When you get hurt in an accident, you expect a personal injury settlement to pay your medical bills. It can, but there are often some additional steps involved and certain intermediaries who might need to be paid first. Our Washington D.C. injury attorneys can help you make sense of it all while we fight for maximum compensation.
How Do I Pay Medical Bills Before Receiving a Personal Injury Settlement?
Before you receive your personal injury settlement, your own health insurance can help you pay off a portion of your medical bills. If you have personal injury protection coverage through your car insurance policy, that can help too.
However, these policies may not pay off all of your medical debt. It could be necessary to wait for your personal injury settlement to come in before you can pay. Some medical providers will understand this and give you time, but they can also place liens on a settlement to ensure that they get paid.
Should I Wait to Get Medical Care Until After Winning a Personal Injury Settlement?
No. It may seem scary to rack up medical bills before you have a personal injury settlement in hand that can pay them, but you need to get medical care right away after any kind of accident. Your injuries need to be treated and you need to make sure that you are not doing anything to aggravate those injuries or hurt yourself in other ways.
Delaying care can also be used against you when you sue. A defendant could claim that you suffered your injuries elsewhere, sometime after the accident. They may also argue that you were not seriously injured in the first place and that is why you were able to put off care.
What is a Subrogation Lien?
When your health insurance company pays off a part of your medical bills, they may put a subrogation lien on your settlement. This can happen whether you have a private insurer or you use a government program, like Medicare or Medicaid.
So if your insurer paid out $10,000 when you got hurt, they are going to ask for it back. This ensures that you do not get paid “twice” for the same medical expenses.
Should I Hire an Attorney?
An attorney from our firm can help you build a case and negotiate for more compensation, but that’s not all that they can do. Your lawyer can also negotiate with a health insurance company, healthcare provider, or anyone else who puts a lien on your personal injury settlement. It may be possible to lower the amount of these liens, and that allows you to keep more of your settlement.
Talk to a Lawyer Today
If you want to learn more about how our attorneys can help you fight for the personal injury settlement that you deserve, contact Trombly & Singer, PLLC. Set up your consultation today and get ready to talk to our team about the potential value of your case and your legal options.
