Blog

If one suffers personal injury, whether it is in a car accident, slip and fall accident, or some other type of incident it is extremely beneficial if the accident/injury victim has their own health insurance coverage. This is helpful even if the negligent Third Party entity who is responsible for the injury will be ultimately covering the medical bills.

With few exceptions the responsible party/insurance company will not be making any payments until the case comes to resolution. Consequently, having ones own medical coverage permits a greater latitude in getting medical care and having a range of choices when it comes to medical providers for your injuries. Without personal insurance the accident or injury victim must rely on their personal injury attorney to find doctors in the appropriate medical specialties, in a convenient locale, to undergo treatment for their accident related injuries. From time to time it is difficult to source such a health care provider, particularly if the personal injury victim is in need of surgery.

The most typical types of insurance that the personal injury attorney in San Diego sees is either work related health insurance, and/or the medical payments benefits under the injury victims own personal car insurance policy(if we're discussing a car accident related injury). In the case of health insurance, the money that is paid out to settle the medical bills of the accident victim are typically reimbursable out of the proceeds of the 3rd party personal injury settlement or award. This prevents the personal injury victim from a double recovery, i.e. getting both the bills paid and the money for the bills. Obviously if there is no personal injury monies paid out by the negligent party then there is no duty to reimburse the health insurance for what they have paid out.

Often time's car owners have medical payments benefits (commonly called "med-pay") under their automobile insurance policy. This requires the car insurance company to pay reasonable and necessary medical bills for any of the injured occupants of the car up to the predesignated limits of the med-pay. In the past, many insurance companies did not have reimbursement clauses in their car insurance policies. Today most, but not all, car insurers have the right, per their contract of insurance, to reimbursement of monies paid out by them from the proceeds of the injury victims 3rd party settlement/award.

Typically the money that is subject to reimbursement is reduced by the same percentage as the injury victim paid for attorney's fees. Sometimes the personal injury attorney can negotiate a greater reduction in the reimbursement amount. It is important to consider the reimbursement issue when calculating the net settlement that will be received by the personal injury client. An experienced personal injury lawyer can best advise his client on all matters surrounding insurance issues and the reimbursement issue.