If you were just hurt in a Colorado crash, you might be hunting for the "PIP" line on your policy and not finding it. That's because Colorado doesn't have personal injury protection anymore. The state ran a no-fault system for three decades, then let it expire, so the rules here work differently from Florida, Michigan, and the other no-fault states. What you do have is optional medical payments coverage plus a handful of specific Colorado rules that decide how much your insurer had to offer you, how that money gets paid, and who is allowed to take it back.
Colorado no longer has PIP
Colorado adopted no-fault insurance in 1973 under the Colorado Auto Accident Reparations Act. Every auto policy had to carry PIP, which paid your own medical bills and lost wages no matter who caused the wreck. The General Assembly let that law sunset, and it was repealed effective July 1, 2003.1 Since then Colorado has been a fault, or tort, state. The driver who caused the crash, through their liability insurance, is responsible for your injuries and property damage.2
There is no PIP endorsement to buy and no first-party wage-loss coverage built into a standard policy the way no-fault states require. In practice, your treatment gets paid one of three ways: your own health insurance, optional medical payments coverage if you bought it, or the at-fault driver's liability insurance at the end of your claim. That last one can take months. The first two are what keep bills covered while your case is still open.
What MedPay is, and the $5,000 your insurer must offer
Medical payments coverage, usually just called MedPay, is the closest thing Colorado still has to the old PIP. It pays reasonable and necessary medical expenses from a crash without regard to who was at fault.2 It's optional, but an insurer can't quietly leave it off your policy. Under C.R.S. 10-4-635, a company may issue an auto policy without MedPay only if you reject the coverage in writing, or in the same format you used to apply.3 If the insurer never offers it, or can't produce proof that you rejected it, the law presumes your policy includes MedPay with a $5,000 benefit anyway.3
The company also has to keep your signed rejection on file for at least three years.3 So if you're told after a crash that you have no MedPay, ask the insurer to produce that rejection. If they can't, the $5,000 may still be sitting there.
One Colorado-specific wrinkle sits inside that minimum. On a $5,000 MedPay policy, the statute directs the insurer to hold the money for emergency and trauma care first. For the first 30 days after the insurer gets notice of the crash, the coverage is reserved to pay ambulance services, emergency physicians, and trauma centers before it can go to other providers.3 It keeps the people who treat you in the first hours from being crowded out.
MedPay pays fast, and it stacks
Because MedPay ignores fault, it pays without waiting for anyone to sort out blame. You can put it toward the emergency room bill, imaging, a deductible or copay on your health plan, or care your health insurer won't cover.2 It applies whether you were driving, riding as a passenger, or struck as a pedestrian, and it usually reaches resident family members too. Five thousand dollars is modest, and you can buy higher limits, but it's money that shows up early, when the bills are landing and the liability claim is nowhere near settled.
The made-whole rule keeps your MedPay yours
Here's a protection a lot of people never hear about. When your MedPay or health insurer pays your bills, it often wants that money back out of your eventual settlement. In Colorado, it cannot take a dime until you've been paid in full first. C.R.S. 10-1-135 allows reimbursement or subrogation only after the injured person has been fully compensated for all damages from the claim, and any policy term that tries to grab the money sooner is void as against public policy.4 Even then, whatever the insurer recovers has to be cut by its share of the attorney fees and costs you spent to get the recovery.4 This "made-whole" rule means a small settlement goes to you, not to repay the company that already paid your doctors.
The coverage Colorado makes you carry, and what to add
Colorado requires liability insurance at 25/50/15: $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage.52 If you buy a combined single limit instead of split limits, the state minimum is $65,000.2 Those are floors, and they're low. One ambulance ride and an ER visit can burn through $25,000.
That's why the coverages the state only makes insurers offer matter more here than in a no-fault state. Insurers have to offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under C.R.S. 10-4-609, in an amount equal to your bodily injury limits or $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident, whichever is less.62 You can reject UM/UIM in writing, the same way you can reject MedPay.2 With no PIP to fall back on and plenty of underinsured drivers on the road, MedPay and UM/UIM are the two first-party coverages that actually protect you after a Colorado crash.
How MedPay fits into a Colorado injury claim
Taking MedPay does not shrink what you can recover from the at-fault driver. Colorado's collateral source rules generally stop that driver from getting a credit for benefits you paid for yourself, like your own MedPay, so buying the coverage doesn't reduce your claim against them.7
The claim itself still runs on tort rules. Economic damages such as medical bills and lost wages aren't capped. Colorado uses modified comparative negligence, so you can recover as long as you're less than 50% at fault, and your award drops by your share of the blame.8 You generally have three years from the date of a motor vehicle crash to file suit, a deadline worth pinning down early because blowing it usually ends the case.9
If your car lost market value beyond the repair bill, that's a separate property claim; our Colorado diminished value guide covers it. To document the crash itself, start with the official Colorado crash report. And once the money gets tangled, say a health plan wants reimbursement while the at-fault driver turns out to be underinsured, that's the point to talk with an attorney.
The short version for Colorado: no PIP, but real MedPay if you didn't sign it away, and a made-whole rule that keeps it in your pocket. Before you assume you have nothing, check the declarations page of your own policy for the MedPay line.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Colorado Supreme Court, American Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Allen, No. 03SC358 (Colo. Dec. 6, 2004). https://www.coloradojudicial.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/03SC358.pdf
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Colorado Division of Insurance, Consumer's Guide to Auto Insurance. https://hermes.cde.state.co.us/islandora/object/co:4819/datastream/OBJ/download/Consumer_s_guide_to_auto_insurance.pdf
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Colorado Revised Statutes 10-4-635, Medical payments coverage. https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_10-4-635
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Colorado Revised Statutes 10-1-135, Reimbursement for benefits. https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_10-1-135
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Colorado Revised Statutes 10-4-620, Required liability coverages (Title 10). https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-10.pdf
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Colorado Revised Statutes 10-4-609, Uninsured motorist coverage (Title 10). https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-10.pdf
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Colorado Revised Statutes 13-21-111.6, Reduction of damages for collateral source (Title 13). https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-13.pdf
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Colorado Revised Statutes 13-21-111, Comparative negligence (Title 13). https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-13.pdf
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Colorado Revised Statutes 13-80-101(1)(n)(I), Limitation of actions (Title 13). https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-13.pdf