What is Car Insurance MedPay?
Medical payment coverage, commonly called “medpay”, is a “no fault” coverage typically provided by your car insurance company to cover medical services rendered by healthcare providers due to a car accident. As a “no fault” insurance, it will kick-in regardless of who is to blame for an auto accident. It also can be applied to assist you even if you have high health insurance deductibles or no health insurance at all.
Virginia requires all car insurance companies to offer medpay with your policy. However, whether you choose to add this optional coverage is up to you. Under Va. Code § 38.2-2201, medpay covers, within three (3) years from the date of the accident, all “reasonable and necessary expenses for medical, chiropractic, hospital, dental, surgical, prosthetic and rehabilitation services” and ambulance transportation.
Why Do You Need MedPay?
- You can “double-dip” or even “triple-dip” in Virginia. We at Correll Law Firm, PC love medpay coverage because it helps our clients maximize recovery. Say, for example, you get in a car accident that caused you $10,000.00 in medical bills, your health insurance covered $8,000 of the full bill, and you had a $10,000 in medpay coverage. Virginia is a collateral source state in which you are not penalized for paying for health insurance (great law, by the way) and liabilty carriers generally can’t reduce their liability due to payments by your health insurance company. Therefore, if we obtain $10,000 for your bills from the liability carrier (bad guy’s insurance company), plus obtaining $10,000 in medpay, and then you realize $8,000 in value from your health insurance carrier, you would have obtained $28,000. That is almost twice your actual bills! If applicable, as your car accident attorney, we will also try to obtain lost wages and pain-and-suffering as well as other classes of damages you may be entitled to following a car accident.
- They all add up and can be “stacked.” If you are in a household with multiple vehicles, with each vehicle having their own medpay coverage, you can add up the individual coverages for your one accident. Of course, you’ll have to look at your specific contract to make sure that “stacking” is allowed for your household.
- It’s super cheap. The coverage is typically only a few dollars more than your usual car insurance payment. For that small inconvenience, you get a massive convenience: due to the car accident, regardless if you’re ultimately to blame, you get medical expenses paid.
- Personal injury lawyers generally don’t take a fee for medpay claims. As a general rule, does not charge a fee on medpay payments because they are generally “ministerial” acts requiring just simple accounting and submission of claims. On the other hand, in the event a medpay claim requires the use of legal skills, knowledge, experience and advocacy to assist in a settlement, a fee may need to be discussed. Some medpay providers are notorious for cherry-picking claims and scrutinizing every bill to meet the “reasonable and necessary” conditions. This behavior can lead to delays in the final settlement.
- Your Passengers Can Get Covered. Medpay can apply to passengers in your car that were hurt or injured.
- No (or limited) hoops to jump though. Depending on your car insurance company, claims are paid quickly. There are exceptions to this rule.
Engaging a qualified injury attorney with established processes for evaluating and submitting medpay claims on your behalf is critical to making sure you are made “whole again” after an auto accident. We, at Correll Law Firm, PC, have both experience and know-how in evaluating your claim.
CALL US TODAY AT 540.535.2005 TO SCHEDULE A CASE EVALUATION
Correll Law Firm, PC, serving Northern Virginia, has a solid familiarity of both the automobile injury claims process, the factors to maximize recovery, and the law related to personal injury claims.