– A letter of protection (LOP) is an agreement between a patient and a medical provider, where the provider agrees to treat the patient without immediate payment, in anticipation of receiving payment from a lawsuit settlement or judgment.
– LOPs are commonly used in Florida due to the 80% coverage of accident-related medical bills by Florida PIP insurance, leaving 20% of the bill outstanding.
– LOPs may lead to higher medical bills as providers may charge differently than they would with patients who have health insurance, potentially inflating the overall value of economic damages in a lawsuit. 1. Plaintiff’s attorneys may negotiate the amounts payable to medical providers after recovery in personal injury suits.
2. High medical charges are used as evidence of damages in these cases, despite the fact that the amounts billed will be drastically reduced and paid following any recovery.
3. Plaintiff attorneys and medical providers often have ongoing business relationships, making it difficult to uncover information concerning this relationship.
4. The Florida Supreme Court found that the attorney-client privilege protects a party from being required to disclose that his or her attorney referred the party to a physician for treatment. – In Florida, the collateral source rule requires jury awards for medical damages to be reduced by the amount paid or available from all collateral sources.
– Contractual discounts fit within the statutory definition of collateral sources, and the negotiated decreased amount is used for the set-off.
– Health insurance payments and other sources of compensation do not affect the defendant’s liability under the collateral source rule in Florida. – Letters of protection are often used in litigation to secure medical treatment for a plaintiff with the understanding that the medical provider will be paid from any settlement or judgment in the case.
– They are utilized by plaintiff attorneys to manipulate and utilize medical charges at trial in order to increase settlements and judgments.
– The case of Joerg v. State Farm, 176 So. 3d 1247, 1249 (Fla. 2015) cited Gobel v Froham, 901 So. 2d 830, 833 (Fla. 2001) in discussing the use of letters of protection in personal injury litigation.
https://roiglawyers.com/insights/personal-injury-protection/understanding-florida-letters-of-protection-lop/
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