PIP/MedPay

Video Transcript:

Cindy Speaker: What is PIP and MedPay insurance?  That will be the focus of our discussion today as we talk about automobile insurance.  MY guest is North Carolina attorney David Daggett of Daggett Shuler Law. David, how do are you doing?

David Daggett: Doing great, Cindy.  Thanks for having me on today.

Cindy Speaker: David, we’re always glad to have you.  Well, David, I’m familiar with the terms PIP and MedPay but I don’t know exactly what they mean or if they’re even applicable in your state.  Why don’t you help us out with an explanation.

David Daggett: Well, PIP and MedPay are similar.  Let me tell you tell you real quickly.  We’re in North Carolina and North Carolina does not have PIP coverage, that’s Personal Injury Protection.  Now, that doesn’t mean that it necessarily doesn’t come into play, PIP coverage could possibly apply to a North Carolina resident if they are either out of state and injured in an accident or if they’re in North Carolina and riding in and out of state vehicle.  So we won’t completely forget about but we don’t have PIP coverage in North Carolina, okay?

We do have MedPay coverage.  MedPay is short for Medical Payments Coverage, and really what MedPay is, it’s like having health insurance on your car.  Liability insurance coverage is fault based coverage, MedPay is incident based coverage.  So it doesn’t matter who’s at fault in the accident.  If you’re in the car, you’re injured, incur medical expenses, and there is medical payments coverage, you’re entitled to recover.  It’s like having health insurance on your car?  Does that makes sense?

Cindy Speaker: It does make sense.  But let me ask you this, does everybody have this type of coverage on their auto insurance policy?  Is mandated be law or this optional?

David Daggett: No, MedPay coverage is optional coverage in North Carolina and it’s called contractual coverage.  Contractual coverage is different than mandated coverage and that you’ve agreed to that additional coverage with the insurance company.  The nice thing about the contractual coverage is, is the person with medical payments coverage has a lot of rights, and it’s good coverage to have and it’s not very expensive.

Cindy Speaker: Now, what do you find with your clients?  Do most of them have MedPay coverage?  I know that I hear personal injury attorneys talk about the problems with people buying the proper coverage and being properly covered.  It’s always an issue.

David Daggett: A fairly large percentage of people do have medical payments coverage.  It’s interesting depending on which insurance company you’re dealing with, the odds go up as to whether medical payments coverage is available.  Some insurance carriers are a little bit more aggressive about selling the extra coverage than others.

But we see medical payments coverage available in a large percentage of cases.  It can range anywhere from a thousand dollars of coverage to usually we see a maximum of $5,000.00 a coverage.  Although in some cases, it can actually go higher.

Cindy Speaker: Okay.  Well, David, let me go back to what we talk about in the beginning.  Suppose it’s an out-of-state driver and I am an out-of-state driver, I’m from Philadelphia as you know, but suppose I have an accident at North Carolina, I would have PIP coverage I believe?

David Daggett: What you do is you would not have medical payments coverage if you are riding in your car in North Carolina because your car is insured in Pennsylvania that had PIP coverage and not medical payments coverage.  If you’re in North Carolina and you’re riding in my car, you would have medical payments coverage that covers my vehicle plus depending on the contract with your insurance company, you may also be entitled to your PIP coverage in Pennsylvania.

Cindy Speaker: Wow!  This is really complicated.

David Daggett: Well, it is.  And this is one of the reasons that we recommend that anybody who’s injured in the accident and had pending claims consult with an attorney.  Unless you do this everyday, you simply cannot know all the ins and outs of insurance law.  And this can be very complicated, and in fact, sometimes we can find more than one medical payments coverage policy that applies to a person in an accident and you just never know the coverage you’re going to find if you don’t know where to look and the average person with have no way of knowing where to look for coverage.

Cindy Speaker: Well, that makes sense. Well, David, if someone wants more information, how can they reach your office?

David Daggett: Well, they can reach us in many different ways.  We like to be very responsive technologically.  Certainly, you can reach us through our website at www.daggettshulerlaw.com.  We also have an 800 number 1-800-815-5500.  Our email address is on our website and we tend to be very responsive and like to help people with these situations.

Cindy Speaker: Well, I certainly know that to be true.  David, listen, thanks so much for your time today for sharing your expertise with us.

David Daggett: Well, thank you and I always enjoyed being on State Law TV.

Cindy Speaker: Very good.  This is Cindy Speaker fro State Law TV.