Posted in Car Accident,Negligence,Personal Injury,Tennessee Accident Law on January 26, 2015
Getting Medical Care after a Car Accident
After a car accident, your highest priority is getting medical care to make sure you and your family will be okay. You should always get medical care as soon as possible after a car accident if you have injuries. But after you’ve received medical care, who will pay for it? The costs associated with car accident-related medical care can be expensive, especially if you required an ambulance to get to the hospital and needed surgery or several days of treatments. Matt Hardin Law can help you get the care you need if you don’t have health insurance.
The Nashville car accident lawyers at Matt Hardin Law understand your concerns, and we know that many car accident victims are worried about how they will get the medical needed and how to pay for their medical bills after they’ve recovered. Fortunately, if you weren’t responsible for causing the accident, there are options for you.
You can receive medical care from the following avenues:
If you have a personal health insurance plan, depending on the terms of your plain, it may cover the injuries from your wreck. Because personal injury protection coverage varies from plan to plan, your health insurance may pick up a substantial amount of your medical bills or cover a minimal amount. As part of all health insurance plans, you will have to pay them back for some part of the care they provided if you received money from your court case. This is called subrogation.
MedPay is often an add-on to car insurance premiums that serves as an extra insurance policy to protect you in the event of an accident. MedPay is a supplement to personal injury protection coverage and your own health insurance, and it can often kick in and offset any bills that aren’t covered by those policies. It can also cover out-of-pocket expenses that your health insurance doesn’t, such as ambulance rides, prosthetics, dental work, and other costs associated with car accidents. Whether or not you should use Med-Pay when you have other health insurance coverage should be discussed with an attorney as soon as possible following a wreck. Often it can cost you much more to use your Med Pay than your own health insurance. Some health plans require you use Med Pay prior to their providing coverage. MedPay is limited to the amount allowed by your car insurance policy.
Different car insurance policies have different plans in place when it comes to paying bills after car accidents. If another driver is negligent and causes the car accident, his or her liability insurance may have bodily injury coverage that will pay some or all of your medical expenses. This coverage is typically not available at the time your receive car. It is more likely, that a liable party’s car insurance will only pay health care as part of damages when the case is resolved via settlement or judgment
What Happens if You Don’t Have Health Insurance?
If you don’t have health insurance at the time of your accident, you can still get help for treatment if the wreck wasn’t your fault. At Matt Hardin Law, our Nashville car accident lawyers can help you get health care coverage through the following options:
As part of the our services, Matt Hardin Law can help you find a company that will help you obtain the medical care you and/or your family members need. Essentially, that company pays for the medical care you need and then is paid back at the end of the case out of the settlement or judgment. There are multiple companies that provide this type of service. Matt Hardin Law provides this service free of charge and receives nothing for referring you or your loved one to one of these companies. It is simply a way to get medical care when there is no health insurance available.
As indicated above, in most cases, there is no up-front medical coverage for you or your loved one from the negligent driver. While it seems like this should be the case, it rarely occurs. Typically, the driver who caused the wreck only pays for medical care after you’ve had as part of the settlement process.
Medicaid, or TennCare as it’s called in Tennessee, is a state-provided health coverage that helps low-income families. If you qualify for Medicaid, it may be an option to pay your medical bills after a car accident if you don’t have any other means of paying. You should see if you qualify for coverage.
Even if you don’t have insurance or Medicaid, in most cases there are ways to set up a payment plan with your healthcare provider that both fits your budget and reduces your bills.
Many injured parties receive care in an emergency room setting following a car wreck. If you need emergent care, do not hesitate to seek the immediate treatment you need. For those without health insurance, obtaining medical care can be a big concern given the high costs of hospital care and hospital’s aggressive collection effort on patients without insurance. Matt Hardin law can help address holding off those collection efforts while handling your case.
The Nashville car accident attorneys at Matt Hardin Law know that all of these options can be confusing—especially if you’ve never been injured in an accident before. You don’t have to make these decisions on your own. Let our qualified legal team walk you through your options and help you find the best way to obtain medical care for you and your family after a car accident. . Contact us today by dialing (615) 200-1111 or fill out a free online form.
