VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:  Hello everybody this is Robert Mansour and I wanted to make a brief video today about the issue of medical payments coverage. Medical payments coverage is something that a lot of people have under their insurance policy, and they're not even aware of it. Your auto insurance policy may have some coverage for you called medically payments coverage, or MPC. And what that means is they basically serve as a health insurance company for you.

So, let's say you don't have health insurance. If you have medical payments coverage under your auto insurance policy, they might be able to pay for your health care coverage, or your health care needs after an auto accident. Now, it's important to know what the limits are of your medically payments coverage. So, for example you, might have $2,000 available to you or $50,000 available to you. You need to make sure, number one, that you have it available. And number two you have to know what the limits are. In some cases, I've seen client with $25,000 of medical payments coverage available to them, and the nice thing about this is you can get your health care providers paid quickly.

Some of the health care providers don't understand personal injury cases and they don't want to work on a lien, for example. They don't want to defer their payment or late on in the case, they want to get paid now. And, if you don't have health care insurance, it might be good to use your medical payments coverage. In some cases, it might be good to use your medical payments coverage. In some cases the medical payments coverage will only pay after you've exhausted your health care coverage. So, if you use your health care coverage first, and then you have some money left over that you have to get paid, some bills, you can use your medical payments coverage at that point.

The other thing is they may want you to exhaust your health insurance coverage first, your health care coverage options, or at least demonstrate that you don't have health care before the medical payments coverage kicks in. In many cases, and I would say in most cases, the insurance company has the right to reimburse them of their medical payments.

So, let's say that you recover money from the party at fault. You probably have to repay your insurance company for the medical company they advanced on your behalf. So, it's, not necessarily a freebie. So, let's say that the insurance companies pays $5,000 to the doctors on your behalf under your medical payments coverage. If you recover money from the other party – let’s say you recover $10,000 - you have to repay your insurance company for the medical payments coverage that they extended for you. Now, that is in most cases a contractual obligation that many clients aren't even aware of.

So, make sure you talk to your lawyer about your medical payments coverage, whether or not it's even going to be available for you, and also make sure you discuss the right of reimbursement that most insurance companies have when it comes to the medical payments coverage provision. If you don't have medical payments coverage, talk to your insurance professional and see if it would be appropriate for you. In most cases, it's not very expensive and it can be very helpful if you have a personal injury case. Thank you very much for watching this video, I hope you found it helpful.

Call (661) 414-7100 for help with your personal injury matter.

If you don't have health insurance, check your car insurance policy for "Medical Payments Coverage" (MPC) which might pay for your medical bills after an auto accident.  If you don't have MPC, you should call your insurance company and ask about it.  It's very inexpensive and very good to have on your auto policy.  Even if you have health insurance, they may not pay for everything in which case MPC is a terrific bonus to have!  You can't always rely on the responsible party to pay your bills after an accident.  

However, keep in mind that if you recover any money from the responsible party's insurance carrier, you may have to reimburse your own insurance company for payments made pursuant to your Medical Payments Coverage.  They usually have a right to reimbursement.  While this may be the case, there are times when you can negotiate the amount owed, and in some cases, your insurer might agree to a total waiver.