Dog Bite Insurance Claims

Did you know that you can make a dog bite insurance claims for medical bills caused by dog bites on a homeowners’ policy, commercial policy or auto policy. There may be more than one policy you may make a claim on.

In California, I see $1,000 medical payment provisions where the liability is $100,000 for homeowners insurance.

.In once instance we had a claim, where a person was attacked at a cemetery by an off leash pit bull. The medical bills were over $10,000. The dog ran off and we were unable to determine who owned it, but we did make a claim on the commercial policy which had a $10,000 medical payment provision. The lingo in the insurance biz is “med” pay.

The medical bill payment provision is different than the liability provision. Sometimes you can stack the medical payment and liability together. Now, stacking is where you combine both the med pay with the liability limits.

For example, if the liability provision is $100,000 and the medical payment provision is $1,000 the total is $101,000. Also stacking refers to combining liability limits too where you are able to make claims on two separate insurance policies.

In contrast to dog bite insurance claims on liability provisions, you don’t need to prove liability in order to access the money paid from a medical payment provision.

How to Make a Dog Bite Insurance Med Claim

Simply write a letter to the carrier and specifically demand it pay you the monies under the medical payment provision. In addition, submit itemized medical bills with diagnostic codes which are injury related to the dogbite attack. It is a smart practice to present a clean medical bill.  A clean medical bill omits payments from your health insurance company. To obtain such a clean bill you may have to specifically request it from the provider.  In my opinion, medical bills which are caused by a dog bite attack should be paid first from the liable party’s carrier and then any balance paid by your health insurance.

As you can see there is more to making a dog bite insurance claim than a dog fang in the eye.