PIP and Med-Pay rules in Kansas

Kansas runs on a no-fault system for car crash injuries. In practice that means the first insurance to pay your medical bills after a wreck is usually your own, no matter who caused it. That coverage is personal injury protection, or PIP, and every auto policy sold in Kansas has to include it under the Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act.¹² Here is what PIP actually buys you in Kansas, what it doesn't, and the deadlines that can quietly cost you money.

PIP is mandatory and pays regardless of fault

The Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act (K.S.A. 40-3101 et seq.) exists to compensate injured people "promptly ... in lieu of liability."² You don't wait for anyone to admit fault. You file with your own insurer, and benefits start as your losses accrue.

Kansas sets floor amounts for each PIP benefit. Your policy can be more generous, but it can't drop below the minimums in K.S.A. 40-3103, which the Kansas Department of Insurance also lays out in its Auto Insurance Shopper's Guide:³⁴

• Medical expenses: at least $4,500 per person for hospital, surgical, x-ray, dental, nursing, ambulance, and prosthetic care.
• Rehabilitation: at least $4,500 for therapy and retraining to get back to work.
• Disability and loss of income: at least $900 a month for up to one year if you can't work.
• Substitution benefits: $25 a day for up to 365 days to hire out tasks you'd normally do yourself, like childcare or yard work.
• Funeral, burial, or cremation: up to $2,000.
• Survivors' benefits: up to $900 a month for up to one year for a surviving family's lost support.

These are per-person figures, and the categories stack rather than sharing one pool.

Who PIP covers

PIP isn't limited to the policyholder. Under K.S.A. 40-3107(f), a Kansas policy's PIP has to cover the named insured, relatives living in the same household, anyone driving the insured car with permission, passengers, and pedestrians struck by the vehicle.⁵ So if you were a passenger in a friend's car, or you were hit while walking, PIP benefits are usually available through the applicable policy.

The deadlines that matter

Two clocks run at once, and people mix them up constantly.

The claim clock comes first. You have to submit a PIP claim within two years of the date of injury; K.S.A. 40-3110 closes the door after that.⁶

Then the payment clock. Once your insurer receives written proof of a covered loss, PIP benefits are overdue if they aren't paid within 30 days, and disability benefits are supposed to arrive at least every two weeks.⁶ If the insurer sits on an overdue payment, the statute adds simple interest at 18% a year.⁶ That's a real lever when a company slow-walks your bills.

Keep your records tight from the start. The official crash report is part of that file; you can order it through our Kansas crash reports page.

When you can step outside no-fault and sue

No-fault limits your right to sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering. In Kansas you can bring a tort claim for noneconomic damages only if you clear one of the thresholds in K.S.A. 40-3117:⁷

• your reasonable medical treatment is worth $2,000 or more, or
• the injury is permanent disfigurement, a fracture to a weight-bearing bone (or a compound, comminuted, displaced, or compressed fracture), loss of a body part, a permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of a bodily function, or death.⁷

The $2,000 medical threshold is low on purpose, and a serious crash usually clears it quickly. But it is the gate. If your treatment stays cheap and your injury isn't on the list, Kansas keeps you inside the no-fault system. Whether a claim is worth pursuing often turns on that math, and it's worth asking a lawyer; you can start with the legal directory.

Your PIP insurer can take part of your settlement

Here's the part that catches people off guard. If you collect PIP from your own insurer and later win or settle a claim against the at-fault driver, your insurer gets reimbursed for the duplicative PIP it already paid. K.S.A. 40-3113a gives it a subrogation right up to the amount of overlap.⁸ The court sets attorney fees and splits them proportionally between you and the insurer, and the insurer's share shrinks by whatever percentage of fault is assigned to you.⁸

That statute also hides a deadline. If you don't file suit against the at-fault driver within 18 months of the accident, your claim is treated as assigned to your PIP insurer, which can then pursue the other driver itself.⁸ Wait too long and you can hand your own case to your insurance company.

Where Med-Pay fits

Kansas doesn't require separate medical payments coverage, because PIP already covers medical bills. What insurers sell here is excess medical payments coverage. The Kansas Department of Insurance describes it as coverage for "necessary excess medical amounts over and above those paid under PIP/Kansas no-fault benefits."⁴ It's a top-up. When your $4,500 in PIP medical runs out, and after a serious injury it can run out fast, Med-Pay covers more of the bill, still without regard to fault. It's optional, and given how modest the PIP medical floor is, it's worth asking your agent about.

One thing neither PIP nor Med-Pay touches is your car. Both are for bodily injury only. Vehicle repairs, a total loss, and the lost resale value after a repair run through property damage liability, collision, or a diminished value claim, which we cover on our Kansas diminished value page.

If you were driving uninsured

Kansas penalizes skipping mandatory coverage. Under K.S.A. 40-3130, the owner of an uninsured vehicle who is hurt while driving it has no cause of action for noneconomic loss.⁹ There are narrow exceptions: a court can excuse it on clear and convincing evidence that you didn't knowingly drive uninsured, or if your coverage had lapsed for 45 days or less after at least a year of continuous coverage.⁹ Otherwise, no insurance means no pain-and-suffering claim, even against a driver who was entirely at fault.

How UM and UIM back you up

Every Kansas auto policy also has to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matching your bodily injury liability limits under K.S.A. 40-284, with a statutory minimum of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.¹⁰⁴ If the driver who hit you had no insurance or not enough, this coverage fills the gap, and it works alongside your PIP.

This is general information about Kansas law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act, short title, K.S.A. 40-3101. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0001.html

2. Purpose of the act, K.S.A. 40-3102. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0002.html

3. Personal injury protection benefit definitions and minimum amounts, K.S.A. 40-3103. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0003.html

4. Kansas Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Shopper's Guide. https://insurance.ks.gov/documents/department/publications/auto-shoppers-guide.pdf

5. Required PIP coverage and covered persons, K.S.A. 40-3107. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0007.html

6. Payment of PIP benefits, overdue interest, and claim deadline, K.S.A. 40-3110. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0010.html

7. Tort threshold for noneconomic damages, K.S.A. 40-3117. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0017.html

8. PIP subrogation and reimbursement, K.S.A. 40-3113a. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0013a.html

9. Uninsured vehicle owner barred from noneconomic recovery, K.S.A. 40-3130. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_031_0030.html

10. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage required, K.S.A. 40-284. https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch40/040_002_0084.html