Hit by an Uber or Lyft in Michigan? Which Policy Actually Pays Your Bills

Short answer: In Michigan, the rideshare company's insurance usually does not pay your medical bills after an Uber or Lyft crash. Your own auto policy does, or the policy of a spouse or a relative you live with, because MCL 500.3114(2)(g) carves transportation network company vehicles out of the rule that normally makes the vehicle's insurer pay a passenger first. The rideshare policy answers a different question, which is the money for the injury itself. While a driver is engaged in a prearranged ride, MCL 257.2123 requires primary liability coverage with a combined single limit of $1,000,000. Working out which of those two questions you are asking is most of the battle.

Michigan is a no-fault state with its own priority statute, so one crash here produces two claims that run on different tracks, against different insurers, under different deadlines.

The two claims, kept straight

Your PIP claim, for personal protection insurance, pays medical bills, wage loss and replacement services no matter who caused the crash. A priority ladder in the no-fault act decides which insurer pays it.

Your liability claim is against whoever caused the crash. It reaches pain and suffering and the economic losses PIP does not cover, and it only opens up if the injury meets the serious impairment threshold in MCL 500.3135. The rideshare company's large policy sits on this second track, which is why people hear there is $1,000,000 of coverage and assume the hospital bills are handled. Michigan does not work that way.

Who actually pays your medical bills

Start with MCL 500.3114(1). A person hurt in a motor vehicle accident generally claims PIP benefits from their own insurer, or from the policy of a spouse or a relative living in the same household. Your own policy is the default, even when you were a passenger in someone else's car.

Subsection (2) creates an exception for commercial passenger vehicles. It says a person injured "while an operator or a passenger of a motor vehicle operated in the business of transporting passengers shall receive the [PIP] benefits to which the person is entitled from the insurer of the motor vehicle." Buses and shuttles land here, which is why people assume an Uber does too.

It does not. Subsection (2) carries eight carveouts, and subsection (2)(g) is "[a] transportation network company vehicle." The carveout reads: "This subsection does not apply to a passenger in any of the following, unless the passenger is not entitled to [PIP] benefits under any other policy."

The Michigan Court of Appeals set out that full list in a published decision, Michigan Municipal League Liability & Property Pool v Farmers Ins Exchange, Docket No. 371789, decided September 16, 2025. It involved a city bus program rather than a rideshare, but it quotes the statute in full.

So the ladder for an injured Uber or Lyft passenger in Michigan runs like this:

1. Your own auto policy, if you have one.
2. The policy of a spouse or a relative living in your household.
3. If neither exists, the "unless" clause switches the carveout off and the insurer of the rideshare vehicle pays.
4. If no policy can be identified anywhere, the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan under MCL 500.3172.

Since the 2019 reform you select your own PIP level, so the coverage available to you may be a limit you chose years ago. Our Michigan PIP claims page walks through the levels.

What the rideshare policy covers, and when it turns on

MCL 257.2123 sets what a transportation network company driver, or the company on the driver's behalf, has to carry. It changes with the phase of the ride.

App off: no rideshare coverage, and the driver's personal auto policy is the only thing in place.

Logged on with no ride accepted: residual third party liability coverage of at least $50,000 per person for death or bodily injury, $100,000 per incident for death or bodily injury, and $25,000 for property damage, plus personal protection and property protection insurance.

Engaged in a prearranged ride: liability coverage with a minimum combined single limit of $1,000,000 for all bodily injury or property damage, plus personal protection and property protection insurance.

Three features get overlooked. The coverage must be primary, so it is not sitting behind the driver's personal policy waiting for that policy to pay first. It can be carried by the driver, by the company on the driver's behalf, or by both. And if the driver's coverage lapses or falls short, MCL 257.2123(5) makes the company's insurance supply it instead, beginning with the first dollar of a claim.

Now the timing detail that decides cases. Under MCL 257.2102, a prearranged ride begins when the driver accepts the request and ends when the last rider leaves the vehicle. It does not begin when you open the door. If a driver accepts your request and runs a red light while driving to collect you, the $1,000,000 coverage is already in force.

Why the phase is the fight

Put the phases next to what an ordinary Michigan driver carries. Since July 1, 2020, MCL 500.3009(1) has required residual liability coverage of at least $250,000 per person and $500,000 per accident. A named insured may elect lower limits, but not below $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident, and only on a form issued by the director. Absent an effective election the default applies, as the Court of Appeals confirmed in Progressive Marathon Ins Co v Espinoza-Solis, 351 Mich App 672, 688; 36 NW3d 137 (2024).

Line the phases up against that and the picture flips twice. A driver who is only logged on, with no ride accepted, is backed by the statutory floor of $50,000 per person, less than a Michigan motorist at the default carries. A driver who has accepted a ride is backed by a $1,000,000 limit, four times the default per person figure. Same driver, same car, minutes apart.

That is why the phase gets disputed, and it gets disputed using data you do not hold. The company's records show the second the driver accepted, the route, and when the ride ended. A passenger has part of that in their ride receipt. A pedestrian or another driver has none of it. Request the trip data in writing early, before it ages out of ordinary retention, and treat an adjuster's account of the phase as a position, not a fact.

If a rideshare driver hit you and you were not in the car

Your PIP normally still comes from your own household's coverage. The priority rules for a person who was not an occupant run on a different section of the act, so that is worth checking rather than assuming.

The liability side is where this becomes valuable. A pedestrian struck by a driver who had already accepted a ride reaches the same commercial policy as the passenger in the back seat. Struck ten minutes earlier with the app off, the same pedestrian reaches only a personal policy. Our PIP insurance guide covers the benefits side.

What to do in the first week

1. Screenshot the trip in the app: the receipt, the driver's name, the vehicle, the timestamps and the route map. Ride history gets harder to retrieve as time passes.
2. Report the crash through the app so a company record exists, but give no recorded statement about your injuries.
3. Get the police report number, the name of every insurer involved, and the declarations page for every vehicle in your household.
4. Tell your own auto insurer you were in a crash, even though you were only a passenger. Your PIP deadlines run against you whether or not you were driving.
5. Get examined, and describe every symptom, including minor ones. Gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster points at.
6. Have the phase question and the priority question reviewed before you sign anything or accept a quick payment.

Deadlines that end rideshare claims quietly

Written notice of a PIP claim is due within one year of the accident, and the one year back rule in MCL 500.3145 limits how far back benefits can be recovered once suit is filed. The claim against the at-fault driver generally runs three years under MCL 600.5805.

These clocks do not pause while insurers argue about which of them is responsible, and a priority fight can burn months. If your own eligibility is in question because of a car you own or regularly use, our post on the owner rule and PIP explains how that gets decided.

Common questions

Does the rideshare company's $1,000,000 policy pay my hospital bills? Usually not. That is liability coverage, and it responds to a claim against the at-fault driver. Medical bills are PIP, and PIP priority is set by MCL 500.3114, which sends most passengers to their own policy first.

I do not own a car and I am not on anyone's policy. Who pays my PIP then? The carveout in MCL 500.3114(2)(g) switches off, because it applies unless the passenger is not entitled to benefits under any other policy. The insurer of the rideshare vehicle then pays. If no policy can be identified at all, the Assigned Claims Plan is the backstop.

The driver had the app on but had not accepted a ride. Does that matter? A great deal. Logged on without an accepted ride puts you against the statutory floor. Accepted and on the way puts you against a limit twenty times larger.

I was hit by a rideshare driver while I was in my own car. Does my underinsured motorist coverage come into play? Almost never, and people get this backwards. Underinsured motorist coverage is a creature of your own policy, and it generally responds only to the extent your limit exceeds the liability coverage available from the at-fault driver, after that coverage is exhausted. During a prearranged ride a $1,000,000 layer is available, and very few people carry uninsured and underinsured motorist limits above that, so there is nothing left for it to reach. The realistic exception is the logged-on tier, where the required coverage is $50,000 per person and a driver with higher limits may still have room. Your PIP normally comes from your own policy either way.

Talk to a Michigan Uber and Lyft accident lawyer

A short conversation can tell you which insurer is first in line for your medical bills, what phase the driver was in and how that gets proven, and which deadlines are already running. Those answers shape almost every rideshare case in Michigan.

Call (313) 800-0000 or request a free consultation. There is no fee to talk. We handle Michigan auto accident and no-fault claims from three offices, in Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Marquette, and we work with clients in English, Spanish and Arabic.