Who Pays Medical Bills in a Car Accident?
If you suffered injuries in a car accident and someone or something else was the cause, you should not be responsible for paying for your medical care. Instead, the at-fault party should be the one to cover your medical bills. Ensuring this happens requires significant work, including determining who should be liable and how to obtain the compensation you need to cover your expenses.
Handling all of this can be difficult when trying to recover from your accident, so you want a
local car accident attorney to be on your side as soon as possible. Your attorney will determine who should cover your medical bills and how to obtain this coverage.
Medical Bills after a Car Accident
Car accidents regularly result in serious injuries, including
traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal or back injuries, fractures, soft tissue damage, and more. Many car accident victims need emergency treatment, whether they take an ambulance ride or someone else takes them to the emergency room.
Emergency room care can involve diagnostic testing, trauma response, emergency surgery, and other treatment to stabilize the victim’s condition. Emergency room doctors act first and worry about cost second - they will provide any care necessary to save a life and stabilize a patient, and this care can be extensive and costly.
Some injuries require the hospitalization of a patient or even time in the intensive care unit (ICU). The
cost of a hospital stay averages over $10,000 per day in the United States, and it can increase from there, depending on where you live. If you must factor in any surgical expenses, they can add thousands more.
Once the hospital releases a patient, they still have a long recovery journey.
Treatment might require:
- Follow-up appointments
- Physical or occupational therapy
- Time in a rehabilitation center
- Medication
- Medical equipment
- Home health care
Over the recovery period, an injured car accident victim can rack up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, and this does not include medical treatment they might need in the years ahead.
Liability for Your Medical Bills
With all of these bills coming in, it is natural to wonder who should pay them. If someone else was to blame for your injuries, shouldn't they be the one to pay? The answer is yes, but getting them to cover your medical bills is more challenging than it should be.
First, your ` will identify the liable parties.
In a car accident, these might include:
- Negligent drivers
- An employer of a negligent driver who was on the job
- Truck drivers and trucking companies
- Rideshare drivers and rideshare companies
- Municipalities for poor road maintenance
- Vehicle manufacturers for dangerous vehicle defects
Once your attorney determines the liable parties, they will
file insurance claims seeking compensation. This compensation includes coverage of your medical bills, among other losses.
Your Car Accident Attorney Negotiates the Best Possible Settlement
When your lawyer files an insurance claim, you might expect a check to cover your losses fairly soon. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Insurance companies are businesses first, which means they minimize costs to increase profits. This means trying to settle claims for as little as possible - even if the claimant has serious injuries.
Often, obtaining the insurance settlement you deserve requires several rounds of negotiation. From the moment you begin working with a car accident attorney, you can step back and focus on recovering from your injuries while your attorney handles negotiations and all the steps along the way towards full compensation for your damages.
They will provide evidence and information to the insurer to support your claim, review settlement offers to see if they are adequate, and negotiate for higher amounts when needed. Your lawyer can file a personal injury lawsuit in court if the insurance company never makes a fair offer.
What About Future Medical Bills?
Many car accident injuries have lasting effects. Some victims experience symptoms of their injuries for years, or they might have permanent impairments. In such cases, you cannot wait until you complete treatment to file your claim, as you might never complete treatment for the rest of your life.
If your claim settles and you still require ongoing treatment, who will cover those future expenses? As the victim, you should not face a lifetime of medical bills and financial concerns. The good news is that you can include future medical bills in your car accident claim. The downside is that these future damages are difficult to calculate and prove
Your car accident lawyer will have the tools needed to estimate your future medical expenses. They can consult medical experts who can determine the future care someone with your injury likely needs. The expert can give their opinion on how much that care will cost. Your lawyer can adjust this calculation for inflation and other economic factors, so it is a complex process.
You need a car accident lawyer who
handles serious injury claims. They will have a network of experts and the skill to ensure you seek damages for all your past and future medical bills.
Connect With a Local Car Accident Attorney as Soon as Possible
The sooner you contact a car accident attorney, the sooner you can collect compensation for your medical bills. If you try to handle this process alone, you risk accepting far less than you need to cover your expenses. An inadequate settlement will leave you responsible for paying your remaining or future bills, which can lead to a lifetime of debt and stress.
Stop losing sleep about who will pay for your medical bills.
Reach out to a local car accident attorney for a risk-free case assessment to determine options on your case today. The right law firm can give you peace of mind and allow you to focus on your medical treatment and recovery.
