Pedestrians will rarely walk away from a collision with a car unscathed. A passenger vehicle that weighs 3,000 pounds on average will cause significant injuries when it hits a pedestrian without any bodily protection. Most pedestrians struck by vehicles will require hospitalization and medical treatment. Given the seriousness of these injuries, the costs will add up quickly.
At the same time, the injured pedestrians may not work while they recover from their injuries – if they can ever work again at all. The combination of a drop in their earnings and high expenses can cause financial difficulties for pedestrian accident victims.
When you wonder who will cover your medical expenses following pedestrian injuries, you should always consult with a pedestrian accident attorney about your options. They will not only evaluate who should be liable for all your injury-related losses but also shed light on who might cover your medical bills until your case resolves.
Having help from the right pedestrian accident lawyer can ease your stress regarding medical bills and the legal process. You can focus on your medical recovery while your attorney focuses on your financial recovery.
You Need to Get Immediate Medical Care No Matter What
The immediate short-term worry is how to pay for medical care. Even with various forms of insurance coverage, the accident victim will likely still need to spend some money out of their own pocket, and they may not be earning anything at the time. Nonetheless, one needs medical care after a pedestrian accident and cannot afford to go without a doctor’s treatment. Your health is on the line, and you can spare no expense.
Not only is your health at stake, but your legal case can feel effects, too. After proving that someone else was responsible for the accident, the next most important part of your pedestrian accident claim is your medical records explaining your diagnosis and condition. Without these records, you cannot file a successful claim at all.
Pedestrian Accident Expenses Pile up Immediately
Chances are that you went to the hospital after the accident. The medical expenses begin at that moment with the charges for the ambulance and the emergency room care you have received. By this point, your medical expenses already total thousands of dollars. If doctors admitted you to the hospital, inpatient expenses are thousands of dollars each day, not to mention the prohibitive cost of surgical procedures and medical imaging.
PIP Can Cover Part of Your Expenses
If you purchased optional personal injury protection (PIP) as part of your car insurance, it may cover expenses stemming from an automobile, even if you were not in a car at the time of the accident.
PIP is another way that some of your accident expenses can be paid and save money out of your own pocket. However, your PIP coverage may only be for a fraction of your ultimate medical expenses. If you were involved in a serious accident, you might run out of coverage after only a couple of days of medical treatment.
Health Insurance Would Cover Expenses in the Interim
Your health insurance policy should cover its share of your medical treatment while your legal case against the driver is pending. Just because someone else was to blame for the accident does not mean that the normal insurance coverage rules do not apply. However, health insurance coverage does come with a catch, as you will see below.
If you have Medicare or Medicaid coverage, those programs will also continue to cover the costs of your procedures in accordance with the terms of your existing coverage. If you have Medicare with no supplemental coverage, you can face a significant bill out of your pocket due to your own cost share. Medicare does not cover the entire cost of hospitalization.
You Will Still Get Medical Bills While Your Legal Case Proceeds
The medical providers will send you bills for your share of the coverage. Even if you have insurance, your cost share can be very large because hospitalizations are expensive.
In some parts of the U.S., the average price of one day in the hospital is close to $3,000, which does not account for tests and surgical procedures. You may have a bill of thousands of dollars to pay yourself, even if you have health insurance. The bill will obviously be much larger if you do not have health coverage.
It is your legal responsibility to pay your share of the bills, regardless of whether someone else was to blame for the accident. Based on your agreement with the health care provider, you will receive the bills with the obligation to pay them.
You Can Negotiate Time to Pay Your Bills in Many Cases
The good news is that many hospitals and medical providers are willing to work with you while your legal case is pending, understanding that you are an accident victim with a potential legal claim against the responsible driver. You might work out a payment plan or even a reduction in your bill.
If you show proof that you have filed a claim in connection with the accident, the medical provider may even be willing to defer your bill until after you receive a settlement. Medical providers understand that they have their own risks because medical costs can push you into bankruptcy, and then they will not receive your portion of the costs at all.
When you hire a personal injury attorney to handle your pedestrian accident case, they can speak with the medical providers on your behalf. It is difficult for the average person to negotiate with hospitals, especially when dealing with physical injuries and stress from a pedestrian accident. These are details that an experienced attorney can help you with as part of their legal representation.
Your Future Medical Care Is a Part of Your Pedestrian Accident Claim
While you have likely incurred substantial past medical bills due to the accident, chances are that you will also need care in the future. Many pedestrian accident victims have permanent injuries and ongoing problems. For example, if you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, the lifetime costs of your care can be millions of dollars, depending on the severity. The same goes for spinal cord injuries, which can have lifetime medical costs of up to $5 million or more.
When you are concerned about who pays for medical care costs, you should be equally concerned with your future bills. If someone else was responsible for your pedestrian accident, they need to pay your future bills and your past care. However, you may face a challenge in knowing what your exact needs and costs will be in the future.
Your Attorney Can Help You Estimate How Much Money You May Need
An experienced pedestrian accident attorney can review your medical records and work with medical experts to understand what your care needs may be in the future. Then, after further research and calculation, they will come up with a number you should seek in financial compensation.
This calculation should not be haphazard or rushed. If you do not estimate your future medical care properly, you may need to use the rest of your settlement money to pay doctors. Then, you will not have the money you need for other living expenses and care. The average person cannot accurately calculate medical costs in the future on their own, and they should hire an attorney who understands damage calculations.
Damages in Your Pedestrian Accident Claim
Your attorney will calculate all aspects of your damages to advise you on how much to seek in a settlement or court case.
Your pedestrian accident damages might also include:
- Lost income for the work that you missed (including the time that you had to take from work for medical care and future earnings if your injuries halted your career)
- Pain and suffering for both the emotional and physical discomfort that you have been going through since the accident
- The loss of your hobbies and enjoyment of life that you had before the accident
- Emotional trauma and distress that you experienced from the accident
Pedestrian accident damages can be considerable, and these claims are usually worth more than an average car accident. Your settlement check reflects your own personal injuries, and they are likely greater in a pedestrian accident.
Medical Providers and Health Insurance Companies Need Reimbursement
You may wonder what happens with the expenses that your health insurance provider has already paid and the unpaid bills to the doctors. Medical providers and a health insurance company have their own legal protections that allow them to seek payment once you receive your personal injury settlement.
Medical providers have a legal right to payment before you can get any money from your settlement. They can get these assurances because they can file a medical lien on your case. A lien is a right to keep possession of someone else’s property until the discharge of a debt. The medical provider cannot seek or keep the whole settlement – they can only collect their rightful reimbursement.
Health insurance companies must also receive payment for the amount of coverage they already provided for your accident injury treatment. The same thing goes for Medicare and Medicaid. These government agencies also have the right to reimbursement.
There Are Some Legal Bounds on a Medical Lien
There are some limits to the right of a medical lien under state laws. For example, medical liens for past care provided can only equal up to 50 percent of the total proceeds of the settlement. Proceeds are calculated on a net basis, meaning that it is the money due to the accident victim after they have paid the fee to their attorney. Most of your money can be gone if you do not negotiate the right settlement.
Although the law protects you from excessive liens, and you have the right to dispute the amount of the lien, 50 percent is still a large part of your settlement. The prospect of medical liens makes it even more critical to negotiate and fight for every dollar you deserve in a pedestrian accident settlement. The last thing you want is to accept insufficient money for yourself and your family.
You only get one chance to settle a pedestrian accident claim, and you cannot come back for more money in the future if you do not secure enough. The insurance company will only give you a settlement check if you release them from further claims concerning the accident. Once you sign the release, your legal rights to compensation are gone because the insurance company will not be liable anymore.
Why You Need an Attorney for Your Pedestrian Accident Case?
Pedestrian Accident Attorney, Phillip J. Barkett
Medical liens and your future care needs are reasons why you need an experienced lawyer handling your pedestrian accident case. You do not have the bandwidth or capacity for a back-and-forth with doctors and insurance companies. All you want is the medical care you need and the money to pay for it. You simply cannot deal with the hassle and the stress.
A pedestrian accident lawyer will:
- Investigate the car accident and assemble your claim or case for financial compensation
- Review your situation and costs to come up with an estimate of damages for the insurance claim
- Assess settlement offers from the insurance company to see if they adequately compensate you
- Advise you to reject offers that do not fairly pay you, countering with your own demands for compensation
- Taking your case to court if your claim gets denied or if the insurance company will not pay you enough money.
Since you will begin to incur expenses right after the accident, and your legal rights are at risk, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible after you have suffered an injury. If you cannot speak with the attorney yourself because of your injuries, a family member should help in this process because it is too important to delay.