You’ve just had an auto accident and go to the emergency room the next day. You provide your regular health insurance information, pay your co-pay and get treatment. You don’t improve, so you go to your family doctor and your regular insurance gets billed and pays. You incur another co-payment. Your family doctor sends you to an orthopedic surgeon and the surgeon sends you to physical therapy.
When that fails, he performs surgery. All of those medical providers bill your regular health insurance too, and get paid. You incur more co-payments.
No problem, right? Wrong.
What about the co-pays and deductibles you had to pay? What if your insurance is the type that has a right to be reimbursed out of any recovery you may receive from the at-fault driver? You then seek the advice of an attorney, months after the accident. While all of these things are correctable by a competent auto accident attorney, the corrections take time – sometimes a lot of time.
However, it all needs to be sorted out before your attorney can properly evaluate your case for potential settlement. The time it takes to do so delays the case and delays your receipt of the money you need because of problems in your life caused by the accident.
Avoid Potential Delays
How can you avoid this potential delay to your recovery of damages? Consult with a qualified auto accident attorney right away. It is simple advice, but the attorney will tell you that when you are injured in an auto accident, your auto insurance first-party medical benefits are primarily responsible for paying for auto accident-related treatment. Not your regular health insurance.
The attorney can also make sure you fill out the proper application with your auto insurance company to be eligible for these benefits and make sure that all of the medical providers giving you auto-related treatment have the proper billing information. This will avoid you having to pay any money out of pocket for auto-related medical treatment, or being hassled by bill collectors for such expenses. Also, since there are cost-containment provisions in the auto law that require medical providers to accept a lesser amount in payment in full satisfaction of their bills, and they cannot bill you for any balance, you can receive more treatment for the same amount of money.
Lastly, since every auto owner in Pennsylvania must carry a certain amount of first-party medical benefits, your auto insurer is not entitled to be reimbursed what they paid out of your recovery from the at-fault driver. This means more money in your pocket from that recovery. While there are many other important reasons to retain an attorney sooner rather than later, this is one simple example.
Injury Attorney in Washington County, PA
The legal aspects of personal injury claims can be challenging. We realize that the consequences of an accident can be far-reaching and may include lost income and medical expenses, as well as pain and suffering. You need an experienced and effective law firm to obtain the best result for your case.
If you, a loved one or a friend has suffered injuries as a result of any type of accident, we can help get the maximum result for the claim, contact us online or at 724-225-9130.