Car & vehicle insurance
No-fault and PIP coverage in New York
New York pays your medical bills through your own policy regardless of who caused the accident. It is one of the better things about insurance in this state, and it comes with a deadline that quietly costs people their benefits every week.
No-fault, written on your declarations page as personal injury protection, pays your own economic losses after a motor accident without anybody deciding whose fault it was first. Medical treatment, eighty per cent of lost earnings up to a monthly cap, and reasonable necessary expenses like transport to appointments and household help you now have to pay somebody for.
The trade-off New York made for that speed is that you cannot sue an ordinary driver for pain and suffering unless your injury meets the statutory serious injury threshold. Economic losses come from your own policy quickly; general damages require you to clear a bar. That is the bargain, and it is worth understanding before you need it rather than afterwards.
What the $50,000 actually covers
Fifty thousand dollars per person is the mandatory basic amount, and it is a single pot rather than separate allowances. Medical bills, lost earnings at eighty per cent up to $2,000 a month for up to three years, and up to $25 a day of other reasonable expenses all draw on the same $50,000.
That sounds like a lot until you price a few weeks of physiotherapy against a month of lost wages for somebody earning a normal Queens income. The pot empties faster than people expect, and it empties in order of who bills first, which is not the same as in order of what matters most to you.
The deadline that costs people their benefits
The written application for no-fault benefits — form NF-2 — generally has to reach the insurer within thirty days of the accident, and medical bills within forty-five days of the treatment. Miss it without a good written explanation and the carrier can deny the whole thing, no matter how badly you were hurt or how clearly the other driver was at fault.
This is the single most useful reason to ring an agency the same day rather than the next month. It takes a few minutes, it is free, and it is the difference between a claim and a letter explaining why there is no claim. If you were a passenger in somebody else's car, or a pedestrian, the deadline still applies and the policy that pays may not be one you have ever seen.
Optional basic economic loss, and why we push it
For a very small annual amount you can add optional basic economic loss, usually another $25,000 on top of the mandatory fifty, and you can direct it at lost earnings rather than letting it be consumed by medical billing. For a household living on its wages that is the most useful fifty dollars on the whole policy.
Additional PIP takes it further again. Neither is expensive, because the mandatory layer has already absorbed the frequency risk and the extra sits on top of a pot that mostly does not empty. If you read nothing else on this page, ask us what optional basic economic loss costs on your policy.
Who is and is not covered
Your PIP covers you, members of your household, your passengers and pedestrians you strike, in a motor accident in New York. It does not cover you on a motorcycle, which the statute excludes from mandatory no-fault entirely — a fact that surprises almost every new rider and is dealt with on the motorcycle page.
It is also the reason a household with no car is not automatically without cover: if you are hurt as a pedestrian or a passenger, some policy's no-fault responds, and working out which one is exactly the sort of question worth ringing about on the day rather than guessing at.
We report your claim. We do not decide it. We do not decide your claim, and no agency does. Coverage is decided by the carrier's adjuster against the policy wording, and an agency that tells you on the telephone that you are covered is guessing with your money. What we can do is real but limited: report the loss the same day, send the carrier the policy and endorsement history, put our reading of the wording in writing, escalate above the adjuster, and tell you plainly when we think a denial is wrong. If you need somebody to negotiate the settlement figure itself, that is a public adjuster, licensed separately by the Department of Financial Services, and it is not us.
Included as standard
How we handle this line
The NF-2 started the same day
We send it, we keep a dated copy, and we tell you what the carrier will ask for next. Free, and on any policy we placed.
Optional basic economic loss priced
Quoted on every motor policy we write, whether or not you asked, because it is the cheapest useful thing on the page.
The wage side explained
Eighty per cent up to a monthly cap is not the same as your salary. We do that arithmetic against your actual income before you choose limits.
Passenger and pedestrian cases
We work out whose policy responds when you were not driving, which is not always obvious and is often not yours.
Nothing about your injury
We are not doctors and we make no statement about your treatment or your prognosis. That belongs entirely to you and your physician.
Honest about the threshold
We will tell you that general damages need the serious injury threshold, and that arguing it is a lawyer's job rather than an agency's.
When to ring us
Signs this is worth a conversation
- You have had an accident in the last thirty days and have not filed anything yet.
- You were a passenger or a pedestrian and do not know whose policy pays.
- Your household lives on its wages and you have never been offered optional basic economic loss.
- A medical provider has told you your no-fault has been denied and you do not know why.
- You ride a motorcycle and assumed your no-fault follows you onto it.
No-fault & PIP — what it typically costs
- $50,000 per person is mandatory on every New York policy. Additional PIP and optional basic economic loss are cheap and almost always worth buying.Included
This is a typical premium range for this area. It is not a quote, and it is not our price. We do not set premiums: a carrier files its rates with the Department of Financial Services and our commission is already inside the filed rate, so the same policy from the same carrier costs the same through any producer in New York. What genuinely moves your own number is which carrier writes it, the limits and deductibles you choose, and the facts on your record — which is what we would go through with you before anything is quoted.
Questions we are actually asked
No-fault & PIP — frequently asked
How long do I have to file a no-fault claim in New York?
The written application generally has to reach the insurer within thirty days of the accident, and medical bills within forty-five days of treatment. Late filing can be excused with a reasonable written justification, but that is an argument you have to win rather than a right you have. Ring the same day; it takes minutes.
Does no-fault pay if the accident was my fault?
Yes. That is the entire point of it. Fault decides who pays for the damage to the cars and who is liable for injuries beyond the threshold; it has nothing to do with whether your own PIP pays your medical bills and lost wages.
Can I sue the other driver as well?
For economic losses beyond your PIP, and for pain and suffering only if your injury meets New York's serious injury threshold. Whether it does is a legal question and not one this agency can answer — if you are asking it seriously, you want a lawyer, and we will say so rather than guess.
Is PIP the same as health insurance?
No, and it usually pays first. After a motor accident in New York, no-fault is generally the primary payer for the related treatment, ahead of your health plan. That is why the form matters: the provider is billing an insurer that has not been told the claim exists.
Related cover
Usually considered alongside this
Car insurance
The whole New York motor policy explained by its seven parts — and what each one actually pays for when somebody hits you on Roosevelt Avenue.
$2,400 – $6,200
Uninsured motorist
The cover that pays when the driver who hit you has none, too little, or drove away. The mandatory part is smaller than most people assume.
$40 – $220
Motorcycle insurance
A different policy with a different no-fault rule — motorcycles are excluded from New York PIP, which surprises almost every new rider.
$600 – $2,800
Claims support
Reporting it the same day, sending the carrier the history, and escalating — but never deciding, because deciding is not ours to do.
No chargeBring the declarations page and we will read it with you
Ask us what it would cost
Send or bring the summary pages of what you already have — those two sheets are where most of the useful conversation is. We will tell you what we would place it with and what that would cost, what we are paid for doing it, and whether you should move at all. Quite often the answer is that your current policy is priced fairly and you should keep it, and that is an answer we give in writing like any other.