SILVER PLUMBING AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND MERCANTILE REASSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLANTS,
v.
STEPHEN GERVIN, M.D., (ARNOLD SOMMER, EMPLOYEE), APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court affirmed a deputy commissioner's order requiring an employer/carrier to pay a physician's balance due on medical bills with 12% interest, but amended the interest calculation and declined to address attorney fees pending a final determination.
An employer/carrier must pay the balance due on a physician's medical bill with 12% interest calculated from the date of the deputy commissioner's order, even when the carrier timely paid the fee-schedule amount and contested only the excess.
[1] An employer/carrier that timely pays the fee-schedule portion of a physician's bill while contesting only the excess amount must pay the balance due with prejudgment inte…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceArnold Sommer's employer and workers' compensation carrier (Silver Plumbing and its reassurance company) timely paid Dr. Stephen Gervin's fee-schedule…
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PER CURIAM.
This cause is before us on appeal from a final judgment of the deputy commissioner directing the employer/carrier to pay claimant’s physician the balance due on his bill, including interest at 12 percent, and to pay the physician’s attorney “reasonable attorney’s fees, the exact dollar amount to be determined in a separate proceeding.” We affirm the portion of the deputy’s order awarding payment of the balance due on the medical bill. We amend the deputy’s order to award interest at 12 percent on the sum of $2,957.50 from the ninth day of March, 1983, the date the deputy’s order was rendered. We distinguish Zafrilla. v. Volare Shoes, Inc., 394 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), in that in Zafrilla the doctors’ and hospital bills were unpaid by the employer/carrier during the more than six years the claim was contested; in the instant case, the employer/carrier timely paid the schedule amount, contesting only the amount of the bill in excess of the fee schedule.
With regard to the deputy’s award of attorney fees, the parties agree that this matter is not properly before the court at this time. We therefore decline to decide the question, without prejudice to the parties’ right to obtain review of this issue by timely appeal from a final order awarding attorney fees.
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., BOOTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
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Citator
Cited By
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Dixie Transp., Inc. v. Kellom, 507 So. 2d 757 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987)…new benefits, at which claimant orally sought re-adjudication of liability for the 1976 medical costs in question which “at that time had not been, nor [*758] have they yet been, according to the record, submitted ... for payment or reimbursement.” 439 So. 2d 990. The final conclusion was that “the claim for past medical is barred.” That conclusion by this court can clearly rest on grounds other than the statutory defense, i.e., total absence of the required bills in evidence, the interim acceptance of other…
Authorities Cited
- Marina Lastra Zafrilla v. Volare Shoes, Inc., 394 So. 2d 146 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)