Auto Medical Payments Coverage

Summary:  Although auto medical payments coverage can be added by endorsement to a business auto or motor carriers coverage form, most commercial insureds do not purchase it as commonly as do personal auto insureds. There are at least two reasons. Commercial auto medical payments coverage provides no coverage for injury to employees in most instances, and, when the named insured’s business organization is other than a sole proprietorship, any coverage the form provides for “you” and “family members” has no apparent applicability. Auto medical payments coverage is therefore more likely to be purchased by an individual named insured or by a firm that routinely carries passengers in its automobiles or allows customers to drive its automobiles—taxi or bus companies, ride shares, car dealers, car rental firms, etc.

Auto medical payments coverage does not depend on the insured being legally liable. Ordinarily, an insured purchases it with the belief that once a person is injured, prompt payment of those injuries—regardless of fault—preserves goodwill and possibly even deters a more costly legal action.