How Will You Pay Your Medical Bills After An Accident?

If you are in an accident, you probably have a lot of questions, and the worries about your health are starting to mount–understandably. One thing you may also start to worry about is how you are supposed to pay for medical care, given how expensive medical attention can be.

After a Car Accident

How you will pay your bills for your medical treatment often depends on what kind of accident you were involved in. In a car accident, you have what is known as personal injury protection, or PIP.

PIP pays 80% of your medical bills (minus any deductible that you have on your policy). You get this money no matter what. You don’t need to show that anybody is liable. You don’t have to make a claim on the other driver’s insurance company, and the other driver can’t contest your rights to your PIP benefits. This is why it is also often called “no-fault insurance.”

Note that you must use your PIP insurance–you can only use your personal health insurance, after you have exhausted your PIP medical benefits.

Other Kinds of Accidents

In non-car accident cases, you will have to resort to using your health insurance. Of course, many of us have policies that don’t cover all of our bills. Between copays, deductibles, and partial coverage, you can easily have thousands of dollars in medical expenses, even when you use your health insurance.

Your personal injury attorney will work with your doctors, and try to get them to hold off on collecting any balances, until your case settles or resolves. At the very least, your attorney may be able to prevent those medical bills from affecting your credit.

In return for awaiting payment, your medical providers will want you to promise that you will pay them back from the proceeds of your settlement or judgment. If this is something you want to promise (after discussing it with your lawyer), you can obligate yourself to repay those medical bills later.

The good news is that in many cases, the other side pays whatever your outstanding medical bills are. So, even though the bills have to be paid from your settlement (or jury verdict, if you go to trial), you are including those expenses in your demand to the other side.

Note that you can also use Medicare or Medicaid, to pay for your medical expenses.

Paying Insurance Back

Many sources of insurance will want to be paid back what they paid for your medical expenses, from the proceeds of your settlement. The insurance company doesn’t want you getting paid for money that it paid on your behalf, to your medical providers. The same holds true for Medicare or Medicaid, which also will want to seek reimbursement.

A good personal injury attorney can negotiate with your insurance, to lessen the amount they want to be paid back. The more your attorney can lower what they want to be paid back, the more money from your settlement or verdict goes into your pocket.

Call the Tampa personal injury attorneys at Barbas Nunez Sanders Butler & Hovsepian for help today to help you with any problems that you have after any kind of accident or injury.  Schedule a consultation today.

Sources:

floir.com/sections/pandc/productreview/pipinfo.aspx

cms.gov/Medicare/Coordination-of-Benefits-and-Recovery/Attorney-Services/Attorney-Services