PIP and med-pay rules in Ohio

If you were just in a crash in Ohio and you're wondering when your own insurance starts paying your medical bills, here's the short version: Ohio has no PIP. There is no personal injury protection to file and no 14-day clock like Florida's. Ohio never built a first-party medical benefit into its required coverage. It's an at-fault (tort) state, and its financial responsibility law makes drivers carry liability insurance and nothing more.¹

The volume of crashes here is not small. Ohio recorded 264,954 reportable crashes in 2025, and 26,533 in December alone.²³ Most of those people face the same question you do: who pays first.

Ohio requires liability coverage only

To drive legally in Ohio you have to maintain proof of financial responsibility continuously for as long as the vehicle is registered.⁴ The minimum limits are 25/50/25: $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more people, and $25,000 for property damage, all per accident.¹⁵ Those numbers took effect on December 22, 2013, and haven't changed since.¹

Read that list again and notice what's missing. Liability pays the other driver when you're at fault. It does nothing for your own injuries. Ohio never adopted a no-fault system, so there's no PIP layer on top of it. If the crash was someone else's fault, your path to recovery runs through their liability insurer, usually as a single settlement or judgment after your treatment is documented.

Medical payments (MedPay) is optional, and no deadline applies

The closest thing Ohio offers to PIP is medical payments coverage, or MedPay. It's an optional add-on you buy separately, and typical limits run from $1,000 to $10,000. Because it pays regardless of who caused the crash, it's a first-party benefit: you can use it even if the wreck was your fault, and it covers you and your passengers.

Two Ohio-specific points matter here. No statute sets a filing deadline for MedPay the way Florida's no-fault law imposes a 14-day treatment window; your obligations come from your policy contract, not the Revised Code. And MedPay has no minimum amount and no requirement that any insurer offer it, because the financial responsibility law simply doesn't mention it.¹

What actually pays your medical bills

Since there's no PIP, the bills after an Ohio crash usually get handled in layers. MedPay, if you bought it, can pay the first few thousand dollars fast and without a fault fight. Your health insurance covers treatment beyond that. The at-fault driver's liability coverage is the last piece, and it typically pays once, at settlement, for the full picture including pain and suffering.

One consequence trips people up. Because Ohio has no PIP, the at-fault driver's insurer is under no duty to pay your medical bills as they come in. You (through MedPay, health insurance, or out of pocket) carry the cost during treatment and get reimbursed at the end. The upside is that Ohio does not cap your economic damages, so your actual medical bills and lost wages are recoverable in full. Only noneconomic damages are capped, generally at the greater of $250,000 or three times economic damages, up to $350,000 per plaintiff, with exceptions for catastrophic injuries like loss of a limb.⁶

Uninsured and underinsured drivers are your problem to plan for

Here's where the absence of PIP bites hardest. If the at-fault driver has no insurance, or not enough, Ohio gives you no automatic backstop. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is optional, and since the 2013 amendment to the statute, insurers aren't even required to offer it.⁷ The law says an auto policy "may, but is not required to, include" UM or UIM coverage.⁷ It exists in your policy only if you specifically bought it. Given the thin 25/50/25 minimums many Ohio drivers carry, UM/UIM is often the coverage that decides whether a serious injury gets paid at all.

The comparative fault catch

Even when the other driver is clearly at fault, how much you collect depends on your own share of the blame. Ohio follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. Your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault, and if your fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone else, you recover nothing.⁸ At 50% fault or less you still recover, reduced by your share; cross into 51% and the claim is gone. A MedPay payment isn't reduced by your fault, which is part of why the optional coverage helps even in a wreck you partly caused.

Getting paid back, subrogation, and the made-whole rule

If your MedPay or health plan pays your bills and you later recover from the at-fault driver, the insurer that paid usually has a right to be reimbursed out of your settlement. Ohio law limits how aggressive that can get. Under Ohio Rev. Code 2323.44, when your recovery is reduced by comparative fault or by the at-fault driver's limits, the subrogated insurer's claim "shall be diminished in the same proportion as the injured party's interest is diminished."⁹ Ohio courts also apply the made-whole doctrine, which generally puts your full recovery ahead of an insurer's subrogation interest.

There's a related evidence rule. Ohio Rev. Code 2315.20 lets a defendant show the jury that your bills were paid by collateral sources like insurance, but not where that source has a subrogation right to be repaid.¹⁰ Coverage you paid premiums for, and any coverage with a repayment right, generally stays out of that calculation.

The deadline that governs everything

Ohio gives you two years from the date of the crash to sue for bodily injury, and the same two years for damage to your vehicle, both under Ohio Rev. Code 2305.10.¹¹ The clock generally starts when the injury or loss occurs.¹¹ Miss it and the strongest claim is worthless, so the two-year window is the one deadline to protect from day one.

Where to go from here

If you're sorting out who pays after an Ohio crash, a few practical steps help. Pull the police report so fault and injuries are documented; Ohio owns that process on the Ohio crash reports page. If your vehicle lost resale value, that's a separate claim against the at-fault insurer, covered on the Ohio diminished value page. And if the injuries are serious, the interaction of MedPay, health insurance subrogation, comparative fault, and thin liability limits is the kind of thing a local attorney handles. You can find one through the legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Ohio Revised Code § 4509.51, Required proof of financial responsibility. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4509.51

2. thatcarhitme.com, Ohio (Statewide) Crash Report, 2025 Annual. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/ohio/statewide/2025-annual-report

3. thatcarhitme.com, Ohio (Statewide) Crash Report, December 2025. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/ohio/statewide/december-2025-report

4. Ohio Revised Code § 4509.101, Maintaining proof of financial responsibility. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4509.101

5. Ohio Revised Code § 4509.01, Financial responsibility definitions. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-4509.01

6. Ohio Revised Code § 2315.18, Noneconomic damages caps. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2315.18

7. Ohio Revised Code § 3937.18, Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3937.18

8. Ohio Revised Code § 2315.33, Comparative negligence. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2315.33

9. Ohio Revised Code § 2323.44, Rights of subrogee. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2323.44

10. Ohio Revised Code § 2315.20, Evidence of collateral benefits. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2315.20

11. Ohio Revised Code § 2305.10, Two-year limitation for bodily injury and injury to personal property. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2305.10