Who Pays for Medical Bills After a Car Accident?

The party that caused the car accident or a car or health insurance company will be responsible for medical bills and related medical expenses that result.

How Do Most Car Accidents Happen?

With the shocking frequency that automobile collisions happen at, you would think that most people would understand how they generally occur. Then, they would take appropriate action to limit their occurrence and effect.

Unfortunately, as you might be aware, that does not occur. The result is a series of devastating crashes that leave sizable medical bills and other costs.

In turn, they exhaust our national health insurance system, infrastructure, court systems, and other institutions.

Here are the tried-and-true reasons why most car accidents occur:

• Distraction
• Intoxication
• Weather conditions
• Construction
• Fatigue
• Aggressive behavior

If you or other car accident victims are wondering how you will be able to pay your medical bills or related medical expenses from medical treatment after a motor vehicle collision.

What Injuries and Medical Treatment Follow a Car Accident?

Car accidents produce some of the most long-term and catastrophic injuries known to mankind.

They affect not just your quality of life but also your finances, hobbies, and relationships.

These are the most common injuries we see in these accidents:

• Broken bones
• Scarring
• Knee sprain
• Herniated discs
• Concussions and traumatic brain injuries
• Vision loss or impairment

When any of these harms occur, it is important to get the care you need and keep your health insurance company notified along the way. Normally you will start with a hospital visit to an emergency room.

However, you may also need long-term physical therapy, physician appointments, medication, and more to properly heal. All of these should be taken seriously as your health should be number one concern.

Important Facts about Car Accident Medical Bills and Personal Injury Protection

Here are some critical stats and data related to medical bills stemming from a car accident as well as other related topics:

• The at fault driver typically causes accidents by distracted driving, intoxicated driving, fatigued driving, and aggressive driving.
• Out of pocket expenses for lost wages, medical bills, property damage, and other items from a car accident can cost a victim as much as tens of thousands of dollars and that does not include future health insurer costs from the car accident injuries.
• His or her medical bills or medical expenses for medical payments from a car accident may be as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars
• Private health insurance from a health insurance plan (or auto insurance companies for the property damage portion) may only pay a fraction of your total medical bills for medical care related to the car accident injuries.
• Car insurance coverage from an insurance company can cost as much as $5,000 per year
• A personal injury settlement may make up the difference between what health insurance and personal injury protection from car insurance coverage provide and your car accident injuries costs.

Learn more about car accident medical care and health insurer dynamics after you bring a personal injury claim against the at fault driver here:

Out of Pocket Damages: What Are They? (thebalance.com)

Who Pays For Medical Bills After an Accident? | AllLaw

Average Car Insurance Costs in 2021 - NerdWallet

If you are wondering who pays my medical bills, call our law firm to see who will be responsible for paying. You can recover compensation after a car crash for large medical expenses from medical providers, healthcare providers, and medical services pursuant to car insurance policies and laws.

Our team can file an insurance claim through an insurance policy for personal injury against the at fault party or other driver's insurance company. The injured person should not be responsible for paying.

They can get financial compensation for their personal injury with the help of personal injury attorneys from our law firm. Note, this lawyer referral service is paid attorney advertising.

Who Is Responsible for the Costs of Treatment for My Auto Wreck Injuries?

After you sustain car accident injuries or other serious injuries, you may be surprised to learn you have to pay for the costs of your healthcare.

Only then can you seek recompense from the at fault driver or other driver that caused the wreck and their insurance companies.

Most people purchase a personal injury protection PIP (personal injury protection insurance) just for this reason.

Most car or health insurance companies offer this insurance policy but normally the limits are just $10,000 and some have high deductibles. Obviously, it is not uncommon for health expenses to vastly exceed that limit.

In the case that the coverage limits for medical bills from health care providers are not enough, you can file a personal injury case against the driver or business responsible for the crash.

You can also file a claim with their insurance carrier to make up for the costs of the incident.

Talk to a personal injury attorney today if you have questions about your health insurance and how to get compensated for medical bills paid already.

Can I Use My Health Insurance Company to Pay for Health Care Bills?

Yes, you are allowed to use your health insurance policy or car insurance policy to cover the cost of car accident injuries. Health insurance coverage does not factor legal fault into the equation when treating you for a car accident injury.

However, as noted above, this can cost you an extraordinary amount of money and limit your insurance options going forward.

That is why it is crucial to pursue compensation from the responsible parties and insurance carriers after you use your own money for co-pays, med pay, and related charges. In the next section, we explain how you can do that.

How Can I Get Responsible Parties to Pay for My Medical Bills from a Motor Vehicle Accident?

If you had to pay medical bills for a car accident injury, then you may be able to extract compensation from the people that caused the incident and their insurance carriers.

Here a couple of different options at your disposal, all of which will be greatly advanced with the aid of a qualified personal law firm:

• File a Lawsuit: If the defendant's wrongful or unreasonable conduct was the source of your problems, you could sue them or their employer for the damages that they caused including health bills, lost income, and other out of pocket expenses.
• Bring an Insurance Claim: You can always seek benefits from your insurance carrier or that of the other motorist.
• Seek Workers' Compensation: You are entitled to workers' compensation benefits (to pay off your healthcare bills for instance) if the auto accident happened while you were working.

Speak with a member of our legal team if you are considering options to retrieve money you spent for bills, medical and otherwise, because of a car wreck caused by someone else's negligence.

Car Cases with Large Medical and Hospital Bills

To give you a glimpse of litigation involving serious and catastrophic injuries and corresponding healthcare expenses, we have organized some case summaries below.

It will also illustrate how you can go about obtaining financial recovery and how much may be available to you.

$478,663 Auto Accident Award:

A 61-year-old woman was walking through a crosswalk on a sunny afternoon when a car crashed right into her. The force of the crashbroke her left tibia and this injury later developed arthritis.

Obviously, the woman filed suit against the driver for negligence by failing toreduce his speed, yield, and watch out for pedestrians. The defendant did not deny any of these allegations; rather, he contended that the majority of the plaintiff's injuries stemmed from an earlier, unrelated condition.

Therefore, he believed the plaintiff's should have been significantly lower in scope compared to what she asked for at trial.

The jury disagreed and found him entirely liable for the whole breadth and scope of her harms, totaling $478,663 for the following damages categories: medical costs ($68,663); pain and suffering ($250,000); punitive ($160,000); total ($478,663).

$149,350 Motor Vehicle Settlement in 2018:

This car accident involved a family in Livingston County, Illinois. They were driving their automobile along Illinois Route 23 when another vehicle ran right into them head-on.

That car was trying to go around another motor vehicle but could not avoid the family's car.

In the plaintiff's vehicle were the husband and wife as well as their two children. Most of them sustained broken bones and minor burn injuries from a small fire that ignited soon after the collision.

The family incurred almost $100,000 in medical bills and lost income from missed work. They claimed the other driver negligently caused the car accident and their injuries and costs.

The defendant's insurance company, American Family, entered into settlement negotiations with the family and the two sides subsequently settled the matter for $149,350.

$1,800,000 Auto Settlement:

This motor vehicle crash took place in Northwest Illinois on Eola Road. A pregnant woman in her late twenties was driving down an icy road on a late December night.

Suddenly, a semi-truck veered into her lane and smashed into her passenger car head on. The large truck driver had been driving all day as well as the night before the crash.

The woman's unborn baby died. The lady also suffered extraordinary injuries herself including brain damage, broken bones, paralysis, and lacerations across her body. All told, the events cost her nearly $150,000 in medical expenses.

She sued the truck driver and the large truck company. In an out-of-court settlement, the two sides settled the matter and she received $1.8 million in financial compensation for her tremendous losses.

$1,695,726 Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Award.

The events of this story started happily but ended tragically. A group in Northern Illinois ended up in town for a fishing trip.

They left in the late hours of the night. Their ride took them along Route 173. At the same time, an intoxicated driver fell asleep. He crossed the median and crashed right into them.

All of the passengers and driver of that car suffered serious injuries. Leo Mach had it the worst though. He was only 47 at the time of the crash.

He was a truck driver, though unemployed at the time. The authorities airlifted him to a nearby hospital. He stayed there for several months.

The incident left him with many injuries. He broke some ribs. He cracked his spine. He was hurt all over. In his time at the hospital, he even developed bed sores.

Eventually, all the men sued the intoxicated driver. He was actually already in jail. He pleaded guilty and was serving time for manslaughter.

We focus now on the estate's suit against him for the deceased man. It claimed wrongful death.

Note, it also sued the hospital for medical malpractice but that's beyond our focus right now. The defendant didn't really have any excuse.

The matter got right down to damages. They weren't minor. He couldn't provide for his wife anymore. She had to go on without him.

The family still had to pay for all the medical, funeral, and other bills. The jury had a tough task ahead of them. In the end, they gave the family $1,150,706.

Here's how that money was divided up: $857,863 for economic damages; $577,863 for medical bills; $90,000 for suffering and pain; $40,000 for disfigurement; $150,000 for lost normal life; $150,000 for lost consortium.

Talk to Our Team of Car Accident Lawyers Today

Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers helps car accident victims.  A car accident claim can help you get reimbursed for medical bills and medical expenses related to medical treatment

Contact us at (888) 424-5757 to talk to a personal injury lawyer after an auto accident for legal advice about who will pay your medical bills.

Car accident medical bills do not have to destroy your finances. We can work with the auto and health insurance company or even driver to ensure that.

Call us for a free and no-obligation consultation of your rights. We don't charge anything for our services if we don't win for you. We can help today in a dedicated attorney client relationship.

A member of our team can review your case and discuss issues related to the car accident medical bills, health insurance, car insurance coverage, no fault insurance, and much more. Do not wait to get better.