according a story in the latest edition of BestWeek U.S./Canada.

There has been a cycle “in which you have some relief when the legislature acts, then more loopholes, more abuse, and again back to the legislative effort,” said Peter Kinzler, former president of the Coalition for Auto-Insurance Reform, who has co-authored a paper on Florida’s no-fault system. “It’s very disappointing that they have not been able to rein in the fraud and the extra utilization.”

In BestWeek Europe, the Arab Spring protests that have shaken a number of governments in the Middle East/North Africa region have altered insurers’ prospects throughout the region, according to a report by A.M. Best Co. In its latest country risk issue review, A.M. Best noted the International Monetary Fund recently published revised economic growth forecasts for the MENA region, which would indicate an impact on insurance market growth.

Also, in BestWeek, A.M. Best Co. is updating its methodology for alternative risk transfer vehicles, including captive insurers, in a criteria report supplementing the Rating Captives section of Best’s Credit Rating Methodology - Global Life and Non-Life Insurance Edition. The new methodology is likely to be finalized in 45 to 60 days. Steven M. Chirico, assistant vice president at A.M. Best and co-author of the report, said there are a couple of new elements to the methodology, but no substantive changes. Two main disclosures have been added for ART vehicles.

BestWeek Europe also features an A.M. Best briefing on the economic situation in Europe and how it might impact insurers. A.M. Best Co. has performed additional stress tests of the balance sheets of insurers’ exposure to eurozone debt as economic conditions within the region continue to worsen. Findings of these evaluations are discussed in the recently published analytical briefing “A.M. Best’s Additional Stress Testing in Light of European Economic Uncertainty.”

BestWeek is published by A.M. Best Co. for insurance professionals. To subscribe, visit www.ambest.com/sales/BestWeek.

Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Co. is the world’s oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2011 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

A.M. Best Co.Caroline Saucer, 908-439-2200, ext. 5774[email protected]

Source: A.M. Best Co.

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