41 Fla. L. Weekly D335b
183 So. 3d 489
Insurance — Personal injury protection — Deductible — Emergency services provider — Circuit court erroneously found that emergency services provider that submitted its bill within thirty-day window contemplated by statute was entitled to have its bill paid regardless of existence of deductible in insured’s insurance contract
PROGRESSIVE SELECT INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. FLORIDA EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS, ET AL., Respondents. 5th District. Case No. 5D15-3718. Opinion filed February 5, 2016. Petition for Certiorari Review of Decision from the Circuit Court for Orange County, Acting in its Appellate Capacity. Counsel: Douglas H. Stein, of Seipp, Flick & Hosley, LLP, Coral Gables, for Petitioner. Dean A. Mitchell, Ocala, for Respondents.
(PER CURIAM.) Progressive Select Insurance Company (“Progressive”) seeks certiorari review of a final order of the circuit court, sitting in its appellate capacity. The circuit court affirmed the county court’s ruling that, under our PIP statute, a provider of emergency services, such as Florida’s Emergency Physicians (“FEP”), that timely submits its bill within the thirty-day window contemplated by section 627.736(4)(c), Florida Statutes (2012), is entitled to have its bill paid, regardless of the existence of a deductible in the insured’s insurance contract.1
In Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Company v. Emergency Physicians of Central Florida, LLP, 178 So. 3d 927 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015), and Mercury Insurance Co. v. Emergency Physicians of Central Florida, 40 Fla. L. Weekly D2364 (Fla. 5th DCA Oct. 16, 2015), we have recently rejected this position and quashed identical orders. As in Metropolitan Casualty and Mercury Insurance, we grant the writ and quash the circuit court’s order.
PETITION for WRIT OF CERTIORARI GRANTED; ORDER QUASHED. (ORFINGER, BERGER, and LAMBERT, JJ., concur.)
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1In this case, Progressive first applied the insured’s $250 deductible to FEP’s claim and paid FEP the net balance it was entitled to receive under section 627.736(1)(a), Florida Statutes (2012).