What are PIP benefits? People always ask me what PIP benefits are. In Massachusetts most policies have what is called personal injury protection benefits or PIP. Pip benefits are no fault benefits which means you are entitled to collect these benefits after a car accident whether or not you were at fault or not. Often times more serious car accidents result in injuries to passengers or driver.
When injuries occur PIP benefits will pay for up to the first $8000 dollars of medical expenses when the injured passenger or driver has no health insurance. In a case where a driver or passenger in a motor vehicle has health insurance PIP benefits will pay for the first $2000 dollars of medical expenses. Pip also pays for lost wages, dental, and loss of services.
Example:
Where a person has medical insurance and medical bills of $9000 and has lost two weeks of work where he or she averages $700/wk. Pip would cover the first $2000 dollars of medical bills and then the remaining $7000 would be covered by the passengers own health insurance. The passenger would also be entitled to make a claim for $1400 for lost wages.
In this same example if the passenger had no insurance. Which ever claim is brought first against PIP will get paid first. Usually the medical bills will be paid first since the person is generally taken to the hospital right after the accident and the $8000 would be paid by PIP and 1000 would be billed to the client and no money would be left for the lost wage claim.
In some circumstance it would be in the passengers interest to make the lost wage claim early against the PIP benefits if the person was in desperate need for money to get their car fixed or pay their rent. While most likely they would be billed for unpaid medical bills, in my opinion medical bills are rarely reported on credit. So if you were doing a triage of bills if it were me and I was in a difficult financial situation I would make the lost wage claim as soon as possible and get billed for the remaining medical care. Once I got the bills I might call and try to ask them for a reduction for financial hardship and you might be surprised I think many creditors would take 50 cents on the dollar or even less.
Did you know motorcyclist pay PIP premiums but the driver and passengers of motorcycles are not entitled to PIP benefits? Motorcyclist pay PIP premiums to protect any unsuspecting pedestrians they might hit with their bikes.
Did you know PIP benefits also cover pedestrians. So if a driver hits a pedestrian at a cross walk, the pedestrian is entitled to collect PIP benefits.
Bicyclists are also considered pedestrians!!! And are therefore entitled to collect PIP benefits too.
In conclusion PIP benefits only cover reasonable and necessary medical expenses related to the accident. More and more Insurance company will not pay bills for chiropractors, or acupuncturist or non western medicine. Also insurance companies love sending their own insured to grueling examinations under oath to nit pick their treatment or to try and determining if there has been any insurance fraud or foul play. This usually leads to the denial of PIP benefits.
Also you should be wary that many companies are offering insurance policies with an $8000 pip deductible. This means basically insured are waiving their rights to PIP benefits in exchange for a very modest reduction in the premiums. Never choose an $8000 dollar PIP deductible even if you have your own insurance as you are giving up your right to lost wages as well as your passengers rights to their benefits.
