Reader question:

How does health insurance relate to PIP car insurance coverage in an at fault state?

Melanie

Great question, Melanie.

PIP car insurance coverage, or personal injury protection, is the kind of coverage with your insurance policy that takes care of the injuries of the at fault driver. For the driver who is not at fault, this is usually taken care of by the liability of the at fault driver or, failing that, their own under insured/uninsured motorist coverage.

Whenever you get into a car accident and are injured in the process, and you seek medical care, there will be no question about the time of your car insurance coverage. Even if you do possess PIP car insurance coverage, the health care providers have nothing to do this. They take care of your wounds and then send the check to the place that the check should in most cases go: your health insurance provider. Now, if you don’t have a health insurance plan, then they do the next best thing and send the check to you yourself. Note that this doesn’t mean that you have to pay it yourself.

Once your health insurance company gets the bill, they will send you some questions to fill out. It will request information on things such as the location and circumstances of the collision, the name of the police officer who filed the accident report, and, most importantly, whether your car insurance company provides you with personal injury protection coverage.

If you check yes for the last question, then the health insurance company gets a Notice of Subrogation and sends it off to your car insurance company. If you don’t have that insurance, and you aren’t the at fault driver, then they will send the notice to the other driver’s car insurance company. Also, if you have a lawyer, then your lawyer will get a notice as well.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.