When injured due to a car accident, slip and fall, dog bite, nursing home abuse and neglect or from near any cause or issue, medical bills create significant issues from multiple respects.
Some various and very “high-level” topics are as follows (and much more details and information is available upon request):
Health insurance. Your health insurance may outright deny coverage for your injuries and tell you “get your bills paid by the defendant.” Now what?
Doctors and hospitals generally will not provide non-emergency treatment without insurance or guarantee of payment. Defendant’s and their auto insurance carrier (for example) will simply not pay the bills in any timely manner and settling a matter or winning a lawsuit can literally take years.
You may have to pay out-of-pocket or fight your own health insurance carrier to pay until you can (hopefully) recover from a Defendant.
Healthcare “liens”. In the event there are unpaid bills, healthcare providers may have the right to “lien” your case so that you have to pay some–or all–of the bills incurred and unpaid via any settlement or judgment. If a valid lien is not properly addressed and honored, another lawsuit can evolve.
Generally, laws exist that allow for a reduction and satisfaction of any such liens by negotiation and various formulas (a spreadsheet must often be employed in cases of multiple liens from various providers and based on other factors).
Be vigilant with medical bills. Vigilance and constant updating of same with your lawyer will only help you avoid credit issues, collection matters and provide for a smoother injury case in cooperation with your lawyer!
Credit. Unpaid bills can result in collection actions–much before any settlement or judgment can be reached. Usually a simple phone call to any provider or collection company with a simply explanation that such bill is directly related to an injury case will forestall action and credit report problems.
In fact, providers simply do not even understand that an injury case may be pending and are actually happy to learn that a case is proceeding and may patiently “wait” to be paid–sometimes for years. Make the calls!
Medicare and Medicaid Bills. Medicare has an absolute right to re-payment in whole or in part by Federal Law without notice to an injured person–or their lawyer. Medicaid is State-related payments which also command re-payment in whole or in part via any settlement or judgment. If not properly handled, such forms of payment could be “cut off” in the future.
You can contact us 24 hours a day and 7 days a week at 312-888-6058 (and we really mean that as we will answer our phone) if you have any questions and to learn how we may be able to help you or your loved one who has been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect – in particular, you will find that we listen, take your phone calls and e-mails (and even text messages!).
We would be honored to help you with your matters – large or small.