You’ve been injured in an automobile collision caused by another driver.  Who pays your medical bills and lost wages?

Many people expect the insurance company of the other driver who caused the crash to pay for their medical bills and lost wages. 

However, Minnesota is a “no-fault” state which means injured people are generally required to submit claims for medical bills and lost income to their own car insurance company as long as they were not injured while on the job at the time of the collision.  

Minnesota became one of a significant majority of states with a form of “no-fault” laws that our state initially enacted almost 50 years ago.  The Minnesota No-Fault Act can be found in Minn. Stat. §65B.41 and the following sections.  The primary purpose was to establish a uniform set of benefits available to Minnesota motorists to obtain quick payment without regard to who caused the collision (§65B.42).  The Act also wanted to encourage injured motorists to get prompt and appropriate medical care.  

Every insured motorist in Minnesota has at least $20,000 in medical expense benefits under Minn. Stat. §65B.44, subd. 1 and subd. 2.  Injured motorists can obtain payment for most commonly accepted forms of medical treatment.  An injured person can choose their own doctor and is not limited to “in network” providers and he or she does not need a referral to any specialists.  Thus, people can obtain repayment for treatment including chiropractic care, physical therapy, for specialists in orthopedics or neurology, diagnostic tests such as MRIs and X-rays, ambulance expenses, transportation to and from medical care providers, prescriptions and other medications, nursing services and even interpreting and language translation services.  

In terms of lost income or disability benefits, these are covered under Minn. Stat. §65B.44, subd. 3.  An injured person is entitled to 85% of their lost gross income or the expenses of a self-employed employee to hire substitute help to replace work that the injured motorist cannot.  Everyone is entitled to at least $500 in such benefits and can be retrained under limited circumstances.  

Another form of benefits is found under subd. 5, which are “replacement services.”  An injured person can recover up to $200 per week starting one week after the collision for all expenses reasonably incurred by the injured motorist to obtain reasonable value for household services.  This can include cooking, cleaning, repairs and maintenance that he or she cannot perform due to their injuries.  

It’s critical to obtain written support or verification by a health care provider for the wage loss and replacement services described above.

In order to obtain these benefits, the injured motorist has to notify their own car insurance company.  This often involves completing a somewhat dizzying amount of documentation including an Application for Benefits, other forms, signed releases and authorizations in order to start the process.  It’s important to look at the releases and authorizations carefully since often times the insurance company asks for too much information, including school records, event data recorders, unrelated medical care, substance use, genetic testing and other things to which they, quite frankly, are not entitled to.  I routinely eliminate these from the authorizations I ask my clients to sign.  

Finally, it’s important for the injured person to let their health care providers know to bill their automobile insurance carrier and provide them with the claim number.  The medical care provider has to submit bills electronically to the car insurance company.  An injured person’s own health insurance will not pay for collision-related care as long as the above-described medical expenses benefits are available from the automobile insurance company who is voluntarily paying the benefits.