If you have been injured in a car accident or hurt in any type of accident, then you have incurred medical bills because of your need to seek out medical care. Always give your medical providers your health insurance information, so that your health insurance company can pay for your treatment. Occasionally, a medical provider will tell you that your health insurance does not pay for medical bills following a car accident, but that is generally not true. Demand and require all of the medical providers to submit your bills to your health insurance company.
Pursuant to your health insurance plan, you may have deductibles or co-pays. In some cases your medical providers will require payment up front for the co-pay before they provide treatment. In that setting, there may be an avenue to get that co-pay or deductible back quickly so that you are not out of pocket for an accident that you did not cause. That is to review your own automobile insurance policy to see if you have purchased medical payment coverage when you purchased your auto policy. That coverage will usually be between $1,000-10,000. The bills that you incur for co-pays or deductibles can then be submitted to your own car insurance company and they will send you a check to cover those expenses.
When medical providers learn you have been injured in an accident they will often want you to provide them with your car insurance information, so that they can directly bill that policy, rather than your health insurance. Always try to make the medical providers bill your health insurance first. The reason being that one medical bill submitted directly to your auto company can eat up your entire medical payment coverage, and then you have no money left to help pay for your co-pays and deductibles for future medical appointments. Then you start being harassed by the medical providers for payment for a situation that you did not cause.
Some individuals may have no health insurance coverage at the time of an accident. In that setting, especially if you are taken by an ambulance to a hospital, the medical provider will attempt to get you covered by Medi-Cal. If you qualify for Medi-Cal coverage then Medi-Cal will start to pay your medical bills.
Finally, what should you do if none of the above helps you to pay for an outstanding medical bill. In order to keep your good credit rating, you should make a payment toward that bill, even if it is only $20.00, if you can. When injured persons have retained our services who have outstanding bills, we reach out to those medical providers and explain the situation to them, and try to have the provider set up a lien, which simply means that they will wait until we have resolved your case before they get paid. This will keep your credit in good standing. Why should your credit be affected for an accident that you did not cause?
If you have been involved in an accident, please contact our auto accident lawyers in Carlsbad for a free legal consultation, to find out about your rights. There is no fee for the initial consultation and no fee will be payable unless we are successful in obtaining compensation for you.