medical bills

March 16, 2020

Will Coronavirus Affect Texas Car Accidents?

I have been asked by several clients if the coronavirus will affect their car wreck cases. No one knows as we are in uncharted territory. On top of the anxiety we are all living through, as a Fort Worth personal lawyer, I am very concerned how the virus could affect injured people’s medical treatment and personal and financial outcomes.

Here are some specific questions I have.

1. Will fewer police respond to crashes?

It is essential that the police come to the scene of a crash and determine which driver was at fault. Without a favorable police report and officers who can testify in court, a car accident can become a “he said/she said” dispute. These are often denied by the other driver’s insurance representatives so a lawsuit must be filed. Juries may not know which driver to side with.

Furthermore, the police report contains important information that the car accident lawyer can use to help his client win the case. This includes the names and identifying information about all drivers, insurance policies, date, time, location, speed limit, weather, vehicle damage, witness’s observations, admissions of fault made, injuries reported, alcohol use, etc.

My office obtains the police report for our clients at no charge. The sooner we get the report, the sooner we can get to work.

February 25, 2020

10 Star Review After Good Recovery For Client

by William K. Berenson

Joshua’s story

Berenson Injury Law has successfully resolved the highly unusual case for a young man who was driving this commercial truck (the company’s name was deleted) in East Dallas last year.

The dump truck driver in front of Joshua stupidly activated the dump mechanism. As the bed raised, the top grazed a bridge which sheered off a piece of the truck. Our client swerved to avoid the road debris and a collision resulted. He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a strained back.

We immediately investigated the scene and obtained critical evidence that we needed to win the case.

We also researched the truck driver and his company and learned that he did not have a commercial driver’s license, but that he did have a criminal history.

February 21, 2020

Some Medical Bills Can Now Be Cut

by William K. Berenson

medical-bills-payment-to-doctor

Medical bills payment can be a huge problem after a vehicle collision

After you have been in a car or truck crash, you may have been rushed by ambulance to an emergency room. Expensive medical treatment and tests were performed. Worrying about how these medical bills were going to be paid was probably the last thing on your mind. So you will be shocked to find out later that you owe a huge sum of money for your medical bills. This happens often.

Berenson Injury Law has been representing injured Texans for the past 40 years and this can be one of the biggest hassles of the car/truck crash process.

We see one or more of these happening:

Objections and delays are made by health insurance companies and medical professionals to avoid paying medical bills;
The hospital or medical providers may be out-of-network; or
The deductible, copayment, or coinsurance rate is not paid; or
The patient is required to repay the medical bills later from his settlement or jury verdict.

If this sounds familiar, that is because you were not told any of this at the hospital or by your doctors. You may not find out until months later when you open your mail and see “surprise bills” which can be $10,000 or more. You naturally assumed that the other driver’s insurance company or your health insurance plan would have paid these by now.

The medical bills morass is unfortunately a common problem after a car wreck, especially here in Texas. A recent study showed that we had almost the highest number of these out-of-network charges in the U.S.

If you have health insurance, you probably do not know which hospitals and doctors (other than your PCP) are in-network. You will have no idea what medical procedures cost. Before this happens to you, you should study your plan’s directory and research costs so you will be prepared.

October 4, 2019

How To Maximize Texas Personal Injury Protection

by William K. Berenson

How Texas Personal Injury Protection can help you

If you have been injured in a car or truck wreck, you can receive additional money from your insurance company if you purchased Texas Personal Injury Protection (PIP). You never expect to be in a car accident but if you unfortunately are, PIP is designed to make sure that you have money available to pay for your medical care and lost wages. Under Texas law, every driver automatically has $2,500 in Texas Personal Injury Protection benefits available unless he or she has specifically rejected it in writing. Many people have it and don’t know it so they leave a lot of money on the table when they are settling their insurance claims. This post will answer your questions about

How PIP works;
How much PIP can pay you;
Who can file on PIP; and
How you can recover PIP benefits even if you did not purchase it

We wanted to write about this important topic because yesterday we obtained a large settlement for our client, after obtaining his $10,000 PIP policy, then reduced his medical bills to make sure he maxed out his settlement funds.