If you are in an automobile accident and go to a hospital or other medical provider, you should give them your health insurance information. You should not give them your automobile insurance information if you have health insurance. Here is why.
The hospital has agreed to accept what your health insurance paid, which is substantially lower than the normal billed price. If you have automobile insurance with medical payments (“med pay”) coverage, you can use your med pay coverage to pay the deductibles and co-payments.
But, if you give the hospital or the medical provider your automobile insurance, they are going to make a claim on your med pay coverage. There are a couple of bad consequences to you from that.
First, they will bill the med pay insurance at their higher-charge rate, so more of your med pay coverage will get eaten up. Second, there won’t be med pay coverage available to use for deductibles and co-payments. Third, you have to pay back the medical bills out of a recovery because of something called “subrogation.” Your subrogation charge will be higher if the hospital or medical provider has submitted their bill to your med pay insurance.
Bottom line: Do NOT give your automobile insurance information to a hospital or a medical provider if you have health insurance. It will cost you more for the services if you do.