Personal injury protection (PIP) is the first resource you have to pay medical bills after an accident in Oregon. Learn how to use PIP and the advantages it offers over health insurance. This could save you money and reduce the stress of medical bills and treatments.
In Oregon, if you have car insurance you have personal injury protection (PIP). It’s the law – you can’t have one without the other. In fact, in most cases you have $15,000 worth of PIP from which to draw your medical bills if you’ve been in an accident.
In many states, PIP is not required. Oregon is lucky – here, insurance companies know they have to pay PIP and medical providers are used to billing PIP for treatments.
But, you say, I already pay for health insurance coverage – isn’t this just something else I have to pay for? Isn’t it a little redundant?
The short answer: No!
The long answer: PIP provides several benefits that are not available with just health insurance. Think of PIP as the first cushion to break your fall if you have an accident; if you are hurt, PIP will pay your bills for a year, up to $15,000 (whichever comes first) and then health insurance can cover the rest after that time or that amount.
PIP benefits include:
1. PIP will also pay lost wages in many cases, which health insurance will not.
2. Health insurance will cover your medical expenses, but PIP will cover every passenger in the car, including your children, friends, and loved ones.
3. If the person who hits you doesn’t have insurance, PIP will cover medical bills – which is especially awesome for those people who do not have insurance.
4. PIP does not have deductibles, unlike health insurance, and will pay benefits until the policy value (usually $15,000, but can be higher if you paid for increased coverage) is exhausted.
Because of these added benefits, we appreciate that Oregon has made PIP mandatory coverage for drivers in Oregon. It provides economic relief to people who cannot afford health insurance but need to pay medical bills until a personal injury claim is established.
Once a personal injury claim is successful, the driver that caused the accident’s insurance will pay back your insurance for the PIP benefits paid out.
And Oregon has a history of protecting these PIP benefits from greedy insurance companies, as shown by the suit that resulted in Farmer’s Insurance paying $8.9 million to injured Oregonians for denied claims in July 2011.
If you’ve been in an accident, you should let your medical providers know what caused your injuries and make sure they have the billing information for your PIP. That way, you won’t have to pay deductibles and you can focus on healing instead of medical bills. If you’re worried that the $15,000 will run out, you can request a PIP ledger. Once PIP is exhausted you can use your medical insurance to pay medical bills, but you might also consider hiring an attorney to make sure you are compensated by the bad driver’s insurance for your bills and wages.
