Today, we have maybe considered it boring but it’s actually a very important topic. We are going to talk about medical payments coverage or what a lot of people refer to as med pay. However, None of these is boring and these are all important stuff.
Yes, important. That’s the word we’ll use. Very important. So let’s just go here. What is medical payments coverage? So a lot of times you’ll hear it referred to as med pay. Um, but it will help pay for you, your families or your passenger’s medical injuries.
Should you be in an accident? Here’s the big part it will pay out regardless of who was at fault. So if you’re at fault or the other person was at fault it doesn’t matter. It will still pay out with your medical injuries. Um in other states there’s a coverage called personal injury protection or p.
I. P. And med pay is very similar to that. It just depends on what state you’re in as to which coverage is offered. Uh there’s no deductible to use this coverage like there is with a lot of other coverage and just some examples of what it can cover is hospital bills, doctors bills, ambulance rides, surgery, x rays, really any type of medical payment or medical expense that you have from an accident.
It’s most likely going to cover. I have medical insurance obviously and I have a high deductible. I believe it’s a $5000 deductible if something happens to me in a car accident and I need to use my medical insurance, I don’t want to pay five grand out of pocket. So I have med pay coverage of $5000 and that’s my thinking behind that is if I am an accident, I need to use my medical insurance.
Um and it’s a claim that can be filed, I can get that $5000 for my medical coverage and that can go towards my deductible. Now. You’re not worried about crap. How am I going to pay for this or how am I going to make sure? Is it worth it going to the hospital or seeing a doctor versus what I’m gonna end up paying now, just go get it.
Like this is such a blessing that I wish more clients had so they didn’t have to worry about is this gonna be a pain in the butt or not? Like am I going to going to the hospital? And I’d be like, no, I shouldn’t have done this. You know, you’ve got the money to pay for it.
So just take that out of consideration and go get checked out and that’s the part that I like about it too for whether you at fault or not, if you feel like you’re hurt and you don’t know if you’re at fault and you’ve got med pay. You know, you’ve got money to go get checked out and just to make sure that you’re all right and here’s the crazy thing, it’s honestly, if you look at all the other coverage on your auto insurance policy and how much it costs broken down line by line med pay coverage is very, very inexpensive, hardly cost anything at all.
Um so if if you weren’t aware of the coverage or if you just thought no, I don’t need that, go and ask your agent see how much it would cost to add 5000 or 10,000 in coverage. It’s probably only going to add a couple of bucks a month to your premium. A lot of the people that I deal with, you know, if if they’re getting medical treatment after an accident, they can go places that will do it on a lien or say that they don’t have to pay out of their pocket, but hospitals need it right away or doc doctors offices needed right away.
Well now you’ve got the money to be able to use to pay those bills and not worrying about them going to collections or worrying about whether or not it’s worth it to go. And so it’s just having 1000 or anything is such a blessing. It’s like, okay, well you have to understand that liability limits are for the other people that you hurt when you’re negligent, that’s not gonna help you and your medical bills, liability is going to take care of your family if you are at fault for the accident.
So if I’m driving my family around and I cause an accident and my wife and kids are injured then yeah my liability coverage is going to step in. But if I’m not at fault for the accident then that liability coverage doesn’t matter. And so it’s gonna be about what you have for medical payments coverage to get things taken care of right away.
Every single policy is different and you need to be aware of that or at least have an agent that can be aware of that. So let me share my so screen again. This top one up here. This is safe coast policy. I took this snippet and you can see they talk about you know who qualifies for this limited liability, how they pay out and it’s very short here. So I read that with Safeco and then I came down here and I was reading progresses policy.
This top part is pretty much the same as what Safeco set up here. Just different words. But then down here, this was not included in safe code policies in safe code policy but it is included here and this to me is a huge difference. Um and chase, I will let you jump in and explain what they mean by this.
Insurance companies will put provisions in the policy to say that we’re not going to pay you twice meaning we’re not gonna duplicate payments and in this situation if just to give an example to make it easier if you’re involved in an accident, you’re not at fault for the accident, you get injured.
But the car that hit you is uninsured and you’re making an uninsured claim and a medical payments claim. Those are considered the same claim. Uh and so you won’t be able to get both your medical payments coverage of whatever it is and your uninsured coverage. So if your case is worth $25,000 and you’ve got $5000 in med pay paid to you already, then the insurance company is going to pay you $20,000 as opposed to $25,000 for your claim and $5000 for the med pay.
Does that make sense explaining that, right. That makes perfect sense. And I know this is more of a rhetorical question, but how does that make sense if you, the consumer are paying for both coverage, how come you’re only getting paid out for one of those coverages that you have? That makes no sense. I am with you on that.
But the way Arizona has um, established things is that medical payments coverage and uninsured coverage are basically the same type of thing. You’re you’re protecting yourself in the situation where someone doesn’t have insurance, any amount payable to an insured person under this part two will be reduced by the amounts paid for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage that is false.
Progressive cannot do this. And in fact, this is why I like telling people to just consult with an attorney and talk with them because even though your policy says it’s so does that make, does not make it correct? And in Arizona underinsured is considered different than uninsured.
The at fault insurance or the at fault person just didn’t have enough to take care of you and that’s not your problem. And so your insurance is stepping in to pay the difference case law. Specifically, he says you cannot reduce the amount of what a case is worth because you already received med pay coverage when it’s a u. I. M. Claim and under insured claim.
Just think of if you’re injured and you have made a claim to the at fault insurance company and they didn’t have enough to pay you and your insurance is stepping in to pay the difference the underinsured then you don’t have to take that reduction and you do not have to take whatever less your medical payments coverage is.
And don’t just assume that because it’s in your policy that it’s correct because that is against Arizona law, an insurance policy cannot trump local law exactly. An insurance policy can say whatever it wants. But if it goes against the law of whatever state you’re living in, it’s invalid in the insurance policy.
And so it’s important to work with an attorney in any scenario because you could read the policy and be like, well that’s what the policy says that makes sense. I have no room to fight it. But if you’re an expert in in law like you are, you can point that out and bite the insurance company.
If you Michael are driving around with your family and you are responsible for an accident insurance policies will say you are capped at the state minimum for what you liability insurance will be provided to your family. Okay. Why? Why would you be capped when you’re paying say you’re paying a million dollars of liability coverage?
Why would I then be capped if I’m at fault for an accident to the family? That’s my family that’s in the car. Well, that too is something that I’m fighting with right now and it is against Arizona law that’s not applicable. And so these are these different provisions that it’s not about taking advantage the system, not at all.
And the other on the other side, I think the insurance company is being greedy and trying to overreach and pay less when it’s against the law. And so if you don’t understand those specifics or don’t have somebody who is familiar enough with the law, then you’re gonna be out a significant amount of coverage.
And so in the case that we’re dealing with now we have a woman who, uh, her husband was the driver and he’s the bulk of the fall is on a city. It’s a whole complicated case, but he does have some, but they were trying to cap his coverage at $25,000 for his wife when his wife was in the hospital and has a hospital bill of 180,000, you know?
And so that’s where it’s so important to have a good agent like you who can tell you what coverage you have and why you need it. But then also consult with an attorney and 99% of accident attorneys are going to do things on a contingent fee, meaning we don’t charge you by the hour. And so it’s not a big deal to talk with us and to have us look over those uh provisions because it’s not gonna cost you anything.
Number one takeaway from today’s video. Go and check your insurance policy, see if you have med pay, if you do not call your agent or go online however you get your insurance and see how much it cost to add. Like I said in the beginning it’s only going to add a couple bucks a couple of bucks a month to your insurance premium.
And then when you have an accident you’ll be happy you had it. And then the second point because I have to say this 5000 times every day, all insurance policies are not created equal. Make sure if you’re really like, I know it’s hard to look at every single coverage and go through the policy language or ask your agent about it.
But if there’s one specific coverage that you’re worried about, make sure when you go and buy insurance from whoever that you really ask them, okay. Give me all the details what’s gonna be covered, what’s not gonna be covered. Make sure you understand it because surprises at the end of the day when you need to use it are no good.
