Paying for Ongoing Medical Costs after Personal Injury

Following a personal injury claim, a plaintiff seeks to stabilize their finances by experiencing the relief of medical bills being paid. In some cases, where the plaintiff’s injuries result in an ongoing physical toll, the medical bills don’t get paid off in full—instead, they resume and even continue to escalate.

Take, for instance, the victims of the 2013 Boston bombings. Many people received life-threatening injuries during the blasts, suffering traumatic brain injuries and amputation that both require long-term medical care. But the funds paid out by the charitable foundation One Fund have stopped, and now these folks are faced with paying for medical care when they are no longer able to work or function in society as breadwinners.

So what can a person do to avoid getting into a situation where he or she has settled for a lower amount than needed over time?

First, working with a personal injury attorney who understands the nature of different medical diagnoses helps protect your financial interests. If your personal injury attorney speaks about your medical prognosis and treatment in an articulate, down-to-earth manner, then there is a good chance the same confident manner will translate in the courtroom. At the very least, you should have someone who can negotiate with insurance companies—or take them to court—in order to get the best possible outcome.

Following any kind of settlement, keep track of bills. Have you noticed an additional charge tacked on to what you believed was a fixed sum? You may be dealing with a situation known as “balance billing.” Balance billing works to recoup a larger sum for medical services from patients than what was contractually negotiated with the insurance companies. This article gives a good overview of the way balance billing works. The article states, “Hospitals or facilities who are not contracted with your HMO or preferred provider benefit plan…bill you for the difference between the amount your health plan pays them and the amount the provider or facility believes to be adequate reimbursement.” This type of billing can eat through any settlement, regardless of how hard you and your legal team have worked to find acceptable terms, because it occurs at the billing stage and not the courtroom fact-finding stage.

If you find yourself with mounting medical bills following an injury and don’t know where to start, speak to a Houston, TX personal injury attorney about your options—for present and possible future medical care.