Medical coverage 101
Medical coverage insurance is also known as the medical payments coverage. This is a typical rider to your automotive insurance policy. Your auto insurance works to protect you from financial loss in various different situations but most of them fall short of providing coverage for the medical costs you will incur if injuries were sustained as a result of the accident. The medical payments coverage pays for a variety of incident- or accident-related costs arising out of a vehicular accident regardless of who was at fault.
Whether you are shopping for insurance for your new car or reviewing your options prior to renewing your existing car insurance, one should consider having medical payments coverage. This particular insurance product provides wide-ranging coverage over a number of vehicle accident scenarios, including an accident involving your own vehicle, an accident that might occur while you are riding in another person’s car, and even an accident where you are unfortunately hit by a car.
The medical payments coverage in an auto insurance policy also provides coverage for your passengers or anybody who is driving your insured vehicle when the accident took place. You may think that you do not need medical payments coverage riding on your car insurance policy if you are already covered by your employer’s health insurance. But the beauty of medical payments coverage is that it can cover the policy deductible of your employer-sponsored health plan, which means that you may not need to dig into your pockets should you figure in an accident that would necessitate your hospitalization or your medical rehabilitation. Plus your company provided health plan will not cover your vehicle passengers.
There are different levels to a medical payments coverage starting from $1,000 to as high as $100,000 or more. The premium for this particular insurance is one of the least expensive considering the type of coverage it provides. You will only need to add a few more dollars to your auto insurance and you will have this type of coverage.
The medical payments coverage cover a number of medical-related costs including, hospital confinement, doctor visits, surgery, tests such as x-rays, emergency medical teams and ambulance fees, prosthesis, professional nursing care and service, and funeral costs.
In terms of who is covered, you should remember that you get to choose the medical payment options of your policy. Your policy will generally cover medical costs whoever was discovered to be at fault. It will also cover all your passengers as well as the driver of your vehicle when the accident occurred. You can get medical payments coverage that will also pay for medical costs arising from an accident you or your loved ones become involved in while riding another person’s car.
Another form of automobile insurance coverage is the personal injury protection. It is also designed to pay for medical bills you incur if you figure in a vehicle accident. Every state has different rules and regulations pertaining to what may be or may not be covered by personal injury protection. This type of coverage can pay for funeral expenses, lost wages, child care and other costs related to injury, loss of work, and death resulting from a vehicular accident.
Another similar coverage to personal injury and medical payments is the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. This type of coverage provides protection if the other party has no coverage. While uninsured and underinsured are usually combined, they actually work differently. The uninsured coverage will pay for the cost of repairing the damage to your car and all the medical bills relating to the accident. In the case of the underinsured motorist coverage, the other party does have some coverage but is not enough to cover the costs you incurred. Your underinsured coverage will pay for the difference.
You can purchase medical payments coverage, personal injury protection coverage and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage all at the same time. What you need to consider is your health insurance limits and out of pocket costs, if you do have a health insurance provided by your employer. If your health plan has a $2,000 deductible, your medical payments or personal injury protection coverage will cover this amount.
Why You Need a Personal Injury Coverage
Personal injury coverage is more popularly known as personal injury protection. It is a rider to a motor car insurance that is mandatory in most U.S. states. This coverage pays for medical expenses and sometimes even lost earnings, child care and other costs related to an injury arising out of a vehicular accident.
Personal injury coverage is also known as the “no-fault” insurance coverage and this is because the laws and statutes governing this type of insurance are collectively called no-fault laws. This means that the coverage will pay regardless of who was at fault. If a claim is made under the personal injury coverage, it will not have an impact on your insurance premiums.
Personal injury protection may also refer to any type of insurance that would include protection for personal injury, emotional distress, defamation or libel as contrasted with coverage for bodily harm only. But personal injury protection as a part of the automobile insurance is a requirement in a number of states. The actual coverage can differ from state to state. The difference is in terms of what is being covered and what treatments can be considered reasonable and customary. For instance in the state of Utah, acupuncture is considered a permissible medical treatment, whereas it is not in the state of California. There are states that will allow a personal injury protection claim to be filed alongside a workers’ compensation claim, while other states would not allow this.
There are states where a personal injury protection claim may undergo the process of subrogation, which means that your insurer will cover your loss and will attempt to recover what it has paid from the insurer of the party who was at fault. This will leave you in a good financial position as your medical bills will be settled while your insurer goes after the other party’s insurer after they have covered your costs.
Your personal injury protection can provide protection within a specified time and dollar limit. It will also cover the funeral or medical expenses of the injured as well as the passengers in the vehicle at the time of the accident. It can even cover the funeral or medical expenses covered by pedestrians who were run over during the accident. The most basic coverage of personal injury protection insurance is the insured’s injuries, regardless of who was at fault.
The states that do not require personal injury protection require another form of coverage, which is called auto medical payment coverage. Personal injury protection limits can range from as low as $1500 to as high as $250,000 and this depends on the extent of the injury and the prevailing laws in the state where it occurred.
Claimants in a vehicular accident would do well to provide their own personal injury protection insurance information to their medical providers because third party carriers have no legal obligation to pay for the medical bills of the claimants, while first party carriers are. The third party insurers are only obligated to pay after a judgment is made against them. Paying for a claim with a third party insurer is referred to as voluntary payment.
Personal injury coverage is a no-fault insurance covering medical expenses. The policy varies in terms of which medical expenses are covered and what the limits are per accident per person. Insurers choose the medical expenses they will cover and what they will consider as necessary and reasonable. The phrase necessary and reasonable differs from state to state. You can expect coverage by a personal injury policy to include most medical costs, hospital bills, income replacement, lost earnings, and funeral costs.
There are insurers that offer coverage for child care expenses as well as bodily injuries resulting from the accident and this is regardless of who was at fault. It would be a good idea to discuss these details at length with your provider before deciding to purchase the plan.
Depending on your existing motor insurance coverage and the requirements of the state you live in, you can purchase personal injury protection for every member of your family who rides any motor vehicle. There are states that will require you to purchase some form of personal injury insurance even if you already have comprehensive and collision coverage. Before you purchase personal injury insurance, it might be a good idea to check what you already have first. Disability insurance will provide protection for the exact same risks as that of a personal injury coverage.
