Why Monitoring Accident Medical Bills Matters

Accident recovery can be confusing and emotional, and you may want to avoid thinking about the financial repercussions of the crash. But if you fail to monitor claim expenses, you might accept an inadequate car accident settlement for medical bills or miss an invoice and damage your credit.

When you understand the true cost of the car crash damages—and have the bills to prove it—you’re set up to pursue an accurate, fair car accident settlement to recoup your expenses. Let’s walk through who pays the medical bills when you’re in a car accident and how managing these records can prevent certain pitfalls and payment delays.

Seeing a doctor is a vital step after a car accident, and the last thing you should worry about is how you’ll afford these critical services. It can take weeks or months for a defendant’s insurance company to pay medical bills through a car accident settlement, but you can use your health insurance to cover some of the initial costs and seek treatment without any delay.

Your insurer can then seek reimbursement through a process known as subrogation. Alerting your healthcare provider to the pending settlement can prevent them from sending unpaid bills to collections or seeking immediate payments (which can be in the thousands).

Our personal injury attorneys have seen claims result in six-figure medical bills. Failing to accurately track these expenses and having them fall on you rather than the at-fault party can impact your recovery, including your future financial and emotional health. Monitoring medical expenses can protect your finances and strengthen your personal injury claim in several ways.

Protect Your Claim

Your claim for medical expenses after a car accident may be inaccurate if you fail to monitor incoming bills or misplace the documentation. These records show the total cost of your care and missing a bill, especially for a high-value hospital stay or procedure, can drastically change the compensation you’re due.

Safeguard Your Credit Score

The hospital may not bill you on one neat invoice. Additionally, services administered by several providers—like an independent anesthesiologist and a surgeon, for example—may be charged separately. Overlooking any of these bills can put you at risk of defaulting and damaging your credit.

Healthcare providers in North Carolina are required to submit bills to your health insurance. If they fail to do this and you fall into debt, your score may be impacted before you realize you have unpaid debts. Monitoring all incoming invoices provides a safeguard against debts that may fall through the cracks.

Avoid Overpaying for Medical Debt

Hospitals, clinics, and medical offices are businesses that look for ways to make money. They may ignore discounts on your bills when you’re claiming medical expenses after a car accident, assuming you won’t notice. These providers are contractually obligated to provide discounted services billed through insurers (depending on policy agreements). Monitoring medical bills from a car accident can help you identify when these protocols are overlooked and make sure you receive the service rates you’re owed.

Identify Fraudulent Billing

Pay close attention to how healthcare providers charge for services, hospital stays, and medications to protect yourself from billing mistakes and intentional fraudulent acts. Duplicate billing and upcoding are healthcare fraud, and these actions can impact your claim and potentially increase your out-of-pocket expenses.

Note: You are not required to tell hospitals or clinics if you carry medical payments coverage. If you have questions, discuss payment options with a legal professional to ensure the hospital doesn’t exploit any supplemental insurance for their benefit.

Anything related to your medical care, treatment, or recovery can be used as evidence of economic damages from a car crash injury. You should retain all associated records and invoices, including those from:

• Ambulance services
• Emergency room care
• Hospital stays
• Surgical procedures
• X-rays, scans and tests
• Medications and pharmaceuticals
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Out-of-pocket expenses for medical equipment or devices (crutches, braces, wheelchairs, home or vehicle modifications)
• Mental health counseling
• Travel expenses for appointments or rehabilitation

Tips for Managing Bills for Crash-Related Medical Expenses

Keep medical bills and insurance records for at least one year after an accident—longer if you’re still receiving treatment or disputing the claim. If care is ongoing or the crash caused a long-term condition, it can be smart to keep bills and Explanation of Benefit (EOBs) files indefinitely. Here are some tips to help you organize medical documentation, so it is accessible for however long you need:

• Store medical bills in a designated folder (digital or physical) so they are orderly and easy to find.
• Retain all EOB files from your insurance provider.
• Document procedures and appointments, including the dates, to compare to billing.
• Request itemized bills to see which services were charged and to ensure their accuracy.
• Verify costs with your healthcare provider to check that discounts were correctly attributed to your medical bills.
• When a service you received doesn’t appear on the invoice, confirm with the provider’s billing department that it will be charged separately to prevent surprise medical bills later.
• Create a log of out-of-pocket expenses, including the date, description, and amount, so these financial repercussions can be included in your claim valuation.

The first thing you’ll likely ask yourself when you’re in a car accident is, “Who pays the medical bills?” Let the experts at Miller Law Group answer this. We can identify which policies may cover immediate expenses, and how to navigate a car accident settlement to help pay medical bills later. Contact the attorneys at Miller Law Group for a free consultation and to discuss your legal options.