Who Pays Medical Bills in a Car Accident?

Mississippi Attorney Explains How to Cover Car Accident Medical Bills

Video Transcript:

Merrida Coxwell:

It is one of the biggest headaches in personal injury cases.

Rob Rosenthal:

Do you know how you'll pay your medical bills if you're injured in an automobile collision? Well, we're going to find out today because that's what we're going to ask the lawyer.

Hi, again everybody. I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com and here to help us out is my guest, Merrida Coxwell from Mississippi. Merrida, good to see again. Thank you for helping us out today.

Merrida Coxwell:

Good to see you, Rob. I always enjoy talking with you.

Rob Rosenthal:

So, someone's injured in an auto collision, they have to go to the hospital, that's going to mean medical bills. So what do they do? Do they use their health insurance to pay for those bills? What's your recommendation?

Merrida Coxwell:

Rob, you couldn't have chosen a harder question to ask me on a Monday, because this issue comes up all of the time. If an individual has health insurance, then obviously, we encourage them to use that health insurance. The lawyer will have a responsibility as well as the individual who's injured to repay—we call that subrogation—that health insurance in most instances. There are some exceptions for those medical bills, but at least to keep those medical bills and those dunning letters off your client.

Rob Rosenthal:

So when you say repay, you mean from any recovery they may get in a lawsuit?

Merrida Coxwell:

That's correct. But there's a rule called the “made whole” rule. If you have an ERISA policy, any kind of work policy, any kind of policy through the state, if you get Medicaid or Medicare, the lawyer is actually obligated to reach out to those agencies and negotiate with those agencies to get those bills repaid out of any settlement.

Now, that said, Medicaid and Medicare will often negotiate back and forth, and you're only responsible for the medical bills that arose out of the accident or injury that caused the damages. Medicaid and Medicare can't say, “Well, we paid another $100,000 through the year on other issues.” Medical bills are a major complication most of the time in every case.

Rob Rosenthal:

So, if the other driver is at fault, does that matter? Does that figure in?

Merrida Coxwell:

Well, it does, but here's an interesting problem; I battle with my client's health insurance all the time on this issue. You’ll have your client who is injured and their health insurance company will ask them if this is a third party injury, and when the client says yes, because they want to be truthful with the insurance company, the insurance company will then try not to pay by saying, “Well, we're not responsible if a third party caused the injury.” That may be true, but they still have a responsibility to pay. I've been over and over and argued and even threatened to make them pay with the understanding that when we win the case, they will be repaid for this medical bill, but it is one of the biggest headaches in personal injury cases.

Rob Rosenthal:

Now, if you use your health insurance, do you have to worry about there being a lien placed on your auto insurance?

Merrida Coxwell:

No, you don't. No, not at all. Most automobile coverages have a MedPay provision; it's pretty easy. That's an amount your automobile coverage will pay you if you have medical bills. That's usually very easy to get, but it's typically a very, very low amount—$1,000 or $2,000. Occasionally, I see somebody with $5,000.

But with this whole issue, a lot of people don't have any medical coverage and you often have to guarantee to those medical providers that you will repay them in order to get their cooperation and their—I mean, you're entitled to your medical records—but in order to continue treatment because they're not supposed to be denying people treatment. Some private medical providers may not take someone if they don't have any guarantee that they're going to be paid.

Rob Rosenthal:

We've talked in the past, Merrida, obviously. You're injured in an auto collision and you need a personal injury attorney, such as yourself, to help you get what you’re due, but I don't think most people realize you can also help them with this whole insurance and paying for medical bills and getting all that taken care of too. People probably don’t even think about that.

Merrida Coxwell:

It is. We always want them to use their own health insurance so that those bills are not sitting out there worrying them to death, where they're getting dunning letters because you're not going to get the person that injured you, you're not going to get their insurance company to pay those medical bills in advance. They want to look at the case when it's completely ready to be resolved; we call that maximal medical improvement or maximum medical recovery when the client’s gotten as good as they're going to get. That's when they want to look at all the medical bills. They don't wanna be sent medical bills on a piecemeal basis.

Rob Rosenthal:

A person needs to worry about their credit being affected too. These kinds of things can stretch out for months, right?

Merrida Coxwell:

It can, and I've had that. Lawyers are prohibited by rules of ethics from loaning clients money. I think in Mississippi, you can loan up to $1,500, but beyond that you can't do it.

Now, there are states where there are no limits on what a lawyer can loan a client, but we cannot pay a client's medical bills. We can pay the cost of litigation; we can pay for experts, but if a client has past due medical bills, that's something that lawyers are not supposed to go in and pay. You need, as a lawyer, to work with that individual's health insurance coverage to make sure they get paid with the understanding that you will watch out for their interest. Sometimes you're legally obligated as a lawyer to watch out for their interest.

Rob Rosenthal:

Really helpful information as always, Merrida. Thank you for taking some time, answering our questions today.

Merrida Coxwell:

You're welcome. Thank you.

Rob Rosenthal:

That's going to do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been Mississippi attorney Merrida Coxwell.

Remember, if you want the best information and you want to make sure you can choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, go to askthelawyers.com. Also, please take a second to subscribe by clicking on the button down below. Thanks for watching. I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers™.

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