Kansas PIP Statute: Benefits, Deadlines, and Lawsuit Rights

The Kansas PIP statute, found at K.S.A. 40-3107 and the surrounding sections of Chapter 40, Article 31, requires every auto insurance policy sold to a Kansas resident to include Personal Injury Protection. PIP is no-fault coverage: it pays your medical bills, lost income, and certain other costs after a car accident regardless of who caused the crash. The statutory minimums are $4,500 per person for medical expenses and $900 per month for lost income, plus four other benefit categories described below.¹ Kansas law also sets a two-year deadline for filing PIP claims and defines a specific injury threshold you must cross before you can sue an at-fault driver for pain and suffering.²

What the Statute Requires You to Carry

K.S.A. 40-3107 requires PIP on every motor vehicle liability policy issued to a Kansas resident. You cannot opt out on a standard auto policy. The one exception written into the statute is for motorcycle and motor-driven cycle owners, who may reject PIP in writing for injuries sustained while riding.³

Coverage reaches further than the policyholder. Under the statute, PIP benefits extend to the named insured, relatives living in the same household, anyone operating the insured vehicle with permission, passengers in the insured vehicle, and pedestrians struck by the insured vehicle who are not occupants of another motor vehicle. When a covered person has their own auto insurance, their own policy generally pays first, which keeps insurers from fighting over primacy.³

The Six Benefit Categories and Their Limits

K.S.A. 40-3103 defines six benefit categories. The dollar figures are statutory floors, so an insurer can sell higher limits but never less.

Medical benefits. Up to $4,500 per person for medical, surgical, dental, and hospital care related to the accident.
Rehabilitation benefits. Up to $4,500 for services that help an injured person retrain for employment.
Disability benefits. Up to $900 per month for up to one year, replacing wages you lose while recovering.
Substitution benefits. Up to $25 per day for up to 365 days, covering the cost of hiring someone to do household tasks you normally perform for your family but cannot do because of your injuries.
Funeral benefits. Up to $2,000 per individual for funeral, burial, or cremation expenses.
Survivors’ benefits. Payments to dependents of a person killed in a covered accident.

The substitution benefit is often overlooked. If injuries prevent you from cooking, cleaning, or caring for children, the $25 daily allowance offsets the cost of getting that help.⁴ Because the medical cap can be spent quickly after a serious crash, many insurers offer excess medical payments coverage that pays beyond the PIP ceiling.¹

PIP does not cover every scenario. Benefits are generally excluded for injuries caused by intentional self-harm, injuries sustained while committing a crime, and injuries from operating a vehicle without the owner’s permission. Specific exclusion wording varies between insurers even though the statutory framework is the same, so read your policy language.

When You Can Sue Outside the No-Fault System

Because Kansas is a no-fault state, PIP handles most minor-to-moderate injuries without a lawsuit. The no-fault shield lifts only when injuries cross the threshold in K.S.A. 40-3117. If your injuries meet that threshold, you can file a tort claim against the at-fault driver and recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, and other non-economic losses.

You meet the threshold if either of the following is true:

Monetary threshold. Your injury required medical treatment reasonably valued at $2,000 or more.
Verbal threshold. Your injury involves permanent disfigurement, a fracture to a weight-bearing bone, a compound or displaced fracture, loss of a body part, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of a bodily function, or death.

The $2,000 figure is based on the reasonable value of treatment rather than what you paid out of pocket. Someone entitled to free care through the VA or another program still qualifies by showing the treatment had an equivalent value of $2,000 or more.⁵ If your medical bills total $1,800 and none of the verbal categories apply, you are limited to PIP benefits and cannot sue for pain and suffering no matter how clearly the other driver was at fault.

Filing a PIP Claim and the Two-Year Deadline

PIP is a first-party claim. You file it with your own insurer, not the at-fault driver’s, and fault is not part of the eligibility question. Notify your insurer as soon as possible after a crash. Kansas law imposes a hard two-year cutoff: no PIP claim can be made more than two years from the date of injury.⁶ Miss the window and you forfeit benefits entirely, so file early even if injuries seem minor.

Your insurer will need a written account of the accident, medical records for every treatment, and, for lost-income claims, pay stubs and an employer letter confirming missed work. Self-employed claimants should be ready to provide tax returns, bank statements, and business records that establish the income baseline the accident disrupted.

Under K.S.A. 40-3110, PIP benefits become overdue if the insurer does not pay within 30 days after receiving written notice of a covered loss and the amount owed. Disability benefits run on a tighter schedule and must be paid at least every two weeks after that notice.² An unexplained delay past the 30-day mark is worth escalating.

How PIP Works With Your Health Plan or Medicare

When you carry both PIP and health insurance, PIP pays first for auto-accident injuries. Your health plan picks up remaining costs after PIP is exhausted. PIP has no deductibles or copays on covered amounts, so treating it as primary saves money.¹

The order is the same for Medicare beneficiaries. Under the Medicare Secondary Payer rules, no-fault insurance like PIP must pay before Medicare, which only covers accident-related treatment after PIP is exhausted or the claim falls outside PIP’s scope.⁷ Notify both your auto insurer and your health plan or Medicare about the accident early to avoid billing confusion.

Subrogation and Third-Party Settlements

After your PIP insurer pays benefits, it may try to recover that money from the at-fault driver’s insurer. K.S.A. 40-3113a governs this process, called subrogation. The insurer’s recovery right is limited to “duplicative” PIP benefits, meaning amounts that overlap with what you collect from the at-fault party’s policy.⁸

In practice, if you settle with or win a judgment against the at-fault driver, your PIP insurer gets a lien against that recovery for the benefits it already paid. That reduces the net amount you take home. The statute also allows the insurer to intervene directly in your lawsuit to protect its lien, so ignoring the issue is not an option. If you are negotiating a third-party claim while PIP benefits are still being paid, ask an attorney how subrogation will affect the final numbers.⁸

If Your Insurer Denies or Underpays

Common PIP disputes involve the insurer questioning the amount owed, disputing that treatment was accident-related, or denying that an expense falls within a benefit category. Filing a complaint with the Kansas Department of Insurance is a reasonable first step. The department runs a consumer hotline at (800) 432-2484 and can investigate whether your insurer is handling the claim properly.⁹ Many disputes resolve at this stage without litigation.

If the complaint process does not resolve the issue, check your policy for an arbitration clause; some policies require it, and arbitration is generally faster and cheaper than court. When arbitration is not required or not suitable, you can sue. For disputes involving policy interpretation or significant dollar amounts, an attorney who regularly handles Kansas insurance claims can make a meaningful difference.

1
Kansas Insurance Department. Auto Insurance Shopper’s Guide
2
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 40-3110 – Same; Primary Status of Benefits
3
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 40-3107 – Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Policies; Required Contents
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Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 40-3103 – Definitions
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Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 40-3117 – Tort Actions; Conditions Precedent to Recovery of Damages for Pain and Suffering
6
Justia Law. Kansas Statutes 40-3110 – Same; Primary Status of Benefits
7
CMS. Medicare Secondary Payer
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Justia Law. Kansas Statutes 40-3113a – Remedy Against a Tortfeasor, Insurer Subrogated
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Kansas Department of Insurance. Home