Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage on NEMT Vans

What uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays

Your auto liability coverage pays other people when your driver causes a crash. Uninsured motorist coverage works the other way: it pays the people your policy protects when another driver causes the crash and cannot pay. Texas defines it as coverage that protects insureds who are legally entitled to recover from owners or operators of uninsured or underinsured vehicles for bodily injury, death, or property damage (Insurance Code 1952.101).

The two halves cover different gaps:

• Uninsured motorist (UM) pays when the at-fault driver has no liability insurance. In Texas, Florida, and California it also counts a driver whose insurer goes broke, and in California a driver whose insurer denies coverage or accepts it only conditionally or with a reservation of rights. A hit-and-run driver counts too, under the conditions below.
• Underinsured motorist (UIM) pays when the at-fault driver has insurance, but less than the damages. Texas defines an underinsured vehicle as one whose liability limits are lower than the underinsured limit on your own policy (1952.103). Florida counts any driver whose bodily injury limits are less than the injured person’s total damages (627.727(3)).

Who counts as an insured depends on the state and the policy, and California’s statute shows what to check. When the named insured is a company rather than a person, an insured for UM is any person in, upon, entering, or getting out of an insured motor vehicle (Insurance Code 11580.2(b)). The same subdivision says an insured motor vehicle does not include one while used as a public or livery conveyance. Subdivision (l) says volunteer social service rides for a charity or government agency are not a public or livery conveyance, but it says nothing about paid trips. So before you count on UM for riders on paid trips, ask your agent to confirm in writing what your UM endorsement covers.

How UM sits on a commercial auto policy

On a business auto policy, UM and UIM come from endorsements attached to the policy. The standard form, ISO CA 00 01 (the 10 13 edition Sonoma County posts), names them and bars duplicate payments for the same loss between the form and any medical payments, uninsured motorists, or underinsured motorists endorsement.

Each coverage on your declarations page has its own covered auto symbols, and UM cannot use symbol 1, any auto. A guide from California’s Public Entity Risk Management Authority (August 2024) lists symbols 2, 3, 4, and 7 among those that can carry it. The form also has symbol 6 for owned autos in a state whose law requires UM and does not let you reject it.

Your limits come from your choices and your state:

• Texas. UM bodily injury limits are offered in the amounts you want, up to your liability limits and never below the state minimum. UM property damage carries a $250 deductible (1952.105).
• Florida. UM equals your bodily injury liability limits unless you pick lower limits or reject it (627.727(2)).
• California. UM must be offered at your bodily injury limits, but the insurer need not offer more than $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident, and UIM is offered at the same limits as UM (11580.2(m) and (n)). With a $1 million liability policy, higher UM is something you ask for.
• North Dakota. Every vehicle registered and operated in the state carries at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident of UM, with UIM equal to UM, as the state insurance department lists them (as of October 2026). UM there pays only for bodily injury, not for damage to your vehicle.

For the medical bills of anyone in the van, whoever is at fault, see medical payments coverage.

Offer and rejection rules in three states

Texas, Florida, and California make UM part of every auto liability policy unless you turn it down on paper. How you turn it down, and how long that lasts, differs:

State	Without a signed rejection	How you reject or lower it	At renewal
Texas (1952.101)	Must be in or added to every auto liability policy	Any named insured rejects in writing	Stays rejected with the same or an affiliated insurer unless you ask in writing
Florida (627.727)	Equal to your bodily injury limits	A named insured signs the state-approved form, which binds all insureds	Stays rejected at the same liability limits; the insurer sends a yearly notice of your options
California (11580.2)	Included, but the insurer need not offer more than $30,000 / $60,000	A written agreement in the wording the statute sets	Binds renewals and replacements by the same insurer

Florida’s form carries a warning in bold, 12-point type that you are giving up valuable coverage, and once a named insured signs it, the law presumes conclusively that the rejection was informed and knowing. In Texas and Florida, getting the coverage back after a rejection takes a written request.

Ride permits and programs that require UM

Some for-hire and waiver rules set their own UM floor, and it can be far above the state minimum:

• Delaware. Each passenger vehicle of a public carrier needs $1,000,000 of uninsured and underinsured coverage, alongside $1,000,000 of liability, unless the carrier is a taxicab owner with no more than two cabs (Title 2, section 1802(p)). Stretcher vans that run broker trips without public carrier certification must still meet the public liability insurance requirements for public carriers (section 1823). See the Delaware guide.
• Nashville. Holders of a Metro certificate for other passenger vehicles for hire carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of at least $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage (Metro Code 6.74.050, as codified through December 2025). See Nashville NEMT permits.
• New Hampshire. Agencies giving Choices for Independence non-medical rides must make sure each driver’s auto insurance includes uninsured motorist coverage and carries at least $100,000 per passenger and $300,000 per occurrence (He-E 801.22, effective January 29, 2022). See waiver transportation providers.

Your broker contract and state program may add more. See NEMT insurance requirements.

A hit-and-run with a wheelchair rider aboard: an example

At 7:40 a.m. in Sacramento, a pickup runs a red light, clips the front corner of your wheelchair van, and drives off. Your rider, secured in her chair, is thrown against her shoulder belt and breaks her collarbone. Your driver sprains a wrist. Your company is the named insured on the policy.

In California, UM covers an unknown driver only if three things happen (Insurance Code 11580.2(b)):

1. The pickup touched the van. UM requires physical contact with the insured or the vehicle the insured was in. Texas requires the same (1952.104), so an unidentified driver who forced your van off the road without touching it does not count in either state.
2. Someone reports the crash to the police within 24 hours. That is the city police where it happened, or the sheriff or the California Highway Patrol outside a city. The Texas Department of Insurance says UM there will not pay a hit-and-run you did not report to the police.
3. Within 30 days, a sworn statement goes to your insurer. It says the injured person has a claim against a driver whose identity cannot be found, with the facts.

Whether your rider and driver can claim under your UM turns on the livery question above, so get your agent’s written answer before a crash. Your driver’s injury is a workers’ compensation claim first, and how UM fits with it depends on the state. Florida’s law says UM pays on top of workers’ compensation and personal injury protection and never benefits the comp carrier (627.727(1)).

The rider’s hospital bills may go to Medi-Cal first. If a UM insurer is liable for her injury, California’s recovery law lets the state recover what Medi-Cal paid from that insurer, and no settlement or award on her claim is final until the state has notice and a chance to collect its lien (Welfare and Institutions Code 14124.71 and 14124.76). Federal rules have the state seek repayment from a liable third party within 60 days after the end of the month it learns of one, unless recovery would not be cost effective (42 CFR 433.139). See Medicaid third party liability.

In California, while a UM claim is pending, the insurer must tell its insured in writing about the time limit for suing at least 30 days before it runs out, unless a lawyer represents the insured (Insurance Code 11580.2(k) and 10 CCR 2695.7(f), quoted in the Department of Insurance’s guide of January 9, 2026).

How to check your UM coverage, step by step

1. Find the UM and UIM lines on your declarations page. Note the limits and the symbol next to each.
2. List every UM minimum you must meet, from your state, any city permit, waiver program, and broker contract, and carry the highest.
3. Ask your agent for UM equal to your liability limits, what it adds to the premium, and, in writing, whether it covers riders on paid trips. In California, the insurer does not have to offer more than $30,000 / $60,000 on its own.
4. Read any rejection or lower-limit form before you sign it. In Texas, Florida, and California it binds everyone on the policy and carries into renewals.
5. Train drivers for a hit-and-run. Call 911 and the police right away, photograph the damage that proves contact, and get the report number. See what to do after a NEMT vehicle accident.
6. Before anyone settles with an underinsured driver in Florida, send written notice of the proposed settlement by certified or registered mail to every UIM insurer. Each has 30 days to approve it or pay the offered amount to keep its right to recover from the at-fault driver (627.727(6)).

For the days your van sits in the shop after another driver hits it, see loss of use claims.