Question about car accident insurance?

automobile accident lawyers
Sarah B asked:


I recently settled a lawsuit dealing with an automobile accident. My car insurance medical coverage exhausted at 15,000, and I still had bills to pay so my primary picked it up. But now that it is settled I think I have to pay my primary back. My lawyer said he got me full coverage from my car insurance dealing with my injuries for the rest of my life in the settlement. My question is…. is there a way instead of me paying back my primary insurance company, by just having them forward the bills to the car insurance since they will be paying my bills from now on? Or am I going to have to pay out of pocket. Thanks in advance.

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May 10, 2009 | Filed Under Accidents & Personal Injuries Lawyers 
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Comments

4 Responses to “Question about car accident insurance?”

  1. David L on May 12th, 2009 9:23 pm

    Depends on the terms of the settlement. Only your attorney can answer this question. Any answers in this forum are only opinions not based on fact. Ask your attorney.

  2. entidtil on May 15th, 2009 8:58 pm

    I believe you will have to pay out of pocket. If there were a better way, don’t you think your lawyer would have told you about it?

  3. lucy on May 16th, 2009 7:14 pm

    your medical coverage exhausted the 15k you had in coverage. since you had health insurance, it picked up the difference. you cannot forward any unpaid bills to your auto medical since the maximum benefits were paid. all bills current and the future go back to this accident. the policy pays per occurrence.

    now if you had a subsequent accident, the 15k would start all over again.

    the insurance policy has a subrogation clause which means if they pay for something, they have a vested interest to collect monies spent. in this case, you health insurance. also the medical payment coverage could do the same;

    per your question, it appears you got a substantial settlement due to the amount of your bills and your lawyer stating he got enough for the rest of your life from this settlement. i am guessing the settlement should be enough to pay for all future bills per his statement. once a settlement is reached, both sides close their files.

    in most states, the lawyer pays back the providers from the settlement. usually by law, they can reduce the amount owed by 1/3.
    ie; 100k in medical bills owed; lawyer reimburses them 67,666; they eat the 33,333 of the bills.

    at this point, if still treating with serious injuries and will continue to incur more medical bills, your primary is your only chance of paying these bills per your contract with them, just like any other illness or injury. if there are copays, your settlement should help to defer the costs in the future.

    hopefully you are under a group medical plan and have a high lifetime maximum to cover. if under individual health insurance, may find your premiums to skyrocket, forcing you to cancel so they can be off the hook, making you responsible for all future medical bills.

    now all of this is subject to where you live and the laws of the state where you live. you did not state what kind of injury you had, the amount of the settlement and total amount of bills and possible future bills.

    you need to talk to your lawyer and ask him what are your options in the future. he got paid either 1/3 or 40% of your settlement for your claim, so he owes you legal advice on how to handle.

    good luck

  4. Amanda A on May 19th, 2009 9:27 am

    I would need to know more about the terms of your settlement. However, if that’s not included, then you’ll have to pay for them yourself out of pocket from the proceeds of your settlement. Once the case is settled no one can go back and ask for more $. You need to follow up with your attorney.

    I’ve had good results here…

    Good Luck.

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