What Happens When Your Florida PIP Benefits Run Out?

ByBNW Staff

Your crash happened six weeks ago. You saw a doctor, got an MRI, started physical therapy, and felt like the process was working. Then a letter lands in your mailbox: your PIP benefits are exhausted. The therapy clinic wants payment up front. The hospital sends a bill you cannot pay. Your back still hurts, and now nobody seems to be covering anything.

This catches almost every injured driver in Florida off guard, because $10,000 sounds like plenty until you see what one imaging study and a month of treatment actually cost. Here is the part most people miss: your benefits ran out, but your options did not. Injury attorneys at Meldon Law treat this moment as the point where the real claim starts, not the point where it ends.

How Fast $10,000 in PIP Actually Disappears

Florida Statute § 627.736 requires most registered vehicles to carry $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection. That coverage pays regardless of who caused the crash, which is why people call Florida a no-fault state. Despite what you may have read online, lawmakers did not repeal PIP. Repeal bills have failed for years, including SB 522, which died in committee on March 13, 2026.

The money drains quickly for two reasons. First, PIP pays only 80 percent of reasonable medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages under § 627.736(1). Second, the full $10,000 unlocks only if a qualified provider documents an emergency medical condition. Without that finding, your medical cap drops to $2,500. A single trip through the system can burn through it:

  • Ambulance ride
  • Emergency room visit
  • MRI scan
  • Weeks of therapy

Who Pays Your Medical Bills Once PIP Stops

Your health insurance usually becomes the next payer. PIP sits in the primary spot under § 627.736(4)(f), so once it is gone, your health plan, Medicare, or Medicaid steps up, subject to your deductible and copays. Call your health insurer and tell them PIP is exhausted, because many providers will not bill correctly unless you say so.

If you have no health coverage, ask your attorney about a letter of protection. Under that arrangement, a doctor agrees to treat you now and wait for payment out of any settlement later. Do not stop treating just because the money got complicated. Gaps in care give the other side an easy argument that you healed, and that argument costs real money at settlement time.

When You Can Sue the Driver Who Hit You

Exhausted PIP often opens the door to a claim against the at-fault driver, but Florida sets a bar first. Under § 627.737(2), you may recover pain and suffering only if your injury falls into one of four groups: significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. Medical testimony proves permanency, not your own description of the pain.

Your unpaid bills and lost income are a different story. That threshold does not block those economic losses, so you can pursue them from the at-fault driver once PIP dries up. Two catches matter. Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage, so the person who hit you may have nothing to collect. And under § 768.81, if a jury assigns you more than 50 percent of the blame, you recover nothing at all.

Your Own Policy May Cover What Is Left

This is where uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage earns its keep. Section 627.727 requires every Florida auto insurer to offer UM coverage, though you can reject it in writing. Pull out your declarations page and read it, because a surprising number of drivers carry UM and never realize it.

UM pays when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough of it, and it can also cover pain and suffering if you meet the permanent injury standard. Check every policy in your household, since a relative’s coverage may apply to you. Look for these lines:

  • Uninsured motorist coverage
  • Medical payments coverage
  • Stacking option
  • Household member policies

Talk With a Florida Attorney Before Your Deadlines Pass

Running out of PIP means your case shifted from an automatic insurance payout to a claim you have to build and prove, and the clock is already moving. Florida gives you two years to file a negligence lawsuit under § 95.11(5)(a), and roughly five years to sue your own insurer on a written policy under § 95.11(2)(b), so those two deadlines are not the same, and confusing them ends cases. Gather your PIP exhaustion letter, every medical bill, your declarations page, and your treatment records, then call a Florida injury lawyer for a free case evaluation. The sooner someone reviews your coverage and your medical proof, the more of that gap you are likely to close.