Who should pay for your medical bills for your car accident?
In Virginia, your health insurance should pay your medical bills first
Car accidents are horrible things that often lead to large medical bills. To maximize your claim it is important to know the best way to handle the bills.
When you go to the doctor after an accident make sure they get your health insurance information. Your health insurance is the first payer of bills. If you have health insurance you should not be getting any bills in the mail from your doctors. If you do get bills it is a sign that your health insurance was not billed. Call the number on the bill and tell them to send the bill to your health insurance.
The bills have to be paid either by you or your health insurance. Who would you rather pay them? The car insurance money for the bill goes in your pocket instead of towards playing a bill.
Some doctors try to not bill your health insurance. This is not legal in most cases. There are of course exceptions for certain types of health insurance. Almost always though, your health insurance should pay first.
Sometimes clients feel that the car insurance should pay the bill instead of their health insurance. The correct answer is that both should pay the bill. This is legal in Virginia. And if you have medpay on your car insurance that will pay the bill too. All this is legal and to your benefit.
If you do not have health insurance you can pay the bills out of your settlement money. This means that you may receive bills in the mail from your doctors. I recommend you call them and make some sort of payment arrangement. Otherwise they will send the bill to collections. Call them and ask if the bill can wait until the case settles. If the bill can’t wait then make arrangements to pay as little as possible on the bill each month.
Medpay
Another way your bills can be paid is through medpay. Medpay is optional car insurance that you can have on your own policy. If you dont have health insurance your medpay can be used to pay your medical bills. I recommend that you use the medpay for other bills and make monthly payments on your medical bills. But the medpay money is yours to pay whatever bills you want, including medical bills.
We help our clients collect the medpay money from their insurance company. We don’t take any part of the medpay. Our fee comes only from the defendant’s car insurance.
Summary
Make sure your health insurance pays your accident-related medical bills. Also medpay is a very nice benefit to have on your own policy. Call your car insurance company and ask them how much it costs for medpay. It might be less than you think.
I’m Richmond attorney Wayne O’Bryan, a nice guy who wants to make a difference in your life. Call me at 804-643-4343 and I will answer your questions about your Richmond Virginia accident.