Reviewed by Katherine C. Neal, a Florida Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer and managing partner at Neal & Solevilla. Updated June 2026.
After a car crash in Florida, your own insurance pays the first medical bills, even when the other driver caused the wreck. That’s because Florida runs a no-fault system: your Personal Injury Protection coverage, PIP for short, pays your medical bills and part of your lost income regardless of fault. The rules live in Florida Statute 627.736, and they spell out what gets paid and how fast you have to act. Here’s what PIP covers, where it stops, and how it fits with MedPay and your health plan.
Florida has required no-fault coverage since 1972. Every owner of a registered four-wheel vehicle has to carry at least $10,000 in PIP, alongside $10,000 in property damage liability. You buy it before anything happens, and it covers you whether you rear-end someone or get rear-ended.
No-fault is the core idea. After most crashes you turn to your own PIP policy first instead of fighting over blame, which keeps smaller claims out of court and gets treatment paid for quickly.
Coverage attaches to people, wherever they are when a crash happens. PIP protects you as the named insured, relatives living in your household, your passengers, and anyone you let drive. It also covers you if you’re struck as a pedestrian or while riding a bicycle. Most people picture a driver behind the wheel, but a cyclist hit at an intersection is covered the same way. PIP even covers your son or daughter if they are hit while riding an e-bike.
PIP covers four things, and the dollar limits matter.
Medical care comes first. PIP pays 80% of reasonable, medically necessary expenses tied to the crash: the ambulance, the ER, imaging, surgery, follow-up visits, physical therapy. The catch is the emergency medical condition rule. If a physician, osteopath, dentist, physician assistant, or advanced practice nurse determines you had an emergency medical condition, the full $10,000 is available. If your injury doesn’t reach that level, PIP caps medical benefits at $2,500. One determination can swing your coverage by $7,500.
Lost income is the second piece. If your injuries keep you from working, PIP replaces 60% of your lost wages and lost earning capacity. It can also reimburse replacement services, meaning help with the tasks you’d normally handle yourself but can’t, like childcare or yard work.
There’s a death benefit too: $5,000 per person, paid on top of the medical and disability limits. Families dealing with a fatal crash can read more on our wrongful death page.
Then there’s the deadline that trips people up. To use any PIP medical benefits, you have to get initial care within 14 days of the crash. Not 15. If you skip the doctor and the soreness turns serious three weeks later, the insurer can deny the entire medical claim. See a doctor early, even if you feel mostly fine.
This is where people get blindsided. PIP is medical-and-wage coverage, not full compensation.
PIP leaves a 20% hole in every medical bill, plus whatever sits above the limit. Medical Payments coverage, or MedPay, is the optional add-on built to fill the gap.
MedPay is voluntary, and you choose the limit. It can cover the 20% PIP won’t, your PIP deductible, and the copays your health plan throws at you. It carries no 14-day deadline, and it pays whether or not your injury counts as an emergency. The tradeoff is scope: MedPay only covers medical costs, with nothing for lost wages or replacement services. For a few dollars a month, though, it closes the exact gap that leaves crash victims with surprise bills.
| Feature | PIP | MedPay |
|---|---|---|
| Required in Florida? | Yes, by law | No, optional |
| Share of medical bills | 80% | Up to 100% of the rest, to your limit |
| Lost wages | Yes, 60% | No |
| Death benefit | Yes, $5,000 | No |
| 14-day deadline | Yes | No |
| Emergency-condition rule | Yes ($2,500 cap if not an EMC) | No |
| Who pays first | Primary | Secondary to PIP |
For injuries from a car crash, PIP is normally the primary payer, and your health insurance sits behind it. Providers bill PIP first, and once that $10,000 runs out, your health plan picks up what’s left, subject to its own deductible and copays.
That order matters for your wallet. If you have a high-deductible health plan, burning through PIP early can leave you paying that full deductible before your health insurer pays a cent. This is exactly where MedPay earns its keep.
Some PIP policies also carry a deductible, which Florida lets insurers offer up to $1,000. A higher deductible trims your premium but means more of the first bills come straight out of pocket, one more gap MedPay can absorb.
A practical rule: know which policy pays first before you’re hurt, not from a hospital bed. Pull your declarations page, confirm your PIP limit, check whether you carry MedPay, and look at your health plan’s deductible. Those four numbers decide how much of a crash you actually pay for.
Say you’re rear-ended on US 19 in Clearwater. You feel stiff but skip the ER. Ten days later, your neck is worse, so you finally see a doctor, still inside the 14-day window. The doctor documents an emergency medical condition, so your full $10,000 in PIP is available.
Your treatment runs $14,000 across an MRI and months of physical therapy. PIP pays 80% up to its limit, so it covers $10,000. You also missed three weeks of work and lost $3,000 in wages, and PIP reimburses 60% of that, or $1,800.
That still leaves a $4,000 medical balance and $1,200 in unpaid wages. MedPay, if you carried it, could absorb much of the medical gap. The rest, including pain and suffering, is what a claim against the at-fault driver is for.
The first two weeks decide whether PIP pays at all. A short checklist keeps your claim alive:
Yes. Repeal bills surface almost every session, including Senate Bill 522 in 2026, which died in committee, but none have passed. Florida’s no-fault law under Statute 627.736 is still in force, and every owner of a registered four-wheel vehicle must carry at least $10,000 in PIP.
Up to $10,000 if a qualifying provider determines you had an emergency medical condition. If your injury is not classified as an emergency, PIP caps medical benefits at $2,500. Within those limits, it pays 80% of necessary medical bills and 60% of lost wages, plus a $5,000 death benefit.
You have to get initial medical care within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and the insurer can deny your PIP medical claim entirely, no matter how serious the injury later turns out to be.
No. PIP pays medical bills, part of your lost wages, replacement services, and a death benefit. To recover pain and suffering, you generally have to step outside no-fault and bring a claim against the at-fault driver, which Florida allows when the injury meets the permanent-injury threshold in Statute 627.737.
PIP is mandatory and pays 80% of medical bills plus a share of lost wages. MedPay is optional and can pay the remaining 20%, your deductible, and your copays, with no 14-day deadline. MedPay is secondary, so PIP pays first.
For car-accident injuries, PIP is usually the primary payer. Health insurance typically picks up costs after PIP’s limit is reached, subject to your plan’s own deductible and copays.
PIP stops at its limit. After that, your health insurance, MedPay if you carry it, and ultimately a claim against the at-fault driver cover the rest. This is why $10,000 rarely settles a serious-injury case on its own.
PIP gets the first bills paid, but it rarely makes you whole after a serious crash. If your costs run past your coverage or an insurer is fighting your claim, it’s worth knowing what else you can recover. Neal & Solevilla handles Florida car accident and injury claims and offers a free case review. Call or text (727) 616-6325, schedule a free consultation, or see how we handle car accident claims.
This article is general information about Florida law as of June 2026, not legal advice. Statute 627.736 is amended from time to time; confirm current limits and consult a licensed Florida attorney about your situation.
