What is medical payments coverage (MPC)?

Medical Payments Coverage (MPC) is extra coverage on your auto insurance policy.  Medical Payments Coverage is not required unlike liability or uninsured coverage is, and if you have a lien holder, collision coverage.  Medical Payments Coverage is extra coverage that helps pay medical costs for you and your passengers in the event you are in an auto accident. This may include hospital and ambulance bills, as well as doctor visits and other necessary medical treatments. The important thing to remember is that MPC doesn’t care who is at fault for the accident, it still pays. It wouldn’t matter if you caused the accident or if someone else was at fault for the accident the coverage would still pay out to all people who are in the vehicle.

Here’s how it works:

If you have an accident while a friend is riding in your car and you are both injured, your MPC will take care of his bills & your bills up to the amount of Medical Payments Coverage you purchased on your policy.   That amount could vary depending on what you purchased when you obtained your auto insurance. Amounts are available as low as $500 and as high as $50,000.00, determine what the right amount of coverage for you is after speaking with your authorized insurance agent.

Health providers, like any other bill collector, want to get paid within thirty days after they treat you.  MPC comes in handy for such payments especially if you do not have health insurance.  If you do have health insurance, the MPC can pay the balance owed after health insurance paid their part keeping the provider from turning the bill over to collections. Unfortunately, liability insurance (the at-fault driver’s insurance) will NOT pay any auto-accident-related bill UNTIL the claim against them is agreed upon or settled which could take up to a year if not longer.

Medical payments coverage is not mandatory coverage but could be well worth having on your policy in the unfortunate event you are in an auto accident and sustain injury needing a doctor’s care.  MPC may bridge the gap by paying for services that you cannot afford at the time due to being out of work from the injuries you sustained in the accident.  Be sure to review your auto insurance policy and talk to your insurance agent to determine if medical payments coverage is right for you.