How do I pay for medical bills after a car accident?
Medical bills can be a major source of stress after you are injured in a car accident. An experienced car accident lawyer can help you make sense of things, and work to get the insurance company to pay for your medical bills. Depending on your situation, there may be different sources of coverage available to pay for your medical care after a car accident.
Here are some examples:
Auto insurance med-pay benefits: Your own car insurance policy may provide med-pay benefits. These benefits cover your accident-related medical bills up to the policy limit, which is often low, around $5,000. It also may cover members of your household who were injured by a car accident. Medical expenses may even be paid if you were the cause of the accident. If your lawyer recovers money for these expenses from a person who injured you, you may have to reimburse your insurance company up to the amount of any medical benefits paid.
Health insurance: Most health insurance will pay for your car accident injury treatment under the terms of your health insurance policy. However, if you recover money from the person who injured you, your health insurer will want to be reimbursed for any payments that it made for accident-related care. Depending on the terms of your health insurance plan, your lawyer may be able to negotiate a reduction of this lien. Negotiating reductions of health insurance liens can be tricky. You want to make sure that you have a car accident lawyer who is also experienced handling claims and litigating appeals against health insurance plans that are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). ERISA is a federal law that governs most employer-provided health insurance plans. Fortunately, Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick has significant knowledge and experience handling car accident claims and ERISA health insurance claims, as well as litigation in state and federal court. Contact CCK now to learn more about our experience and how we can help you.
Medicare: If you are on Medicare prior to a car accident, Medicare will pay for your car accident injury treatment much like private health insurance. However, there are special rules that must be followed to make sure that Medicare’s interests are considered in any settlement. If you receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, you may need to consider Medicare’s interests even if you have not received Medicare benefits. An experienced car accident lawyer should be able to identify potential Medicare issues and give you guidance on how to honor your obligations.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick as soon as possible. There is no charge to speak with us to see how we can help. Contact us now for a FREE consultation. We will assess your situation and determine if we can help you. We represent clients on a contingency basis, which means that clients do not pay us any money up front. Clients pay us a percentage of the money that we recover for them.
