Kentucky changed its no-fault law on July 15, 2026, and the change is good for those injured in Bowling Green, Kentucky. House Bill 627 raised the weekly wage benefit, raised the funeral benefit, capped what medical providers can charge against your PIP, and made it illegal for a provider to bill you the difference.
But there is a catch in how it applies, and it is the first thing we check on a new file. The date of your wreck is not what decides whether you get the new benefits. The date your auto policy was issued or last renewed is what decides it.
If you are in a car accident, our Bowling Green car accident lawyers at the Law Firm of Flora Templeton Stuart are available. The consultation is free and without obligation. Thousands have trusted our law firm to consult with.
A quick refresher on PIP
Every Kentucky auto policy carries Personal Injury Protection, also called PIP, basic reparation benefits, or no-fault. It pays your medical bills and lost wages after a collision regardless of who caused it. The ceiling is $10,000 per person per accident, and that ceiling did not change. It has been $10,000 since 1974.
What changed is what happens inside that $10,000, and what a provider can do to you afterward.
What your PIP pays for wage and medical expenses in a car accident
Wages
Weekly wage loss went from $200 to $500. Under KRS 304.39-130 the cap on weekly benefits rose to $500. That same weekly cap also covers survivor’s economic loss, replacement services loss, and survivor’s benefits (PIP) as follows:
Funeral
The funeral and burial benefit went from $1,000 to $5,000 per person. That is under KRS 304.39-020. It is a meaningful increase for a family, though it sits inside the $10,000 rather than on top of it.
Medical
Medical charges are now capped at the workers’ compensation fee schedule. A PIP insurer may not pay a medical charge above the maximum fee on the workers’ compensation fee schedule under KRS 342.035, and may not pay less than that schedule as it stood on the effective date. Only the fee amounts carry over. None of the other workers’ compensation rules apply, and this does not make PIP a primary payer.
Billing
A provider can no longer balance bill you. This is the change that matters most to an ordinary person and the one nobody is talking about. Under KRS 304.39-210, a provider may not collect, attempt to collect, or coerce payment from you for a covered charge above the maximum fee, and may not damage your credit for refusing to pay that balance.
If you have ever been chased by a collection agency over the difference between what a provider billed and what PIP paid, that is what this provision was written to stop.
When does the new law affect me?
Sections of the act apply only to reparation benefits issued or renewed on or after July 15, 2026. The accident date by itself does not control.
Example.
Two drivers are hurt in separate wrecks on Scottsville Road on the same August morning in 2026.
The first driver’s policy renewed in March. Her wage loss is still capped at $200 a week and her funeral benefit would still be $1,000, because her policy has not renewed since the law took effect.
The second driver renewed his policy on July 20. He gets $500 a week and the balance billing protection.
Same road, same day, same injuries, different benefits, entirely because of a renewal date. A crash after July 15, 2026 on a policy that does not renew until September is still under the old numbers until that policy renews.
This is why our car accident injury lawyers in Bowling Green, Kentucky will ask for your declarations page at the very first meeting, not just the police report.
What did not change
The $10,000 PIP per person per accident standard. You can raise this limit to $50,000!
The tort threshold. You can still step outside no-fault and pursue the at fault driver for pain and suffering if medical expenses exceed $1,000, or if the injury involves a permanent injury, a fracture, permanent disfigurement, death, loss of a body member, or permanent loss of a bodily function, under KRS 304.39-060.
Your right to reject PIP in writing. Still exists. But understand what rejecting it now costs you. You give up the higher wage benefit and you give up the balance billing protection.
Two things worth knowing about your wage claim
If your wages exceed $500 a week, PIP does not cover the rest, but the rest is not gone. The balance still belongs in your bodily injury claim against the at fault driver. A larger PIP recovery does not shrink your third party wage claim.
And to be paid wage loss at all you will need proof of income, a physician’s statement taking you off work, and confirmation from your employer of the days you missed. We tell clients to start gathering that in week one rather than month three.
What you should do after a wreck in Bowling Green for your injuries
Get treated at the emergency room the day it happens. Here that means Greenview Hospital or The Medical Center at Bowling Green, and if you cannot drive yourself, the responding officers will call an ambulance. It is important to have your injuries treated.
Use your PIP for your treatment rather than taking the $10,000 in cash, so providers get paid directly and you are not sued later for the same bills. At Flora Templeton Stuart we will reserve your PIP for you.
Do not give a recorded statement to the at fault driver’s insurance company before speaking with a lawyer.
If a provider bills you for a balance above what PIP paid on a policy issued or renewed after July 15, 2026, do not just pay it. Tell us.
Talk to our Bowling Green car accident lawyers about your PIP benefits
Our office at 607 E 10th Avenue has represented injured people in Bowling Green for 50 years. There is never a fee to consult, never a fee to get your property damage handled, and never a fee to get your PIP benefits paid. It has long been our position that PIP benefits are yours under a policy you paid for, and that no attorney fee should be taken from them absent a fight to recover them.
If you were hurt in a collision and want to know which PIP rules apply to your policy, a Bowling Green car accident lawyer at our firm will review it with you. Call Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers at 888-782-9090 or contact us online. The consultation is free and without obligation.
