Las Vegas Auto Accident - Med Pay Insurance

Las Vegas Auto Accident - Med Pay Insurance

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I'm often asked by people, "If I'm involved in a Las Vegas auto-accident, what are some of the first things that I should do?" Well, of course, the first thing you should do if you're involved in a motor-vehicle accident is make sure that your vehicles are safely off the roadway so that further accidents don't happen. Of course, if anybody's seriously injured and requires medical attention, it's never a problem to call 911 and seek emergency personal. Beyond that, it's important to obtain the identity of the driver you believe caused the accident, or who is responsible for the accident. You can do that in two ways: It's important to get the driver's name, address, and even a telephone number, but also cross-reference that with the driver's actual driver's license or some other form of I.D., just to insure the person's name that you're getting is actually the person involved in the accident. If you have a cell phone or any other type of apparatus that can take pictures, it's a good idea to take pictures of your vehicle as well as the vehicle involved in the accident with you. That's just to preserve evidence in the event something were to come up down the road, or there's some form of denial regarding the amount of damage to the vehicles involved.

Of course, you should summon the police unless it happens on private property. That's important because without some determination of fault it makes it more difficult to successfully deal with the insurance company for the at fault driver. In other words, when the police are summoned and a ticket is issued for the fault of the driver who caused the accident, you're more likely to have an easier time convincing that driver's insurance company that there is liability and that they should be compensating you for such things as the damage to your vehicle, a rental car, as well as a claim for injuries that you may be making in the event that you're injured. So those are just a few tips that I would recommend in the event that you're involved in an accident here in Las Vegas.

One of the things I'm often asked by clients, or people in general, is, "How much insurance should I have? What are the Las Vegas car insurance laws?" That has actually been set by statute. In order to drive legally in Nevada, you have to have at least $15,000 per person in liability coverage. It's funny, that limit was set back in 1958, when the dollar went a lot further than it does now. I encourage all my clients, and everyone I talk to, to get higher limits. It doesn't cost much more; usually just a few dollars more per month can dramatically increase your liability coverage. The other thing that you need to remember, though, is we're having a severe economic crisis in this country, and Nevada has been hit particularly hard. Conservative estimates are that 1 in 6 drivers don't even have car insurance right now. That means that if you're hit by somebody and you're hurt and they don't have coverage, typically they don't have any assets, so you're not going to be able to get any money from that person or that person's insurance company, because it doesn't exist, and you're going to be on the hook for all your medical bills and all your problems, and the cost of your vehicle.

So I encourage all of my clients to get what's called "Uninsured Motorist Protection". Simply stated, that just means that if I get hit by somebody that doesn't have insurance, my insurance company is going to step in and cover it as if they insure that other person. Uninsured motorist carries another benefit: If I'm hit by somebody that has insurance but doesn't have much, and it isn't enough to cover all my harms and my losses, I can turn to my uninsured carrier, and they supplement the insurance the other driver has. It becomes under-insured coverage. I encourage everyone to talk to their insurance agent, and he or she will answer all those questions in more detail, but uninsured motorist is definitely something everybody should have.

If you've never heard of Las Vegas "Medical Payments Coverage", it's an extra coverage that you can get through your insurance company. A lot of people I talk to say, "Oh, I have full coverage, I have everything I need.", but they really don't have full coverage. To me, full coverage is every coverage available: rental car coverage, uninsured coverage, under-insured coverage, and medical benefits coverage (commonly known as "Med Pay"). Las Vegas Med Pay coverage is a no fault health insurance policy that you have if you're in your car when there's an accident, and it covers anybody in your car, and it's usually sold in 1, 2, 5, or 10 thousand dollar increments (I carry $5,000 in Med Pay coverage). What that does is it will pay all of your out-of-pocket expenses, all of your co-pays, and all of your deductibles caused by a car accident, regardless of whether or not your caused it. Even if you have health insurance, there are a lot of costs that don't get covered, and Med Pay can cover those things. The other benefit for that: the at fault driver's insurance company doesn't get the benefit of the Med Pay, so if Med Pay benefits have been expended, the other driver is still responsible for all the bills and all the costs incurred.

One of the other things I tell all my clients about Med Pay coverage is that if you go to the hospital, don't bring in your car insurance. The hospital wants to use your Med Pay because it's like cash to them. But, if you have health insurance, use your health insurance. Hospitals will suck up all of the Med Pay and then they'll still bill your health insurance for the balance. So don't tell them you have Med Pay, just tell them you have health insurance. They're required to take it if you have it. The other thing I tell me clients about Med Pay is if you use it, because there's no fault (it doesn't matter if it's your fault or not) your insurance company can't raise your rates or increase your premiums or drop you if you use it, so there's no reason not to use it if you do have it.

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