Chiropractors Demand Missing Payments From Insurance Companies

Out in South Florida, many chiropractors have recently come together to file a class action lawsuit claims against their insurers, claiming that the insurance companies of their patients applied a reduction to the reimbursement amount given for treatments of motor injuries.  However, this systematically-applied reduction in premiums supposedly violates Florida’s no-fault motor vehicle insurance law according to the class action lawsuit claims, according to the party of chiropractors in this case.

The Plaintiffs filing the class action lawsuit include Tower Health Center Inc., Coastal Wellness Centers Inc., and Plantation Spinal Care Center.  The defendants being targets consist of Geico insurance, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., Allstate Property, Esurance Property, Casualty Insurance Co., and other Progressive insurance entities.  The filed claims allege that violations pertaining to injured patients of motor vehicle accidents who owned personal injury protection insurances who were given their coverage rights and benefits only after receiving the treatments.  This meant that the insurance companies skipped over paying the chiropractors who provided the treatment to said motor vehicle accident victims.

The plaintiffs request that the Florida courts issue an injunction against the insurance entities to stop their alleged illegal practices as well as have monetary damages awarded to in the amount of the total missing payments to the chiropractors.

In the state of Florida, the personal injury protection statute explicitly states that insurers are allowed to cap its reimbursement amount at “80 percent of 200 percent of the allowable amount under the participating physician’s fee schedule of Medicare Part B.”  However, according the plaintiffs, the insurance entities only used 98 percent of the allowable amount in their calculations systematically. The 2 percent reimbursement reduction missing from the chiropractic service payments resulted in a total of over $50 million in costs that the plaintiffs were missing and should be rewarded as a class-action monetary relief.

In addition to monetary relief, the cases presented by the plaintiffs request for the “certification of classes of all Florida health care providers who were assignees of the respective companies’ policyholders” from October 2012 up through to the present as a result of the allegedly improper reimbursement reductions.  It should be noted, as it is by a personal injury lawyer, that the actual size of the class being sought for the lawsuit has not been calculated clearly, but the plaintiffs do take note that thousands of Florida residents own motor vehicle personal injury insurance from the accused defendant party members.