Who Pays Medical Bills When PIP Was Cancelled

Attorney Answer

Do not send it yet. The adjuster has made this sound like a paperwork problem, and it is not. Proving to the other side that your own coverage had lapsed hands an adverse insurer information it can use for more than deciding who pays your bills, and a lapse in coverage on a registered Florida vehicle carries consequences of its own. Talk to a Florida attorney before you respond to that request.

It helps to separate two coverages that get mixed together in these conversations. Personal injury protection is your own coverage, bought on your own policy. Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1) requires a complying policy to provide it to the named insured, to relatives living in the same household, to people operating the insured vehicle and to passengers in it, up to a limit of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits. Under § 627.736(1)(a) the medical benefit is 80 percent of reasonable expenses for medically necessary care, and it depends on the injured person receiving initial services and care within 14 days after the accident. That is where the 80 percent the adjuster mentioned comes from — and if there was no policy in force, there is no PIP carrier to pay it.

The other driver's insurer is a different thing entirely. It pays what its own insured is legally responsible for, once fault and the amount of the loss are established. It does not step into the role of a substitute PIP carrier and start paying medical bills at a percentage on request. So the adjuster's premise and your proposed answer to it are both slightly off: showing there is no PIP does not convert that company into one that pays your bills as they come in.

The good news is real. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2), the permanent-injury threshold gates only damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience. Economic losses — medical expenses and lost income — are not gated by it. And Florida has no statute stripping an uninsured person of a claim. The only recovery bar of that kind, Fla. Stat. § 768.36(2), applies only where two things are true together: the injured person was under the influence of alcohol or a drug to the point that normal faculties were impaired, or was at a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher, and, as a result of that influence, was more than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm. Both parts must be true. A lapsed policy is not one of them.

The careful part is the flip side. Florida requires an owner or operator of a vehicle registered here to maintain the ability to respond in damages for property damage under Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1), plus the personal injury protection coverage Florida separately requires. A gap in that coverage can bring registration and license consequences separate from anything in your injury claim. Documenting that gap, in writing, to a company whose interests run against yours is not a neutral act — which is why the answer to "should I send them proof" is "ask a lawyer first," not "yes."

What you can do

1. Do not send the cancellation notice or any other document to the other driver's insurer, and do not give a recorded statement, until a Florida attorney has looked at your situation.

2. Ask your own insurer, in writing, for your declarations page, the cancellation notice and confirmation of exactly what coverage was in force on the date of the crash. You are entitled to your own policy documents.

3. Check whether any other policy might reach you — § 627.736(1) covers relatives living in the same household under their policy as well.

4. Keep every bill, explanation of benefits and record of missed work, and tell your treating providers the treatment is for a crash.

5. Ask a Florida lawyer how to answer the adjuster, and whether the coverage gap creates any exposure beyond this claim.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with someone who can hear the whole story is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Fla. Stat. § 95.11 sets the limitations period for the injury claim, and it changed in 2023: accidents before March 24, 2023 fell under the former four-year negligence period, and later accidents under a shorter one. Where PIP applies at all, § 627.736(1)(a) adds its own 14-day treatment trigger. Your dates decide both, so have a Florida attorney review them rather than working from a general rule.