How Can I Pay Medical Expenses While My Claim Is Pending?
Although you may see commercials or other misleading information that directs you otherwise, with regards to medical treatment and payment – you should act as you would with any other injury. This means that you should go to your various service providers and use your health insurance. Delaying treatment has the potential to harm you both physically and legally. First, by not seeking treatment as you normally would, it can prolong injuries that resulted from your accident, possibly causing more damage and even irreparable damage that you would not have otherwise suffered from. Second, by delaying treatment, you give your adversary – the person or entity you are suing as well as their insurance company – cause to argue that your injury may have resulted from something other than the accident.
Many people involved in accidents believe that since the other party, believed to be at fault, has insurance, then the at-fault party’s insurance carrier will automatically pay for their medical expenses. This is not the case. An insurance provider is not legally obligated to pay for your medical expenses unless the insurance holder is found to have been at fault through a judgment. You should not assume that the other party’s insurance is going to pay your medical expenses until a court informs them that they are required to do so.
Until that time comes (if and when it does), you cannot go wrong by using your own health insurance. If in the end you are in fact awarded monetary compensation, that money can and will be used to pay back your insurance carrier. If you are not awarded monetary compensation for the accident, you would have appropriately used your health insurance.
We know that this is a complicated subject that can pose many questions. Call 888-976-3759 or email us to speak with one of our Florida maritime injury lawyers about your potential claim and any questions you may have about paying for medical bills during the course of your treatment and potential litigation.