Car Accident Lawyer
If a car accident in which you sustain an injury was the fault of another party, you may not need health insurance to cover your medical expenses. You may be able to recover damages from the other party or his or her insurance company. The damages reimburse you for your medical bills and any other losses that you sustained as a result of the injury. There are pros and cons regardless of whether you use health insurance to pay your medical bills or wait to recover damages. Here is an overview of both options.
Using Health Insurance To Pay Medical Expenses
The advantage of using health insurance to pay medical expenses after a car accident is it helps to protect your credit because your provider will not report unpaid bills to a collection agency. The downside is that if you do recover damages from your personal injury case, you will then have to reimburse your health insurer for the medical bills it paid on your behalf.
Not everyone has health insurance coverage, so this is not an option for everyone. Also, there are new consumer protections in place to protect your credit from negative effects of medical debt, so paying off medical bills right away may not be as urgent as it was in the past. It may actually be to your advantage to put off paying medical bills and prioritize other debts following your accident.
Waiting for a Personal Injury Award or Settlement
If you anticipate receiving an award or settlement from your personal injury case you can either put off paying your medical bills or pay what you can out of your own pocket. It is unlikely that you will be able to pay all your medical bills before you receive a settlement, but there may be ways that you can defer payment until you receive what you expect.
If you do not use health insurance to cover your medical bills from you injury, you do not need to reimburse your insurer when you get your award or settlement. However, resolving a personal injury case can take a long time, and if your case goes to trial, there is no guarantee that the court will decide the case in your favor, meaning that you could end up recovering nothing. Nevertheless, chances are very good that your case will settle out of court without ever going to trial, which means that you should eventually recover something.
If you are not sure what to do about your medical bills after a car accident, contact a law office. A car accident lawyer, like from The Law Firm of Frederick J. Brynn, P.C., can help you determine what your options are.