Does Health Insurance Cover Personal Injury Lawsuit
Nobody wants to think about getting into an accident, but if you do and you go to the emergency room, and you have health insurance, then you may be wondering about your eventual medical bill. After all, you may be glad that you have your own insurance, but you may be wondering if you can recover the damages that your insurance paid for.
What does subrogation mean?
In insurance, subrogation is the process in which your insurance company collects money from the at-fault party or their insurance company to recover the money that you or your insurance company has already paid toward your personal injury, including your deductible. With subrogation, your health insurance company can file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company to recover the amount that they paid out for your emergency room visit and reimburse you if you made a deductible payment.
After an accident is very likely that your health insurance company will send you a letter asking you questions about the accident such as:
- Whether or not the accident was work-related
- Who the liable party is and their insurance information
- The name and contact information for your personal injury attorney if you have one
Subrogation exists to help cover your medical expenses while the issues of liability and damages are being sorted out on your personal injury case. Because after all, if you are hurt or need surgery, for example, then that’s not a situation where you can wait until the courts figure things out. So your health insurance plan contains a subrogation clause, meaning that the health insurance company is there to protect you when you need care. But they also assert that the at-fault party is liable for your medical expenses and that they – the insurance company – have a right to reimbursement for expenses paid out for your medical treatment in connection with the accident.
How An Attorney Can Help You
Of course, no one is going to think that it’s crazy for the insurance company to want their portion of what they paid out to be reimbursed by the at-fault driver’s car insurance. They will gladly pay for injuries you incur, but when someone else caused them, then they want that party to be the ones to pay for it. That’s not the problem, though.
The problem arises when the health insurance company disputes how much a victim should payback. A personal injury lawyer, like King, can help you get the compensation you deserve and fight for you so that you are not stuck between your health insurance company and the at-fault party’s car insurer.
Tips To Help You If You Used Your Health Insurance In An Accident
There are some things you can do to help your attorney fight for you and build your case. In order to maximize your chances of getting the results you want in court, you will want to do the following immediately:
- Get a copy of your insurance policy if you do not have one already. You will need to see this to see if your policy contains language authorizes subrogation
- Ask your human resources department if your company self-insures medical claim
Request an itemized list of medical benefits your claims in ministry at her says are related to the accident, and then review them.
