Accident Fault
When you’ve been in an accident, everything changes in the blink of an eye. You may suddenly find yourself in the hospital, off of work, and without a vehicle. The cost of your medical bills alone adds up quickly, and you may soon be wondering if the other driver is responsible for paying them. Here’s what to expect in this situation.
File a Claim With Your Insurance Company
After the accident, it’s essential to contact your insurance company as soon as you can. Your insurance takes care of communicating with the other driver’s insurance company to begin the process of reclaiming funds to pay your medical bills. However, this may take months while your doctors expect to get paid quickly and may even send you to collections if you don’t pay on time. At this point, there are a few options for getting these bills paid.
- Submit your bills to your health insurance company. Depending on your medical insurance, a portion of your medical treatment may be paid directly to the doctor, decreasing or eliminating your out-of-pocket expense.
- Use your car insurance’s medical rider if you have it. When you purchase insurance, you may have the choice of adding extra coverage to pay your medical bills. While you may also have health insurance, this portion of the auto policy pays the part of the bill not covered by your medical insurance.
- Pay all your bills and wait for the other driver’s insurance to reimburse you.
An Attorney May Be Necessary
If none of the above options keeps you from struggling to pay your medical bills, a lawyer may be able to help you. There are many advantages to reaching out to an attorney, such as:
- They may be able to get doctors to wait to send you a bill until after you settle with the other driver’s insurance.
- An attorney can work with collection companies and doctors to get bills out of collections until they get paid from the settlement money.
- A lawyer might be able to decrease the cost of the bills from the doctors and increase the amount your health insurance pays.
- Legal counsel can also help you determine the proper amount for pain and suffering due to ongoing medical conditions.
If you are in an accident with another driver, a few different scenarios may occur regarding paying your medical bills. Contact a car accident lawyer from a firm like Ward & Ward Law Firm right away to determine the best way for you to proceed.
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