Role of Health Insurance After a Motorcycle Accident

Having health insurance after being involved in a motorcycle accident may make it easier for a person to get the treatment they need a little bit quicker. This is because the doctors are able to bill the health insurance company and get paid.

If a person does not have health insurance, then the other driver is going to be responsible for his or her medical bills which will only be paid out after the claim resolves. Medical bills will become a part of the injury claim regardless of whether a person has health insurance.

Without insurance, the motorcyclist’s medical bills may not get paid until the whole claim resolves, which can take anywhere from six months to four years. When an individual is dealing with doctor’s offices, the doctor has to be willing to treat a person knowing that they may not get paid for six months to a few years.

While there are often doctors that understand the way the system works and would be willing to treat based on that condition, it may be just a little bit difficult to get the treatment that a person needs without a Cherry Hill motorcycle accident attorney’s help.

Parties Responsible for Payment

It is important to know whether a person has health insurance for the attorney who is investigating the motorcycle accident claim, simply because his or her health insurance company may be responsible for paying some of the medical bills. If a person does not have health insurance, it changes who may be responsible.

In the state of New Jersey, a lot of times if someone is involved in a motorcycle accident, the first party responsible for paying the medical bills is going to be the individual’s motorcycle insurance policy. Usually, a person has $5,000 to $10,000 in med-pay that will pay for that first amount of medical bills.

After the motorcycle insurance money is all used, the next party responsible would be a person’s health insurance if they had it.

If an individual does not have health insurance what then will happen is any medical bills that are incurred or any future medical treatment that is needed would become a part of the injury claim against the other driver. The at-fault driver for the accident would then be responsible for all of his or her medical bills.

Challenging the Insurance Company

If an individual’s health insurance company decides to assert a lien against the case, then specific action must be taken. The insurance company may state that the medical bills they paid for related to the action, and the action was caused by someone else, therefore, they want to be paid back. In that situation, all of the medical bills that the health insurance company paid would become a part of the claim to pay the health insurance carrier.

As far as paid sick leave, that does not limit an individual’s recovery. An attorney will always argue that paid sick leave, which a person had to use because of the accident, could have been used for other things. An individual could have either accumulated it and carried it over to subsequent years, or could have used it to take other time off. Therefore, an attorney would include that paid sick leave as part of their damages so that is not going to limit a person’s recovery.

Reimbursement Procedure

When a health insurance company asserts a lien against a case, they are not asking a person to reimburse them. They are stating that if they paid medical bills related to the claim and it was the other individual’s fault, then they would like to get paid back.

Essentially, the insurance company will piggy back on top of the lawsuit. The lien that they are asserting would get added to whatever amount of damages an attorney felt a person’s case was worth. Such, they are not being paid back by the injured party, but are adding onto an existing claim to be able to be reimbursed for their payments.

Proving the Claim

The amount that the insurance company typically asks for will depend on how much they have already paid. There are also laws in the state of New Jersey that govern this process, but it is quite complicated. Due to the possible change in health insurance rates an individual may face after a Cherry Hill motorcycle accident, they should seek out an attorney as soon as possible.

Further, the health insurance company may not have a valid lien. Simply because they said that they want to be paid back, it does not necessarily mean they are entitled to be paid back. There are things they must be able to prove before they are entitled to that. Usually, the amount they are asking for encompasses every dollar that they have paid towards the individual’s medical treatment.

Influence on Rates

The person’s health insurance rates may change after a Cherry Hill motorcycle accident simply depending on the facts of the accident.

If a person was deemed at fault for the accident, or if a person receives any motor vehicle violations that carry any points as a result of the accident, that certainly can increase a person’s insurance rates.

Role of an Attorney

An individual does not need to do anything in particular with their health insurance company as long as the health insurance company is paying for their medical bills following the motorcycle accident. What a lawyer would do is put a person’s health insurance carrier on notice of our possible lawsuit and ask if they are going to be asserting a lien against the case.

If so, the motorcycle accident attorney would make the health insurance company prove their lien is valid. If the lien is valid, the attorney will get the lien amount and make that a part of the accident claim to get it added onto whatever damages have been sustained.