PIP and med-pay rules in Maine

If you were just hurt in a Maine crash, the first practical question is usually who pays the ambulance and the ER bill while everything else gets sorted out. In many states the answer is PIP, personal injury protection, a no-fault coverage that pays your medical bills no matter who caused the wreck. Maine doesn't work that way.

Maine has no PIP and no no-fault system at all. It is a traditional at-fault (tort) state, so the driver who caused the crash, through their liability insurance, is ultimately responsible for your injuries. What Maine does require is a small amount of medical payments coverage, usually called med-pay, that sits on your own policy and pays your bills up front regardless of fault. The exact rules on that coverage matter, because the mandatory minimum is low and the window to use it is short.

How Maine's at-fault system works

There is no PIP statute in Maine and no injury threshold you have to clear before you can sue. That is the opposite of a no-fault state, where your own insurer pays your medical bills first and your right to sue the other driver is limited. In Maine you can pursue the at-fault driver's bodily injury liability coverage directly for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

The trade-off is timing. The at-fault driver's insurer investigates first, and payment often arrives as a lump-sum settlement months later. Med-pay exists to bridge that gap.

The med-pay coverage every Maine policy carries

Maine law requires every personal auto policy issued for a vehicle registered or principally garaged in the state to include medical payments coverage of at least $2,000 per person.¹² It pays medical costs for injuries to the driver and passengers in a crash involving the insured vehicle, and it pays regardless of who was at fault.¹

Two features of the statute are easy to miss. First, there is no waiver. Unlike optional coverages you can decline, this med-pay is mandatory on standard policies, and the statute contains no rejection option.¹ Second, the coverage only reaches medical costs incurred during the one year following the date of injury.¹ Bills that arrive after that first year are not covered by med-pay, even for the same injury.

The requirement does not apply to every vehicle. Policies covering more than four motor vehicles, and policies for a garage, auto sales agency, repair shop, service station, or public parking place, are exempt.¹

Why $2,000 goes fast, and the limits you can buy

$2,000 is not much medicine. A single ambulance ride plus an emergency room visit can burn through it before you have had any follow-up care. The minimum is a floor. Treat it as a starting point.

Higher limits are available and cheap. Maine insurers commonly offer med-pay at $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, or more for a modest additional premium.¹² If you are buying or renewing a Maine policy, raising this line is one of the least expensive ways to keep your own bills covered while a liability claim is pending.

How med-pay fits with the rest of a Maine policy

Med-pay is one piece of what Maine requires. The full set of mandatory minimums looks like this:

Bodily injury liability of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident, plus $25,000 property damage. A combined single limit of $125,000 also satisfies the law.³²
Medical payments of at least $2,000 per person.¹
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident.⁴²
Towing and storage coverage up to $500 per accident when your vehicle is towed after a crash.⁵

The UM/UIM piece deserves a closer look, because it is your backstop when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough. By default, Maine sets your UM/UIM limits equal to the bodily injury liability limits you chose.⁴ You can buy down to lower limits, but only by signing a written rejection dated before the policy takes effect, and even then the coverage cannot fall below the 50/100 statutory floor.⁴ Med-pay and UM/UIM do different jobs. Med-pay pays your bills quickly and without a fault fight, while UM/UIM steps in for the larger damages an underinsured driver cannot cover.

Med-pay pays first, but the at-fault driver still owes the full bill

Here is the part that trips people up. When your med-pay covers your ER visit, that does not let the at-fault driver off the hook for the same bill. Maine follows the common-law collateral source rule in ordinary negligence cases, so payments from your own insurance are generally not used to shrink what the responsible driver owes. The one statutory exception, which lets a court offset an award by collateral source payments, is limited to professional negligence (medical malpractice) actions and does not apply to car crashes.⁶

In practice, you can collect your med-pay now and still pursue full compensation from the at-fault driver later. Watch for subrogation, though. The insurer that paid your med-pay may have a right to be reimbursed out of your eventual settlement, so the money is often not a permanent double recovery. A quick read of your policy's med-pay and subrogation language tells you where you stand.

Two clocks you can't ignore

Maine's med-pay rules create a short deadline that is separate from the deadline to sue.

The med-pay clock is one year. Only medical costs incurred within twelve months of the injury are covered.¹ Get evaluated early, keep treating, and submit bills promptly so you do not lose coverage on care that slips past the anniversary.

The lawsuit clock is six years. Maine's general civil statute of limitations gives you six years from the date the claim accrues to file a personal injury suit, with no shorter special period for car accident cases.⁷ Six years is generous next to most states, but evidence fades, so it is not a reason to wait.

One more rule shapes what you can recover. Maine uses modified comparative negligence. Your damages are reduced by your share of fault, and if a jury finds you equally at fault, meaning 50% or more, you recover nothing.⁸ Because med-pay pays without regard to fault, it is the one source that reaches you even while a fault dispute is unresolved.

Documenting the crash and getting help

Your med-pay and any injury claim both rest on the record you build now. Save every bill, keep a treatment log, and get the official crash report for Maine. If your car lost market value on top of the repair cost, that is a separate claim, and you can read about it on the Maine diminished value page.

Maine is an at-fault state with a low med-pay floor and a comparative negligence bar, so the value of a claim often turns on the details. If your injuries are serious or fault is contested, it is worth talking to a lawyer, and you can find one through the legal directory.

This article is general information about Maine law, not legal advice.

Sources

Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605-A (Medical payments). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605-A.html
Maine Bureau of Insurance, Insurance Required by Law. https://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/consumers/auto-insurance/insurance-required-by-law
Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605 (Proof of financial responsibility). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 24-A M.R.S. § 2902 (Uninsured vehicle coverage). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/24-a/title24-Asec2902.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 29-A M.R.S. § 1605-B (Towing and storage). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1605-B.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 24 M.R.S. § 2906 (Collateral sources). https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/statutes/24/title24sec2906-2.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. § 752 (Limitation of actions). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec752.html
Maine Revised Statutes, 14 M.R.S. § 156 (Comparative negligence). https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec156.html

PIP & Med-Pay Rules in Maine