If you have health insurance, be sure to bill the medical care to your health insurance.
If you have medical payments insurance on your car, contractually this should pay before your medical insurance. I prefer we use your health insurance though so follow an “if they don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with disclosure of medical payments insurance to the hospital or doctors.
If you have no insurance, the at-fault driver’s insurance is not going to pay for it until you are closing out the whole case. They do not “pay as you go.”
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE to avoid is this.
The hospital will tell you they will bill the other driver’s insurance. Sounds great right? WRONG. What the hospital will do is file a medical provider’s lien on your case and the money comes directly from any settlement you receive. YOU PAY FOR IT!
I cannot count the number of clients that have called and told me that they told the emergency room hospital to send the bill to the other driver’s insurance company. It does not work that way and if you have health insurance, you are screwing yourself.
Why?
Under the contract for health insurance, you are entitled to the reduced contract rate for medical services. An MRI that costs $1,400 to the uninsured, costs only $400 to your insurance company. You will probably have to reimburse your health insurer, but paying $300 back to your health insurance from your settlement is a lot better than paying $1,400 right?
