Health Insurance, Uninsured, and Car Accidents

The best way to make sure you get the maximum recovery when you are injured in a wreck is to hire an experienced lawyer to represent you. I’ve been practicing injury law for over 30 years and I know how to get you the most money possible.

There are several things you can do to help increase your recovery even further.
One suggestion is to always file your bills on health insurance.

Filing your accident related bills on your health insurance will help you make more money. A lot of my clients are afraid to file bills on health insurance because they think it will affect their rates or risk their coverage. This is not true. Insurance is designed to pay for your medical treatment when you are injured, and after a wreck is a perfect time to use it. 45 million people in the U.S. do not have insurance coverage. I always tell my clients that if you are lucky enough to have it, use it.

If your health insurance pays your bills, you will get to keep more of your settlement.

Many people think that the auto-insurance company for the at-fault driver in a wreck will just pay off all of the victim’s medical bills directly. This is NOT the case. When the case is settled, the auto insurance company will issue a single check which covers the entire settlement. From that money, the outstanding medical bills need to be paid.

Obviously, the lower your outstanding medical bills are, the less that will need to be paid out of the settlement and the more you will get to keep.

Another suggestion, is to carry UM/UIM (Uninsured/Under Insured) on your own auto insurance policy which can be used to help pay medical bills and lost wages if it is discovered that the negligent party does not have insurance or if their insurance is not enough properly compensate you for your injuries. So, for example, if your injuries exceed the amount of the defendant’s insurance policy limits, at that point your Underinsured Motorist Coverage would then kick in.

The UM/UIM statute requires that a signed rejection of the coverage be provided, or UM/UIM has to be paid. I immediately write a letter to my client’s carrier when I am hired, and always force the insurance carrier to provide a signed rejection for my clients, even when they try to evade my request. There have been at least 10 cases when I made companies pay my clients UM/UIM benefits – including one last week — even though my clients had never even purchased UM/UIM! Needless to say, they were ecstatic to receive this money.

If you are involved in an accident please contact my office immediately so that I can fight to get you everything you deserve.

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