Assignment of Benefits for PIP: Important Information from a Tampa Car Accident Attorney

If you are injured in an auto accident in the Tampa, FL area, your primary concern should be to get appropriate and adequate medical attention for your injuries. At the same time, however, it is important during this time of emotional and physical distress to recognize some of the financial issues that you may face. These financial issues are unique to auto accident injuries because they deal with the way auto insurance works in Tampa and throughout Florida.

Often, the financial distress you face after being injured in a Tampa Bay area car accident is best handled by a Tampa car accident attorney, since an experienced attorney will be able to take care of insurance claims while you concentrate on healing. For example, one of the first issues of your car accident injury claim is something called the “Assignment of Benefits” of your personal injury protection, or PIP, claim.

If you are in an auto accident in Tampa, Clearwater, St Petersburg, Brandon, or anywhere else in the vicinity—and your injuries are serious enough that you need to go to an emergency room either by ambulance or your own transportation—it is likely that the hospital emergency room will request that you complete an Assignment of Benefits form. The benefits that the hospital will be looking for you to assign are not only your health insurance benefits, but also your personal injury protection, or PIP.

Sounds simple at first, but as any knowledgeable Tampa car accident attorney will tell you, here's the problem with the PIP assignment of benefits at hospital emergency rooms. Hospital emergency room bills are so large that even a brief visit to the emergency room can exhaust those benefits. Furthermore, there are some hospital emergency rooms that are well known for doing unnecessary diagnostic tests that can cost thousands of dollars, and they will do these tests on virtually anyone who has been in an auto accident and goes to the emergency room for help. This is a serious problem and goes beyond just hospital emergency rooms taking advantage of auto accident victims. The problem is that the PIP insurance was designed by the state legislature to pay up to $10,000 for both medical care and wage loss reimbursement regardless of who is at fault in an auto accident. So, for example, if you are in an auto accident that requires you to go to the emergency room and don't have any health insurance, it will be very difficult to get any subsequent care if the hospital has exhausted your precious $10,000 of PIP. Insult is added to your injuries if the hospital didn't spend this valuable resource wisely.

Even more troublesome is that, if the hospital emergency room has needlessly exhausted your PIP with unnecessary diagnostic tests, there will be no remaining money available to reimburse you for your lost wages for at least several years, and perhaps forever. Regrettably, you'll never get reimbursed for lost wages if the person who hit you does not have bodily injury insurance and you don't carry uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Even if you are covered by one of those policies, generally the only insurance available to reimburse you immediately for lost wages will have to come from your $10,000 in PIP benefits. So, if you are unable to work for a period of weeks or months after an auto accident and have no PIP remaining after you pay emergency room bills, how do you put food on the table for your family, pay the mortgage, or keep the electricity on in your home? What can you do?

One thing you can do to protect yourself is to be careful of what you sign in the emergency room, although this can prove to be difficult, especially if you are injured. First and foremost, watch out for the paper called Assignment of Benefits. You may try to refuse to sign it. But, if you feel pressure to sign it because you really need treatment, you might write on the document, “Signed under duress for fear of potentially life-threatening injuries.” You might also try to contact a Tampa car accident attorney to discuss your rights in greater detail.

Serving Tampa, Seminole Heights, Seffner, Riverview, Dade City, and all communities in the greater Tampa Bay area, the law firm of Dale Appell, P.A. welcomes your call or e-mail about your Tampa area car accident with injuries. During a free initial consultation, our attorneys can assess your case and give you some valuable insight about how to move forward.