Does Health Insurance Pay the Medical Bills After a Car Accident? - St. Louis Attorney

By Christopher Hoffmann  Sep. 11, 2017 12:10p

If you have been injured in a car accident, you may wonder if you can can rely on your health insurance to pay the medical bills.

Who Pays the Medical Bills If a Person Is Injured in a Car Crash?

Typically, the insurance company of the at-fault party should pay the bills. This often happens once a settlement is reached. It generally does not pay the medical bills as they come one after the other, rather it gives a reimbursement to the injured person or to his health insurance company. This amount covers the medical expenses that are incurred until the case is resolved.

This is not very helpful for the injured person because he may not get the amount of compensation that he deserves. He may have to undergo a prolonged treatment for his injuries. This means his medical bills for the later period will not be paid by the at-fault party.

Read: Determining Future Medical Bills

Sometimes the injured person is not conscious when he is taken to the hospital. He is not able to give all the details about his health insurance to the hospital's emergency staff. As a result his medical bills may continue piling up and remain unpaid.

If there are plenty of pending bills the person may get a bad reputation. His credibility may be at stake.

In order to avoid this unfortunate state of things, the person who has been injured must make sure that his medical providers get the money from his health insurance.

The injured person should inform his medical provider about his health insurance soon after the accident because the medical provider has to submit the bills to the insurance within a limited time. This step is very important to ensure that the medical providers are duly paid.

Sometimes, if the medical providers find that the injuries were caused by a car accident they may try to bill the at-fault driver's insurance company. This may put the victim in a bad position.

Another problem may arise when the at-fault party may refuse to accept liability for the accident. They may not agree to pay the medical bills until the case is settled.

In this way, the injured person's bills may remain unpaid. So, they may use their health insurance company to pay their medical bills. Or else, they can use MedPay to pay the bills. MedPay is one of the components of the car insurance which pays the medical bills. It pays a certain amount for the medical care of the person and other passengers in the car, irrespective of who is at fault.

Need more information? Get in touch with a competent St. Louis car accident lawyer.