How to Handle Health and Auto Insurance After an Accident in Bucks County

Personal Injury Attorneys serving clients throughout Bucks County and Northeast Philadelphia for over 40 years

When you’ve been in a car accident, there are often many facets to making sure that your car and your physical health are properly taken care of.

According to the Insurance Research Council’s (IRC) Auto Injury Insurance Claims Study, the rate of automobile injury claims is rising faster than the rate of inflation. Navigating the auto insurance system is a labyrinth in itself, but when it comes to using auto insurance to cover your medical expenses, systems collide that don’t well go hand-in-hand.

Seeking medical care after a car accident is an expensive task. ISO, a Verisk Analytics company, found that the average auto liability claim for bodily injury in 2013 was $15,443.

In New Jersey, one often finds that their primary health care physician will require one’s personal health insurance coverage – and not auto insurance – to cover medical treatment endured as a result of an auto accident. As billing auto insurance companies for medical expenses provided often meet restrictive parameters of auto insurance coverage, many physicians’ offices decide to restrict completely their acceptance of auto insurance to cover care offered. Even if they do eventually bill auto insurance companies for medical care given, this can be a long, arduous process. For this reason, it’s helpful to provide car insurance information but rely on your own health insurance to cover immediate medical care.

Get Immediate Care

Following an auto accident, it’s important to get medical care right away if necessary. Do not wait until injuries appear more predominantly or hesitate based on insurance concerns. Whether or not you are sure if your primary care physician will accept your auto insurance claim information as billable for medical support provided, it’s worth it to take care of your body first.

When you arrive at your primary care physician, provide them the auto insurance claim information as well as your regular health insurance information. Make sure that they are clear that this injury occurred as the direct result of an auto accident.

What to do if your Medical Provider refuses to work with your car insurance company

During the process and upon receiving treatment, you may find that your primary health care physician’s office is willing to bill the auto insurance company directly. If this is the case, you may focus on your swift recovery. However, there are benefits to using your health insurance to cover medical care costs, and submitting medical bills to the auto insurance provider on the back end as part of the accident claim.

Make Payments and Submit Bills to Insurance

If you learn that the medical provider is unwilling to bill your car insurance company directly, you will need to pay for the medical treatment and submit the bills to your car insurance company on the back end to receive reimbursement. If that is the case, worry not. It will have been worth it to get immediate medical care for your auto accident-sustained injury.

Benefits of Using Health Insurance to Cover Auto Accident-Sustained Medical Expenses

While you will surely want to submit auto accident-sustained medical bills to the auto insurance company as part of your accident claim, it is more often than not preferential to pay for your medical expenses with your own health insurance.

This is because:

• health insurance will cover the expenses immediately, and an auto accident claim can often take months or years to receive a pay-out, by which time unpaid medical expenses may have gone to collections; and
• one only has to reimburse a health insurance company a fraction of the cost of the medical bills, because, as health insurance providers receive discounted rates for services, you’ll receive a higher portion of the awarded settlement from an auto insurance claim.

Contact a Personal Injury Attorney to ensure a fair outcome in your case

If you’ve been injured in an automobile accident, seek medical attention and reach out to a member of our experienced personal injury firm at Cohen & Riechelson. We will walk you through the steps to ensure that you receive the maximum settlement for automobile and medical expenses.

We take the time to prepare each specific case using our experience and the tools available so that you have everything you need to present a solid argument. Call us today at 215-337-4915 or go online to schedule a free, no-risk consultation with a personal injury lawyer in Bucks County and Northeast Philadelphia.