When you get involved in a road accident, the difference between getting the right treatment, and suffering huge losses, lies on whether or not you have health insurance or whether or not your car accident attorney is able to properly garner a settlement for you. In road accident cases, two of the most commonly used accident coverages are Medical Payments (MedPay) and Personal Injury Protection (PIP).
Personal Injury Protection
Personal injury protection is an automobile insurance coverage that reimburses road accident victims for the expenses incurred when seeking medical assistance and catering for lost income as a result of the road accident. PIP is different from any other form of health insurance, primarily because you don’t have to prove that the other driver was at fault. Additionally, the claims start at a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000. What you should bear in mind, however, is the fact that the level of claim lodged is different in each state. In Texas, personal injury protection (PIP) insurance is mandatory, unless you sign a waiver declining the coverage. Texas requires that every driver is offered at least $2,500 of PIP insurance, but you can typically obtain coverage for $5,000 or $10,000 if you want additional financial protection. The policy limit extends to each person injured in an accident, and it refers to the total amount of benefits available across all expenses. So, if you and your spouse were involved in a car accident, and you had $5,000 of PIP insurance in place, your insurance would cover up to $5,000 in expenses for you and $5,000 in expenses for your spouse. If you had broken your leg and were taken to the hospital, that $5,000 could be used for an ambulance trip, receiving X-rays and having your leg treated, but that would be the maximum amount of money available from your PIP coverage across all costs.
Therefore, it is extremely important that you have the required information when lodging a reimbursement claim. Additionally, hiring an experienced car accident attorney can be of great help in maximizing your claim and getting the compensation that you deserve.
Medical Coverage Payment
Medical Payments is similar to PIP, with the sole difference being the fact that it does not cover any expenses such as lost wages emanating from a road accident. This may be a disadvantage to people who may be out of work for months recuperating from an accident. It is therefore advisable to have both types of coverage as one can be used to cater for the accident expenses, while the other can be used to cater for miscellaneous costs such as those related to lost wages.
Drivers with these two types of insurance coverage can use either of them to get the medical bills covered. On the other hand, drivers without these types of insurance can still use any other form of health insurance coverage, even though they will be required to pay more.
Medical payment coverage typically allows the insurance company to claim a subrogation lean against most additional recoveries, which the injured person might obtain from their car accident case. That is the bad news. The good news is that a car accident attorney can often get that subrogation lean reduced, which can allow the car accident victim to recover larger net proceeds.
The Subrogation Clause
A good number of health insurance plans have a subrogation clause which states that if the insurance owner is owed money related to reimbursement of healthcare costs, then the mandated insurance company is entitled to recoup that money to cater for its expenses. PIP coverage plans fall under this category, and therefore, it is highly advisable to use its allotments before embarking on getting coverage from your health insurance provider. You can also save yourself considerable time by putting your health insurance provider in contact with your car insurance company. These companies will get in touch with each other, and they will decide what to pay or who to pay. If you have a different source of funds such as health insurance and PIP, you will pay less in deductibles, as compared to having only one insurance plan. This can get extremely complicated and frustrating, so having an experienced car accident attorney assisting you with this process is paramount.
While MedPay and PIP can cater for your medical expenses, both of them serve a different purpose. Therefore, it is highly advisable to consider adding an extra coverage plan to your car insurance coverage.
If you have been involved in a car accident and you don’t know what to do next, you can call our law offices today at any of our convenient locations and get a free consultation from an experienced car accident attorney.
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