TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's no-fault auto insurance system would return Jan. 1 under a bill passed Friday by the Legislature, relieving some of the confusion over the state's requirements for motorists to have medical coverage.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill to bring the system back after the House had passed it 105-4 earlier in the day. The measure now goes to Gov. Charlie Crist, who is expected to sign it.

The measure restores the requirement that drivers in Florida purchase $10,000 worth of personal injury protection coverage, and resumes a no-fault system that protects motorists from being sued in most cases after an accident.

"By taking action on Florida's no-fault law and personal injury protection requirements, we ensure that Florida's drivers continue to be protected while also reducing the possibility of fraud," Crist said in a statement released by his office.

The requirement that drivers have the coverage had been in place for about three decades before the law expired Monday. Some large car insurance companies pushed for the system's demise because it has been riddled with fraud, with few controls over what the insurance would cover.

But hospitals and other medical providers have worried that without the requirement, they would be on the hook for millions of dollars in care costs for crash victims who don't have health insurance.

"This was incredibly important," said Tony Carvalho who represents hospitals with trauma centers as president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida. "All hospitals would have been affected (if PIP hadn't returned) but trauma centers would have had a much greater increase in uncompensated care."

Over the summer and in special session this week, lawmakers devised a proposal to restore the system, but with new anti-fraud controls. Among those are restrictions on what procedures will be covered and who can be reimbursed for care in an effort to preclude claims by fly-by-night clinics.

The House and Senate had differed over whether the measure should also limit fees for lawyers in cases where drivers and their insurer disagree over whether a claim should be paid. The House wanted to limit lawyers' fees; the Senate didn't.

Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said negotiators worked overnight Friday and decided to remove lawyer fee caps from the House bill, rather than risk scrapping the system. Senate leaders had said lawyer fee caps would kill the bill.

Bogdanoff said the House could fight for more limits on lawyers another time. But for now, "we have a product that's going to go a long way to eliminate the abuse and the fraud in the system," she said.

Under the bill (HB 13C), there would be no requirement for drivers to have the coverage between now and Jan. 1. Until then, if there's an accident and any driver involved doesn't have coverage, there will be the possibility of a lawsuit to determine who is at fault to determine who will pay damages.

Many drivers will continue to have the coverage in the interim, even though it won't be required. That coverage could still cover injuries, but they won't have protection from a lawsuit if they're in an accident with a driver without PIP.