Handling A Personal Injury When You Don’t Have Insurance

If you’ve suffered a personal injury and don’t have insurance, not all is lost. If another person or organization is responsible for your injury, you can make a personal injury claim.

In the meantime, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney and they can usually arrange for medical treatment, and to have your medical costs deferred until you receive a settlement.
 

Who Pays The Bills?

Enormous medical bills are a pervasive fear of everyone without health insurance, and prevent many people with legitimate personal injury cases from seeking medical and legal assistance.

When you hire a personal injury attorney, they will use their knowledge and connections to arrange for you to get the care you need. At the same time, they will negotiate with your healthcare provider to postpone sending you a bill until after your case is settled.

In exchange for this agreement, the doctor’s office or hospital where you are treated will likely file a hospital lien.

What Is A Hospital Lien?

A hospital lien is a legal action that entitles the hospital where you are treated to receive payment for the care they provide you out of your legal settlement.

In most cases, the hospital is limited to taking up to half of your settlement to cover your medical bills. For example, if you receive a settlement of $20,000 and your medical bills amount to $15,000, the hospital can only take $10,000.

This rule is in place so that hospitals cannot take the entire settlement away from you even if your medical bills are higher than your settlement.
 

What About Attorney’s Fees?

Attorney’s fees are entirely separate from medical bills and will be discussed with you prior to your attorney taking any legal action on your behalf.

While not always the case, it’s possible that your attorney’s fees may be reimbursed as part of your settlement agreement with the responsible party. In other words, the person or company responsible for your injury can be forced to pay for your lawyer.

To learn more or to request a free consultation, please contact our office today.