Among the provisions, the bills:

• Increase penalties for cheaters who illegally seek medical-clinic licenses
• Provide insurers more time to investigate suspicious claims
• Confirm that insurers have a right to conduct examination under oaths and independent medical exams to uncover potential fraud
• Require responding police to list all passengers involved in a crash
• The House bill also would create a state authority to investigate and prosecute auto-insurance fraud.

Sham clinics and staged-crash rings are mass-producing bogus injury claims. Large and often complex rings have spread rapidly throughout Florida beyond their traditional strongholds in the Miami area in recent years. The Sunshine State thus has become the nation's epicenter for these schemes.

No-fault fraud will add about $1 billion in costs to Florida's no-fault auto system by the end of 2011 if current trends continue, says the Insurance Information Institute. Fraud also imposes a "fraud tax" of nearly $100 on two-car families each year, the institute says.

"I am serious about putting these crooks behind bars and eager to implement reforms that will help reduce the fraud in our auto insurance market that is costing Floridians hundreds of dollars a year in increased premiums," said Jeff Atwater, Florida's Chief Financial Officer, who participates in the Sunshine Alliance.