Following a motorcycle accident, there are many steps an injured victim should take, including seeking medical help and dealing with insurance companies. Unfortunately, there are many health insurance complications following a Pascagoula motorcycle accident. For example, a person’s health insurance could be limited, or benefits may be denied.
Speak to a knowledgeable motorcycle accident lawyer to learn about your legal options. Working with a savvy lawyer who knows how to navigate the system is extremely important. An insurance company only wants to pay as little as possible, so it is best to seek help from an attorney who can handle any claims while you focus on your recovery.
Limitations on an injured victim’s financial recovery is a significant health insurance complication following a Pascagoula motorcycle accident. Even though not appropriate, a person’s health insurance company can deny coverage in some circumstances if the insurance company deems another party at fault and limit the recovery for their motorcycle accident. Mississippi does not allow health insurance offsets to be heard at trial, so a motorcycle accident lawyer is allowed to put in all of the medical bills as they were incurred.
Often, there is a high price for the actual procedure or treatment, but what the insurance company has contracted with the provider for is much less. Whether that is private insurance benefits, state health benefits, or federal benefits, those contracts are in place to provide lower cost to the insurance company. However, a person is able to get full value for a claim based on what the actual medical bills were versus what the health insurance company paid, if the case goes to trial.
In settling a catastrophic injury case, a lawyer must work with the health insurance company to provide coverage for injury expenses and then reduce liens in settlements or negotiate waiving the lien altogether.
Another complication following a Pascagoula motorcycle accident is the denial of health benefits. If an insurance company tries to deny benefits, there are methods the attorney uses to force the medical provider to provide treatment and the health insurance company to. Usually, if it is a catastrophic injury, there is no choice about who the medical provider is going to be, so the health insurance company must cover those injuries, yet sometimes when there is clear fault to another party, they will try to dodge their responsibilities.
If the health insurance company decides the treatment is unnecessary and denies coverage, then the attorney can get letters from the physicians saying that the treatment is necessary and why it should be approved.
Most of the time, with a few exceptions, the injured person will have to reimburse the health insurance company if they received a settlement following a motorcycle crash. There are certain government benefits like Medicare, Medicaid, and also veteran’s benefits, where it is mandated by law that reimbursement is required.
It is rare in Mississippi that a person can obtain financing for medical treatment following an accident. There is usually no way other than to pay out of pocket or health insurance coverage. Many health providers are not willing to provide payment plans, however, some will. They will always require any co-pays for healthcare or office visits to be paid upfront.
For major emergency surgeries, the provider will be more likely to provide payment plans. If the are catastrophically injured and a surgery was performed without any expectation of payment, then they will bill the injured person for a period of time and then turn the bill over to a collection agency. At that time, they can work out payment plans with those providers.
In settling a claim, a motorcycle accident lawyer will always talk to the health insurance providers to determine what their lien is going to be. Sometimes, that gets disclosed to the auto insurance policy or motorcycle insurance policy that is going to settle the claim. Often, the lawyer is able to negotiate that and maximize the recovery for their clients.
Call today to learn about health insurance complications following a Pascagoula motorcycle accident and how an attorney could help.