In Kentucky if you are a pedestrian or a bicyclist that has been hit by a car or a truck you may be wondering whether or not your medical treatment will be paid for and by whom. This is a good questions for bicycle accident victims, as well as pedestrian accident victims. As a personal injury attorney, I can tell you that in almost every circumstance your treatment for injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident will be paid for by an insurance company. The question is what insurance company? Is it your health insurance? Is it your car insurance? Is it the car insurance for the car that hit you?
The first place that we look is to the car that hit you, the car that caused the bicycle accident or the pedestrian accident. If the car had auto insurance their PIP benefits will pay for your first $10,000.00 of medical treatment, no questions asked, as long as the treatment is related to the accident.
If for some reason the car that caused the accident did not have insurance we then turn to your own personal car insurance company if you owned a car. You might think this is the last place that you should look. After all you weren’t in your car at the time of this accident. Under almost all car insurance policies your car insurance is required to pay your medical treatment from injuries sustained in an accident between a car and you if you were a pedestrian or riding a bicycle. No matter how the accident occurred your car insurance will pay as long as it was a motor vehicle accident of some sort.
Now if the other car did not have insurance and you do not own a car you will be eligible for benefits under what is called the Kentucky Assigned Claims Plan. This is a state run program that requires insurance companies to, on rotation, pay for medical treatment for people that did not have insurance or no insurance available to them in a particular accident.
After the PIP benefits are exhausted you will then look to your personal health insurance, Medicare or Kentucky Passport. This insurance is secondary and is not used until the $10,000.00 in No-Fault Benefits are exhausted. Your health insurance will pay under the terms of your policy for any medical bills over the $10,000.00. Your health insurance company, Medicare or Passport may be entitled to repayment under federal law called ERISA or the terms of the policy from your personal injury recovery. You should check with an attorney to determine if subrogation is required.
After the PIP benefits are exhausted you will then look to your personal health insurance, Medicare or Kentucky Passport. This insurance is secondary and is not used until the $10,000.00 in No-Fault Benefits are exhausted. Your health insurance will pay under the terms of your policy for any medical bills over the $10,000.00. Your health insurance company, Medicare or Passport may be entitled to repayment under federal law called ERISA or the terms of the policy from your personal injury recovery. You should check with an attorney to determine if subrogation is required.
The bottom line is if you’ve been in a pedestrian accident or a bicycle accident where you’ve been hit by a car you are entitled to have your medical bills paid. So don’t hold off on getting the treatment you need to recover from your injuries. Get the doctor and find out what’s wrong with you and get better. This will enable you to achieve the best result possible in your bicycle accident or pedestrian accident case.
