PIP and Med-Pay rules in Montana

If you were just hit by another driver in Montana, one of the first practical questions is who pays the doctor. Montana answers that differently from most states. There is no personal injury protection (PIP) here, and no no-fault system behind it. No law requires your own insurer to put medical coverage on your policy at all.

What you have to work with depends on the coverage you chose when you bought your policy and on the at-fault driver's insurance. Here is what Montana law requires, what it leaves optional, and how injured people actually get their bills paid.

Montana has no PIP and no no-fault

Montana is an at-fault (tort) state. The driver who caused the crash, through their liability insurer, is responsible for the harm they cause. There is no PIP because there is no no-fault framework that would make your own insurer cover your medical bills first, regardless of blame.

The only coverage Montana forces every driver to carry is liability. Under Mont. Code Ann. 61-6-103, a motor vehicle policy must provide at least $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 per accident when two or more people are hurt, and $20,000 for property damage.¹ Those are the familiar 25/50/20 minimums. Nothing in that statute requires PIP or medical payments coverage.¹

Montana's motor vehicle liability law sits in Title 33, chapter 23, part 2.² Its definitions section, 33-23-204, groups uninsured, underinsured, and medical payment coverages together as "additional coverages" a policy may include "by rider, endorsement, or otherwise."³ That is the statute's own language for optional add-ons. The Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance tells consumers the same thing: liability is required, and first-party coverages like MedPay are choices you make.⁴

What MedPay is, and what it does not do

Medical payments coverage, almost always shortened to MedPay, is the closest thing Montana offers to PIP. The catch is that you have to buy it. MedPay is first-party coverage, meaning it pays your own reasonable medical (and often funeral) expenses, and those of your passengers, no matter who caused the crash, up to the limit you purchased. Because it ignores fault, MedPay usually pays quickly, while a liability claim against the other driver can drag on for months.

MedPay is narrower than a true PIP benefit. It typically covers medical and funeral bills only. It does not replace your lost wages or pay for household help the way no-fault PIP does in the states that have it. Montana sets no statutory minimum limit and no filing deadline for MedPay, so the terms come entirely from your policy. Limits are commonly a few thousand dollars up to $10,000 or more, and you can decline the coverage altogether.

How your medical bills actually get paid

After a Montana crash, treatment usually gets paid through one or more of these routes:

• The at-fault driver's liability bodily injury coverage. This is the primary source, but it pays as a settlement or judgment near the end of the case, not up front, and it is capped at that driver's limits, which can be as low as the $25,000-per-person minimum.¹
• Your uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, if the at-fault driver had no insurance or not enough. Montana requires insurers to include uninsured motorist coverage on every policy, in limits tied to the 61-6-103 minimums, unless you reject it in writing. A written rejection carries forward to renewals with the same insurer until you ask for the coverage back in writing (Mont. Code Ann. 33-23-201).⁵ Underinsured motorist coverage is a separate optional add-on.
• Your MedPay coverage and your own health insurance, which can pay for treatment while the liability claim is still open.

Because the state minimums are low, drivers who carry MedPay along with UM/UIM have a real safety net when the person who hit them is uninsured or underinsured, which happens often.

The made-whole rule protects your recovery

If your MedPay carrier or health insurer pays your bills and you later recover money from the at-fault driver, that insurer will often claim a right to be repaid out of your settlement. That is subrogation, and Montana limits it in your favor.

Under Montana's made-whole doctrine, an insurer cannot exercise any subrogation right until you have been fully reimbursed for all of your losses, including the attorney fees you spent to recover them, no matter what the policy says. The Montana Supreme Court set this out in Swanson v. Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, holding that an insured "must be totally reimbursed for all losses ... before the insurer can exercise any right of subrogation, regardless of contract language to the contrary."⁶ So when a low policy limit forces you to settle for less than your full damages, your MedPay insurer generally cannot take a slice of what little you got.

The state's collateral source statute reinforces this. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-308 provides that, apart from subrogation rights specifically granted by law or contract, there is no right of subrogation for amounts paid to you from a collateral source, and it governs how those payments can affect a damages award at trial.⁷

Deadlines and fault rules that shape your claim

Montana gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit (Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-204).⁸ Damage to your vehicle has a shorter clock: two years (Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-207).⁹ Miss the deadline and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case, however strong it is.

Fault decides how much you keep. Montana uses modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. Under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-702, your damages drop by your share of the fault, and you recover nothing if your fault is greater than the other driver's.¹⁰ Found 20% at fault, a $100,000 award becomes $80,000. Found 51% at fault, you collect nothing.

What to do now

Keep every medical record, bill, and receipt, and report the crash to your own insurer promptly so any MedPay coverage can start paying. Pull out your declarations page and check whether you actually bought MedPay and UM/UIM, since plenty of Montana drivers rejected them in writing years ago and forgot. If your car lost value in the wreck, that is a separate claim you can read about on the Montana diminished value page, and you can request the official crash record through Montana crash reports.

Montana's minimum limits are low, and the fault and subrogation rules get technical quickly, so it is worth talking to a lawyer before you accept any offer or sign a release. You can start with the legal directory.

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

Sources

1. Montana Code Annotated 61-6-103, mandatory motor vehicle liability insurance and minimum limits. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0030/0610-0060-0010-0030.html

2. Montana Code Annotated Title 33, chapter 23, part 2, Motor Vehicle Liability. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/sections_index.html

3. Montana Code Annotated 33-23-204, definitions (additional coverages including medical payment). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/section_0040/0330-0230-0020-0040.html

4. Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, Auto insurance. https://csimt.gov/insurance/auto/

5. Montana Code Annotated 33-23-201, uninsured motorist coverage and rejection by insured. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/section_0010/0330-0230-0020-0010.html

6. Swanson v. Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, 2002 MT 81, 309 Mont. 269, 46 P.3d 584. https://law.justia.com/cases/montana/supreme-court/2002/30a6dfbf-fdf4-495d-9af9-81d8e40e2f1c.html

7. Montana Code Annotated 27-1-308, recovery and collateral source reductions, subrogation rights. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0030/section_0080/0270-0010-0030-0080.html

8. Montana Code Annotated 27-2-204, three-year limitation for tort actions. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0040/0270-0020-0020-0040.html

9. Montana Code Annotated 27-2-207, two-year limitation for injury to property. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0070/0270-0020-0020-0070.html

10. Montana Code Annotated 27-1-702, comparative negligence. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0070/section_0020/0270-0010-0070-0020.html