Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Benefits

It is very important that if you are in a car accident, that you direct your personal injury protection (PIP) benefits in a way that benefits you, and not your medical providers.PIP, which is sometimes referred to as no fault coverage, basic reparations benefits (BRB), or medpay, depending on your location, is coverage you pay for through your auto insurance. When you are in a car accident, your auto insurance company is responsible for the first $10,000 (or more if you ask for more when you buy your policy) of medical expenses.

Medical providers typically only receive a small percentage of their billed amounts from health insurance companies. When they bill your PIP coverage through your auto insurance, they receive dollar for dollar reimbursement. For example, in a recent case, a client had an emergency room bill for over $16,000.00. We directed PIP not to pay and provided the health insurance information to the hospital. The health insurance company only paid about $2,500.00. This reduction was due to contractual agreements that the health insurance carrier makes with the hospital. If that bill had gone to my client’s auto insurance, the $10,000 would have been exhausted.

Instead of allowing the hospital to exhaust the PIP benefits I sent the bill to the PIP carrier to prove my client had incurred more than $10,000 in medical expenses and asked them to pay the $10,000 to my office. I then reimbursed the health insurance carrier, and my client was able to recover the difference: $7,5000.

Would $7,5000 make a difference in your life? If you are in an auto accident it is extremely important for you to hire a lawyer who will take the time to direct your PIP benefits in a way that will maximize your recovery.