HOW TO USE PIP AND MED-PAY MONEY TO GET PAID

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and Med-Pay coverage are excellent sources for paying your accident patient's bill.

What are they? When you buy automobile insurance, you have a choice of purchasing different types of insurance, including PIP and Med-Pay Insurance, depending on where you live. Maryland and the District have PIP, and Virginia has Med-Pay coverage. PIP insurance will help pay your accident patient's medical bills and lost wages, and Med-Pay will help pay the medical bills.

You do not file a PIP or Med-Pay claim against the person who caused the accident (because that is called the liability claim). Instead you file the PIP or Med-Pay claim in the manner explained below.

If a patient is in an automobile accident, the first thing you should do is determine if your patient owns PIP or Med-Pay insurance. You do this by asking the patient to bring their automobile policy into your office. The declarations page of the policy will clearly itemize PIP or Med-Pay insurance if it was purchased.

You must then determine whose PIP or Med-Pay to file against. Do you file against the patient's own PIP or Med-Pay? Do you file against the PIP or Med-Pay of the person driving the car that your patient was in? Are there other sources of PIP or Med-Pay to file against?

At The Law Offices Of Bruce A. Blaylock, LLC, we file your bill
with Pip and Med-pay on your consenting
patients for you. This saves you time and money.


HOW TO FILE FOR PIP BENEFITS IN MARYLAND

If your patient has Maryland automobile insurance, handle PIP as follows;

A. The PIP you file against first is

1) The PIP of the owner/driver of the car your patient was in.

If there is no PIP there...

2) File against your patient's own PIP.

If there is no PIP there...

3) File against the PIP of any relative living with your patient who owns automobile insurance, (as long as your patient did not decline PIP coverage himself).

(1) Note that you may be able to use the relative's PIP, even though they were not involved in the accident.


B. EXAMPLE: In Maryland, if a passenger in a taxi is hit from behind, whose PIP is primarily responsible for the passenger's doctor bills?

1) The PIP you file against first is

(1) The PIP carrier for the taxi

(i) Because you file against the PIP of the owner/driver of the car your patient was in.

  • But common carriers such as buses and taxis are not required to carry PIP insurance. So there is no PIP on the Taxi. You then need to look to the secondary source of PIP.

You would then file against...

(2) The passenger's own PIP

But if the passenger does not own a car and therefore has no automobile insurance, then he would have no PIP.

You would then file against...

(3) The PIP of any relatives living with your patient who own automobile insurance, (as long as your patient did not decline PIP coverage himself).

When you refer your accident patient
to The Law Offices Of Bruce A. Blaylock, LLC, we send you the Pip and Med-Pay information so you don't have to figure it out.
This saves you time and money.


HOW TO FILE FOR PIP BENEFITS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

If your patient has D.C. automobile insurance, handle PIP as follows;

A. The PIP you file against first is

1) Your patient's own PIP.

If there is no PIP there...

2) File against the PIP of the owner/driver of the car your patient was in.

If there is no PIP there...

3) File against the PIP of any relatives living with your patient who own automobile insurance, (as long as your patient did not decline PIP coverage himself).

Note:

(1) District of Columbia PIP policies require your patient to choose between filing a PIP claim and a liability claim, if the accident was inside of the city limits. That election must be made within 60 days.

(2) Before submitting bills to PIP, you must first exhaust all available health insurance benefits.



HOW TO FILE FOR MED-PAY BENEFITS IN VIRGINIA

If your patient has Virginia Med-Pay coverage, handle as follows;

A. The Med-Pay you file against first is

1) the Med-Pay of the owner of the car

(1) If this is insufficient to pay the medical bills, then...

B. File the against the Med-Pay of the driver of the car

1) If this is insufficient to pay the medical bills, then...

C. File against your patient's own Med-Pay

1) If this is insufficient to pay the medical bills, then...

D. File against the Med-Pay of any family member that resides with the patient.

Virginia Med-Pay allows stacking of up to four different vehicles on a policy. For example, if there are three cars on a policy, with each car having $2,000 in Med-Pay coverage, you can obtain $6,000 in Med-Pay coverage from that policy with the use of stacking.

Virginia law allows automobile insurance companies to send your Med-Pay money directly to your patient. This creates the risk that the patient will not give the money to you. There are 2 things you can do. Some auto insurance companies will accept Assignment of Benefits, so call and ask if they will. If they will not, protect yourself other ways, such as having an Assignment and Authorization signed by your patient and their lawyer.

The easy solution to Pip and Med Expense issues is to let The Law Offices of Bruce A. Blaylock, Chartered , handle it for you. When you refer a case to Bruce A. Blaylock, LLC , we help file the PIP and Med-Pay. With our consenting patient's, we will tell you whose PIP or Med Expense Insurance applies, the claim number that applies, and the adjuster's name, address and phone number.





Refer your accident cases to
 Bruce A. Blaylock
Attorney At Law
(301) 951-1800

We treat people fairly



Copyright 2003
Bruce A. Blaylock, LLC
4610 Elm Street, Bethesda, Maryland 20815
Phone 301 951-1800 Facsimile 301 656-6957

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